It's Tough to Be a Red Sox Fan - A Seven-Decade Odyssey

It's Tough To Be A Red Sox Fan - A Seven-Decade Odyssey describes the highs and lows, the joys and disappointments, and the gratification and frustration of following the Boston Red Sox as a child, a teenager, an adult, and a senior.
The level of enthusiasm of a baseball fan for his or her team ranges from casual to fanatic. On a scale of one to ten, I've been a ten for as long as I've followed the Red Sox, often in a wildly irrational manner, sometimes with a coldly analytical view. But I've always been devoted to the team.

I went to my first Red Sox game in 1942, and so for more than seven decades the Red Sox have toyed with my emotions, lifting me to peaks and plunging me to depths - being so close to victory and being defeated - having no chance to win and yet winning.

I've experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows - from being one strike away from a championship and losing, and being three outs away from a humiliating defeat and winning.

Some Red Sox games I remember as if they were played yesterday. Others were only vague memories that were stimulated by research. Some events were clearly etched. Others were blurred and snapped into focus by more research. Some dialog is re-created. Some of it is approximate. Some of it is word for word. But it is what I remember.

My descriptions, opinions and beliefs may or may not be complete or completely accurate. But they are mine. That's what being a fan is all about.