Also see: Boston Globe Says These Are the Best of Times
"Even in tough times, Red Sox are still a hit; Fans see ALCS as distraction from economic woes" by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | October 13, 2008
When the Red Sox are up, it doesn't matter that the Dow is down.
This year, with stocks tumbling and the economy sinking, the team's playoff successes are more than just a welcome distraction, fans said yesterday. With each game day and every run batted in, worries about billion-dollar bailouts and shrinking investments, rising unemployment, and the coming winter take a back seat - at least for a few hours.
And in the paper, too!!!
"You're waiting for every game. It keeps your mind off of things," Nora Brennan of North Attleboro said as she sat with her sisters on the grass at Castle Island in South Boston yesterday during a walk to benefit pancreatic cancer research. "I'm worried about paying the oil bill this year. It's scary. I'm a single mom. . . . Watching a Red Sox game you can just let all that go, enjoy watching them play."
Paul Blaney, of Weymouth, added that Sox games kept him from dwelling on the financial crisis and other worries. "The Red Sox aren't losing money anytime soon."
"This becomes a distraction - a happy distraction. It's a comfort," said Patricia Segerson, a Shrewsbury resident who was waiting on Yawkey Way for her nephew and his family, visiting from New York state, to finish a tour of Fenway Park. Segerson said she has lost about a year's worth of income from her savings as a result of the economic crisis.
Oh, never mind about that!!!! Just leave your money in there so Wall Street can steal it while you root, root, root, for the home team!!!!
Of course, the big wigs of the financial world and the Bush administration are just looking out for YOUR BEST INTERESTS, right? I mean , that's why they have to LIE and SPY on us, right? Because it is all for our OWN GOOD, right?
Meanwhile, the gloomy market has her nephew, Nick Steblenko, worried about finding a job after college. Sox games, the diehard 21-year-old fan said, relieve that stress. Usually, Steblenko said, he is too busy screaming at the action on TV or dissecting plays by phone or text message with his best friend to worry.
I wouldn't worry about the future anyway, kid. That's what the DRAFT is for!
"It gives you something else to focus your attention on. When you watch the news, it's all negative and relating back to the Great Depression," Steblenko said. "But then you can watch something like the Red Sox."
Translation: I can shove my head up my ass and just smell shit!!! Yeah, that's better than paying attention to the anal rape we are all getting from our leaders.
The Sox were on the mind of Bill Curtis, a.k.a. "Big Bill from the Hill," yesterday as he watched a Columbus Day parade in East Boston. Decked out in a Sox shirt and World Series 2007 cap, he gestured with his red plastic cup full of beer while talking about the Game 2 loss.
"It killed me, I almost cried," said Curtis. But, win or lose, he said, games give him and other fans a chance to escape from their daily lives for a bit.
So how you feeling after the blowout of game three? Swinging from a rope yet?
"If a guy is foreclosing his house and he turns on the TV [at game time], he's not thinking about that. He's thinking, 'Hey, let my team win.' But he's also thinking, 'Hey, I wish I was getting this guy's salary,' " Curtis said, adding, "I want, oh, Dice-K's - are you kidding me? Just a portion. I'm not looking to be greedy." --more--"
But I will ignore that waste of money on the screen (as the guy at home digs a fingeror two into his ass after another beer fart.
Fuck you, AmeriKa! Why should I be out here fighting for you when you don't even give a shit? Go back to the game, shit-breaths!!!!
