For as long as I can remember, any night that the Red Sox are playing was sacred in my house. Everyone was watching, and everyone was excited. Considering my dad is a huge fan, I didn’t really have much say in the matter of which team I got to like. But, I could not have asked for a better one.
I’ve played softball since I was four years old, but for the first few years of tee-ball, I constantly told anyone and everyone that my goal was to be the first female player in Major League Baseball. The only two numbers that I have ever worn throughout my entire career are 34 and 15 – David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia- Boston legends. The Sox have always been there as a way for me to make friends, relate to others, make memories, and bond with my family. They have always been extremely special to me, but this last season was especially great.
In the beginning of this past season I was in my senior year of high school. The Red Sox do this awesome promotion for $9 tickets to certain games for high school and student tickets, and I planned on taking full advantage. Many plans fell through, but I ended up going to two games with some of my best friends, as well as two with my parents, and those are memories that I know will last me a lifetime. When I look back on this last summer, perhaps the best memories I immediately think of are making the 2-hour drive to the train station after a spontaneous decision to go to a game on a Tuesday night, and singing along to a playlist with some of my favorite people in the car with me. I remember looking on either side of me sitting in Fenway Park, seeing my parents, the reason I got to fall in love with such an amazing team, and feeling an indescribable type of happiness. I’ll always remember running around the park to try to see the players before the game, complaining about the high price of food but still buying it anyway, and having the time of my life under those lights with family and the friends that I also consider family.
From the beginning of this season, I knew this team was special. I knew they had what it took to go all the way, but I never wanted to jinx it. I knew it when I saw Mookie Betts’ first (of multiple) 3-homerun games of the season, I knew it when I was in the stadium for Mookie’s walk-off homerun against the Twins, and I knew it when I was laying in bed at 3:30 a.m. in my dorm, texting my dad who was states away, also watching the game, after they had just battled to win a 17-inning game.
The final out of the World Series on October 28th was something I will also never forget. I was in the basement of my dorm building, watching in anticipation with other fans around me. I did not know many of them, but we were all gathered in the same room for the exact same reason. When Chris Sale pitched that last perfect strike, and I realized that the Boston Red Sox had just become World Champions, I took off running. It’s a tradition at UNH, when the Sox win the World Series you rush Main Street in the tiny town of Durham, and you celebrate. We laughed, smiled, and celebrated. They had done it – my boys had won.
The memories mentioned above are just some of those that have come out of this team, and I would not trade any of them for the world. I was with them during the 2012 season when all hope seemed lost, and I was with them this year, when I knew that this team was something special. The Sox will always hold an inexplicably important spot in my heart, and I can’t wait to see the many more memories I get to make beside them.