The Worst Series
It seemed things could not possibly turn out this horribly. I badly wanted a Red Sox-Cardinals Series and figured as long as it was a long (6-7 games) series that there’d be many, many moments of pleasure even if the Birds ultimately fell. Liking the Red Sox (in a relative, NL fan way), I envisioned six or seven timeless battles in which even the losses would be tempered by some Fenway dramatics or some great Cardinals moments. My worst-case scenario was maybe a 4-2 defeat. At least then we would have seen a Fenway celebration. But we got four shitty games. Worst World Series of my lifetime. Even 1993 and 1998 had some cool games. And perhaps the worst four-game stretch the Cardinals endured all season. Boston scored in the first inning of all four games and never trailed. That's only happened three times before in World Series history: 1989, 1966 and 1963. Good god.
But, at least, there is still another pinnacle to reach. Sometimes the journey is more enjoyable than the realization of finally reaching the destination – which represents an ending to a lengthy quest (Kind of a tantric-like concept. Or something like that.). Only seven years of waiting for me. Well, eight now. I can’t wait to watch Ricky Ankiel.