I live in New York but am a devoted fan of the Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox, and Celtics. The Red Sox were my first love, suffering through many traumatic defeats with them in the early 2000s, culminating in the Aaron Boone Tragedy of 2003, before standing by with my heart in my throat as they charged to a World Series in 2004 and another in 2007. I became a Patriots fan around the time of that second World Series, abandoning my random fetish for the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for my true football inheritance, a feat made easier by the signing of Randy Moss in the 2006 offseason. Once again, my first experience with my now-favorite sports franchise was tragedy. I attended the 2007 AFC Championship game, in which the then-15-0 Patriots squeaked out a feeble victory over the San Diego Chargers. Despite witnessing the win, I felt a sinking sensation throughout that game, a subconscious foreknowledge that the undefeated season was not to be. The 2007 Super Bowl and the 2012 Super Bowl of this past February share second-place honors for the heartbreaks of my sports-fan past. The 2007 loss, in particular, left me sullen in my freshman year dorm room as Giants-fan classmates littered the library with celebratory posters and commenced a douche-bag parade outside my window.
Becoming a Celtics and Bruins fan was much easier. I had always had much sympathy for the two teams but not as much interest in the two leagues. The NBA generally began to pick up just as the Celtics amassed their juggernaut. Having watched Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker tank their way through an NBA with a chronic lack of defensive basketball and competitive spirit, I now could watch with a rooting interest as Pierce-Garnett-Allen rose to power in a league featuring more compelling teams, more competitive rivalries, increasingly passionate fan bases. The NBA became an all-around better watch, and the Celtics were at the top of it. This was all the more fun because of a Lakers fan friend from college who I mocked relentlessly as the Celtics rolled Kobe in the 2008 Finals.
The Bruins, admittedly, entered my sports consciousness mostly due to their successes. In my youth they had always been a hapless team, much like the Celtics -- so much so that Ray Bourque had to leave for Colorado to hoist the Cup once before retiring. Like the Celtics, I was fond of the Bruins without being unduly worried about their suckiness. Moreover, people in New York don't care all that much about hockey, and my interest in the league mostly involved the Pittsburgh Penguins featuring Jagr-Lemieux and some fun Western Conference teams like the Sharks and Mighty Ducks. When the Bruins got good around 2009, I started following them with a greater interest. In typical Boston fashion, they delivered heartbreak before triumph with a sweep by the Philadelphia Flyers, a team I had always hated. But the unforgettable ride to the Cup in 2011 was well worth the wait, and the Bruins are now quite possibly the most enjoyable Boston team to watch. They are dynamic. They score goals. They scrap. They get in fights. They are quickly rising in my personal Boston sports pantheon and more than any of my other teams, they are the one I could most see myself rooting for even if they belonged to another city.
That's the bare-bones of the story. I love all four of my teams. I've felt the pain of their losses -- the Sox in 03 and 11, the Patriots in 07 and 12, and less painfully, the Celtics in the Walker-Pierce years and the Bruins with Bourque.
But I will readily admit that I've had a much less painful go of it than my father, uncle, and grandfather, who suffered through years of agony with a pathetic Patriots team (Grogan and Plunkett) and a cursed Red Sox team (Buckner), although also experienced some epic triumphs with the Bruins (Orr) and Celtics (Bird).
Life's not bad for a Boston sports fan in 2012. As I write, the Celtics have the best point guard in the Eastern Conference and a legitimate shot at the title before starting the offseason rebuilding process. The Bruins are a top-5 team in the NHL, play great defense and score tons of goals, and are easily the funnest team to root for in hockey. The Patriots are coming off a Super Bowl run and poised to make another in the anemic AFC. And the Red Sox -- well, they're the Red Sox, currently struggling but one of the strongest franchises in baseball and soon to be bolstered by an up-and-coming future-GM by the name of Ben Hecht.
Here are the most important figures since 2000.
Patriots: Have made 5 Super Bowls, won 3.
Red Sox: Have made 2 World Series and won both.
Celtics: Have made 2 NBA Finals and won 1.
Bruins: Have made 1 Cup Finals and won it.
So midway through 2012, it's been 11 1/2 years since 2000 and the Boston teams have competed in 10 world championships, winning 7. You do the math. And that's not even counting the three remaining title runs of 2012: the Bruins (highly competitive), the Celtics (credible contender) and the Sox (outside shot). It's a good place to be.
I figured I'd start this blog so that, rather than talking to myself about sports I can get down some thoughts. Hopefully I'll come up with some worthwhile.
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