Gehrig38 said:
And one more thing for you new SOSH members. Let me be very clear in stating unequivocally, this website ended up being one of the final 2-3 things that convinced me to come to Boston.
It came down to the passion I was allowed to witness here, and the other?
1) I could go to NY and be a part of a team that might win #28 29 and/or 30 or..
2) I could go to Boston and be a part of something pretty much no one alive had witnessed.
#2 seemed like the right path for someone built like me...
This is what blew me away when I saw people talking about you as though they were the cool kids talking about some random b-list celebrity announcing cancer. (I mean, for one, even b-list celebrities don't deserve to get shit for having cancer, but I think most celebrities learn to deal with the fact that everyone has an opinion on them, right or wrong, part of the deal).
Your history in baseball is what it is. How and whether MLB, the Red Sox, the press, etc chooses to remember it is beyond the control of anyone here. But the plain reality is that 2004 is a story for the ages. People on this board shouldn't need a reminder, we shouldn't have to unpack the bad blood, the Game-7 Pedro collapse from 2003, the Pedro/Zimmer throwdown, the A-Rod slap, the frigid late-night Papi homers, the bloody ankle, the curse revered signs on Memorial Drive in order to remember that stuff... if nothing else, you have the most important socks in all of sports history.
I used to live in the gray old house directly across from Kingsbury Pond, and know exactly the route you took when you described the signs on 109. I lived there during an extraordinarily difficult period of my life, and I know how cold it can be in winter. I know something of cancer, and I know that it doesn't care about fame, or how nice a person you are, or whether your beliefs are right or wrong. I know that even "beating" cancer can be the kind of thing you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
I hope that your treatment is successful, and gives you plenty of time to debate the people on this board and others about baseball, politics, videogames, and anything else that anyone wants to pick a fight with a celebrity over.