Red Sox fan’s love letter to the 2018 World Series Champions
The 2018 Boston Red Sox are World Champions. From April to October, they sent me on one of the best rides I will likely ever go on.
Each time the Boston Red Sox win a World Series, I appreciate it a little bit more than the last. I’m in my early twenties, so I don’t have any of the memories of the years of hardship before Boston teams started winning championships all the time. I am one of the many people in my generation who has been spoiled by the greatness of Boston sports, as I started to watch and follow them from a young age.
I was only eight years old when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. It was the first year I really began to understand baseball and appreciate its beauty. Unfortunately, it was past my bedtime when they won Game Four in St. Louis and my dad had to tell me that they won the next morning.
Three years later, I was a full-fledged Red Sox fan and watched Jonathan Papelbon strike out Seth Smith as Boston became champions again. I was as happy as a young fan could be that their favorite team had just won their second championship in four years. But I still didn’t understand the greater context behind a World Series championship.
I was a high school senior in 2013. At the time, that was the height of my Red Sox fandom. I knew every player, every rumor, every playoff scenario and more. When they won, it was the most excited I had ever been for a sports outcome. I didn’t think that moment could be topped.
But looking back, I don’t think I even appreciated that team as much as I could have. This year’s championship team showed me what it’s like to follow a team from the beginning of the offseason until the last out of the World Series. It let me feel that beautiful mix of joy and satisfaction at the exact moment of victory.
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The second game of the season showed just how well the Red Sox would be able to bounce back from any and all roadblocks throughout the year. As with most fans, the 17-2 start got me hugely invested right from the beginning of the season. It set a beautiful sounding tone – one I would love listening to right until Manny Machado and the rest of the Los Angeles Dodgers fell to their knees before one of the greatest baseball teams of all time.
This team showed a kind of resilience all year long that I’ve yearned for every year I’ve been a Red Sox fan. Though, this is not to say other Red Sox teams weren’t resilient. Rather, I never felt like this team was going to let me down.
Not once.
Not during the many times the bullpen gave up a lead during the regular season. Not when Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Chris Sale were each lost for extended amounts of time. And not even when the Red Sox played what amounted to the length of two baseball games and lost in Game Three of the World Series.
No, I always felt hopeful.
Maybe it’s because J.D. Martinez brought some power numbers back to Boston. Maybe it was the six grand slams they hit in April as a team. Maybe it was an early-August beatdown of the hated New York Yankees. Or maybe it was the fact that, even though their bats looked completely helpless and pathetic through 6.1 innings against Rich Hill in Game Four, they still scored nine runs in the final three innings to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
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This team was something special. I know that’s a cold take, but it’s true. The fact that they won 108 games in the regular season and then went 11-3 in the playoffs against three of the best teams in baseball (two 100-plus win teams) immediately puts them in the conversation for one of the greatest baseball teams ever.
That just blows my mind. I witnessed history this year. I witnessed something incredibly special, and I don’t want to take it for granted, because I may never see something like this ever again.
There are so many great moments from the regular season that will be forever etched on my mind. Betts’ grand slam against the Blue Jays, Rick Porcello dominating the Yankees, Steve Pearce hitting three home runs in a game and obviously so much more.
It kills me to have to talk about this team in the past tense now. It’s so bittersweet. I felt a magic all year long that I didn’t want to let go of. Who knows what next year will bring? At this point, I don’t want to look that far ahead; I just want to bask in the warm glow of another World Series. But 2019 will bring a whole new group of Red Sox and 2018 will be the new high point every Red Sox team will try to reach.
Next. Red Sox dismantling insanely good teams. dark
In a way, though, I won’t have to let go of this season. I’ll hold onto this team and what they accomplished for years to come. They brought so much joy, redemption, and happiness over the last seven months. This was a team for the ages. Maybe the team of a lifetime. The 2018 World Champion Boston Red Sox will forever hold a special spot in history and more importantly, in my memory.