Fall Classic
Finally. We got a freeze last night. The weather forecast gave fair warning so I took in the last of my basil yesterday and made pesto - mixing it with sun-dried tomatoes as I’ve learned to do in recent years.
While I ground and pureed the ingredients I watched the Patriots do the same to the Washington Redskins on TV. Before the game there was anticipation about how the irresistible force of New England’s league-leading pass offense would fare against the immovable object of the Redskins’ league-leading pass defense. The final answer to that philosophical conundrum was: irresistible force 52, immovable object 7. The Boston Globe’s headline: “Washington Slapped Here”
A few hours later my wife and I turned the TV back on to watch the Red Sox complete their sweep of Colorado in the 2007 World Series. I was reminded again of why my interest in baseball has dissipated in recent years. Near the top of the 8th inning something came across the newswire about A-Rod leaving the Yankees. And from then through the top of the ninth, all the Fox announcers could talk about was A-Rod’s contract. The fact that there was a game going on in the background and the Rockies had pulled within a run of the Sox seemed like an annoyance to them (”Turn off that World Series game - we’re trying to discuss baseball here!”)
I got more of the same driving to work this morning. I had tuned in to a football-talk radio show (WEEI’s “Patriots Monday”) not really expecting to hear much about the Patriots. It’s understandable that Beantown is all a-twitter about the Red Sox winning the World Series. But during my commute the whole conversation was about Mike Lowell’s free-agency and whether the Sox should sign A-Rod, and how much they should spend to buy or retain this player or that. If the game had anything to do with a bat, a ball, and bases, instead of lawyers and bank accounts, you’d never know it from that show.