No. 21: Boston Red Sox

Was the dominant 2018 World Series title good for the Boston Red Sox?

This is a very strange and perhaps even insulting question, I know, but there’s something that fascinates me about the arc of the Boston Red Sox, and I’m curious where that fascination might lead. And so we ask the question.

Let’s start with a few obvious thoughts.

First, for about 80 years, the Boston Red Sox represented unfulfilled longing. That was their whole story, really. One of my favorite-ever sports columns was written at the end of the Mets’ crushing victory over the Sawx* in the 1986 World Series by the great Mike Downey, under the headline, “Unite, Fans of Boston Strugglers.” I love it so much that I’ll post a chunk of it for you here: