To all who are Boston sports fans. Can you go to the grave with this success or do you want more?

jaytftwofive

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Jan 20, 2013
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It has been quite nice the past 17 years. We have been one spoiled bunch to say the least. If you leave this earth are you satisfied with your teams winnings or want a little more? As far as the Sox and Pats yes. Though I wouldn't mind seeing the Sox repeat which they haven't done in my lifetime but if they don't, so be it. They gave me my last bucket list which was to have a 100 -110 win team that was dominant and won it all. The Celtics? I want at least 2 more just to go 2 more ahead of those stinking Lakers for most NBA tiltles. I take a lot of pride in that as we all should, plus I despise the Lakers as much as the Yanks. Bruins?? One more would be nice. But like I said I could go to the grave happy with my teams success. You can also include your favorite college teams also.
 

Royal Reader

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Well, if there were no more at all I'd go to my grave on a 40-50 year drought assuming death of natural causes. I think that would make me sad. I said after 2008 (first Cs championship I can remember) the only thing I still wanted from pro sports was another Brady Superbowl. I got two. I could live with one total championship per decade between the Pats, Sox and Cs I think (not really a big hockey guy). The weird thing is that looking at that kind of success now, from the present moment, that would feel like an absolute famine - but given 30 teams in MLB/NBA and 32 in the NFL, one a decade is a 'par' level of success. Ten in sixteen calendar years is nuts.
 

Koji’s Slider

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If you told me the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and Pats could all win their respective championships this year, would I forgo them for the rest of my life? Hell yeah, I only have about 40 years left, god willing, and I think it would be great way to end this era.
 

Dummy Hoy

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Jul 22, 2006
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Not a Sox fan and don't watch the NFL, so I'm still pretty hungry. Could really use another Cup before I go.
 

JoePoulson

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My sports fandom was satiated by the 2004 Sox, and I could have gone to the grave after that. I'm obviously very thankful I didn't and got to witness so much more, but all I ever wanted was to see the Sox win one.
 

TheoShmeo

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The Sox won the WS on Sunday night, the Pats won their game on MNF and the Celts and Bs won last night. And now I’m miserable that no one has won a game yet this morning. An exaggeration but for me, winning is like a drug, and I’m a junkie. I want that euphoric feeling and pleasant afterglow that lasts for weeks a championship always delivers.

I can say that I’m no longer desperate about the Sox, as I was after the Yankees’ village idiot hit his future job qualifying homer. That’s really the only change all this winning has brought.
 

RFDA2000

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I'll always be rooting for more, but I have close friends from Buffalo. I'm good.
 

JimD

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I need at least one more Sox championship during my lifetime. I hope to still be around for a few more decades and I don't want to have to listen to idiots blabber on about a 'new' curse that began exactly 100 years after the Bambino nonsense started.

As for the other teams, while I'd love to see the B's win the Cup a time or three more in my lifetime, the Hayward/Irving/Tatum C's seem like the next great Boston sport team right now and it would be a shame if they fail to win at least one NBA title.
 

DJnVa

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I'm hoping to live another 40 years--are you asking me if I want none of my teams to win again in that time?
 

edoug

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Another championship run may kill me. It's not like I'm stressed out about them potentially losing. The mutated butterflies still come. That doesn't mean I want them to stop winning rings. I'll just have to play, or watch, with the pain.
 

wiffleballhero

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In the simulacrum
I've never been big into basketball and so most of the joy of the Celtics was really a kind of thin substitute.

The Rams Super Bowl was like winning the lottery with a ticket found on the bus.

The 04 World Series was culturally and psychologically -- existentially -- transformative in ways that seem pathological, but were far too real.

Since then it has all been a joy. I like joy, I want more, but I can survive if it all comes to a halt.
 

Spacemans Bong

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I'm fine. I mean, I would prefer to see another few championships in my lifetime, I hope to be on this earth for a while to come.

But compared to 2000 my "in my lifetime" sports wants are pretty thin gruel at this point. Arsenal winning the Champions League and Wales winning the Rugby World Cup don't really stand up to the Red Sox or even the San Francisco Giants. Even the Celtics getting back to the NBA title in 2008 beats those two.
 

Rasputin

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I was thinking the other day about how there are really very few things in this world that are impossible. Time travel is impossible. Getting something colder than absolute zero is impossible. Getting rid of glitter. Shit like that. Most of the things we think of as impossible are really just incredibly difficult. We think it's impossible for someone to break Cy Young's win record, but it's not, it would just take a massive change in how the game is played--just the reverse of the one that made us feel that record is impossible to break in the first place.

A lot of those things that are really just incredibly difficult are only incredibly difficult because nobody is close to doing it. If you keep moving in the direction of doing it then one day you're going to wake up and it won't be a distant impossibility but merely a really hard goal to reach...then an easier one...then an easier one and the next thing you know you're going to be disappointed if you don't reach it.

Which is to say, the motherfuckin' Yankees have 18 more championships than we do and I've got maybe 40 years left on this planet (if I'm lucky) to move ahead of them.
 

Bozo Texino

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This.

My dad passed away last week and we buried him on Tuesday.

One person said to me...."it's a shame he didn't get to see the Red Sox win the World Series".

I said, "no.....it's a shame HIS father didn't get to see 2004".

All is good the rest of the way for me......
My condolences.

I'm pretty thrilled, honestly. We've been incredibly lucky - and I'm not even a Patriots or Celtics fan.
 

TheoShmeo

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Serious non-aggressive question for the "I'm Good" folks. Were there not times this post seasons when you were racked with nerves and butterflies? When Kimbrel was melting down against the Mother Fucking Evil Yankees, were you not pacing and full of nerves? How about just before the Benintendi catch?

Now you might answer that "yeah, in the moment, I was tense, but not in the grand scheme." Or you might say, "no, I was totally relaxed." But unless it's the latter, I think you could be overstating the level of how good you are. Perhaps I am colored too much by own proclivities, but I can't really imagine watching if winning wasn't really important to me. That's why I rarely watch college sports, the Olympics, tennis or golf. All are really good TV on their own, but I have no stake in the outcome and therefore they each do not hold my interest.

Curious as to how folks reply as I can't fully process being totally content and yet still watching every pitch or virtually every pitch.

And very sorry, Buck.
 

Skiponzo

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I'm good. I'd like a few more mainly so I can enjoy them with my boys.....but for me 2004 was all I ever wanted. Like a lot of you I prayed many years for that "Back to Foulke" moment and my deal with God was that I would not ask for any others. I'm sticking to the deal.
 

Skiponzo

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Serious non-aggressive question for the "I'm Good" folks. Were there not times this post seasons when you were racked with nerves and butterflies? When Kimbrel was melting down against the Mother Fucking Evil Yankees, were you not pacing and full of nerves? How about just before the Benintendi catch?

Now you might answer that "yeah, in the moment, I was tense, but not in the grand scheme." Or you might say, "no, I was totally relaxed." But unless it's the latter, I think you could be overstating the level of how good you are. Perhaps I am colored too much by own proclivities, but I can't really imagine watching if winning wasn't really important to me. That's why I rarely watch college sports, the Olympics, tennis or golf. All are really good TV on their own, but I have no stake in the outcome and therefore they each do not hold my interest.

Curious as to how folks reply as I can't fully process being totally content and yet still watching every pitch or virtually every pitch.

And very sorry, Buck.
For me it's not that I don't care if they win. I want them to every year but if it didn't happen again....and upon my death bed I looked back over my life...I'd be able to smile and be happy for what I was able to experience through sports. That wasn't true prior to 2004.
 

JimD

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Which is to say, the motherfuckin' Yankees have 18 more championships than we do and I've got maybe 40 years left on this planet (if I'm lucky) to move ahead of them.
A good starting point would be to pass the Yankees for most titles won during the era of divisional play - current standings are:

NYY - 7
BOS - 4
OAK - 4
CIN -3
SF - 3
STL - 3
9 teams tied with 2
7 teams tied with 1
8 teams with 0 titles
 

PrometheusWakefield

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May 25, 2009
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Just what we need on championship celebration day. A reminder that all happiness is just a transitory state, our desires are endless and impossible to fulfill, and the only thing that will end the meaningless search for temporary satisfaction is our inevitable death.

Memento homo. This too shall pass.
 

Rasputin

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A good starting point would be to pass the Yankees for most titles won during the era of divisional play - current standings are:

NYY - 7
BOS - 4
OAK - 4
CIN -3
SF - 3
STL - 3
9 teams tied with 2
7 teams tied with 1
8 teams with 0 titles
Just what we need on championship celebration day. A reminder that all happiness is just a transitory state, our desires are endless and impossible to fulfill, and the only thing that will end the meaningless search for temporary satisfaction is our inevitable death.

Memento homo. This too shall pass.
First we party. Then we get a bullpen. Then we play thirty-ish spring training games, 162 regular games, and 15 post-season games.
Then we party again.
 

JoePoulson

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For me it's not that I don't care if they win. I want them to every year but if it didn't happen again....and upon my death bed I looked back over my life...I'd be able to smile and be happy for what I was able to experience through sports. That wasn't true prior to 2004.
Well said.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to game 4 in St. Louis in 2004. I flew up from Orlando, watched the game, stayed up all night watching highlights and gambling, then flew home around 0600. When I finally got home, I laid down on the couch and turned on the game I had recorded. As soon as the national anthem finished I cried like a baby. I mean bawled. Lack of sleep, crazy waves of emotion from the previous few days/weeks/months/years all came flooding out. I'd not only seen my favorite team finally win it all but I was there. Absolutely nothing sports-related afterwards could possibly top that moment. As I drifted off to sleep I knew my life as a sports fan had changed for the better - I realized I was taking sports way too seriously and was able to finally relax, and no matter what happened going forward I could say "we'll always have 2004".

I will say there is one more "Greedy Bucket List" item left for me after this season's 100+ win complete domination season, and that's a back-to-back. I would def buy more than one of those t-shirts.
 

Marbleheader

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The last item on my sports bucket list was the Bruins in 2011. I wanted to see all 4 teams win a title. Everything else is gravy. Takes a lot of the stress off watching games. I'd love to see this Celtics team put up a banner.
 

Oil Can Dan

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Serious non-aggressive question for the "I'm Good" folks. Were there not times this post seasons when you were racked with nerves and butterflies? When Kimbrel was melting down against the Mother Fucking Evil Yankees, were you not pacing and full of nerves? How about just before the Benintendi catch?

Now you might answer that "yeah, in the moment, I was tense, but not in the grand scheme." Or you might say, "no, I was totally relaxed." But unless it's the latter, I think you could be overstating the level of how good you are. Perhaps I am colored too much by own proclivities, but I can't really imagine watching if winning wasn't really important to me. That's why I rarely watch college sports, the Olympics, tennis or golf. All are really good TV on their own, but I have no stake in the outcome and therefore they each do not hold my interest.

Curious as to how folks reply as I can't fully process being totally content and yet still watching every pitch or virtually every pitch.

And very sorry, Buck.
I was nervous as all hell, this season, and in 2013, and back in 2007. But had things turned out differently, I'd have been upset in the moment but I'd have gotten over it pretty easily given the gift that was 2004.

I don't see those things as mutually exclusive.
 

shepard50

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Nov 18, 2006
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I feel like we're playing with house money at this point.

What I want now in terms of winning, I want to share with my kids. That's what this run was, a whole of family experience, all the highs, and the few lows. If we could have that again that's great: If not, we would still be grateful.
 

Skiponzo

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I feel like we're playing with house money at this point.

What I want now in terms of winning, I want to share with my kids. That's what this run was, a whole of family experience, all the highs, and the few lows. If we could have that again that's great: If not, we would still be grateful.
2004 is a powerful antidote to any sports related frustrations and is also a pretty good one for any non-sports related ones. No matter what, whenever someone says "2004", whether it's in a positive or negative light, I always get a smile on my face and think "Yeah, 2004!"
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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Oct 23, 2001
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I'm pretty satisfied with what the Red Sox have delivered. Maybe after another 30 year drought (if I'm fortunate enough to be around that long), I'd start getting grumpy again.

I'm a NY Giants fan and obviously they've turned into a joke in the last few years, but they've given me four Super Bowls since 1987. It's pretty hard to be upset with that, especially given the multitude of NFL teams that have zero championships in that period.
 

Fred not Lynn

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Jul 13, 2005
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No, because each run has its own vibe, both team wise, and personally...it’s fun every time. I want to do it again and again!

I wouldn’t mind my other cities (Salt Lake and Calgary) getting a taste of the euphoria, though. (And no, the Grey Cup doesn’t count...)
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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If Brady were to retire today, I would fully expect the decline of the Patriots. And I would be fine with it, it would suck, but my expectations would be adjusted according.

If Henry and co sold the Sox and they started a rebuild for whatever reason by trading Mookie and XB and others - maybe.

But right now we have the insane fortune of having transcendent players playing for us and I want them to keep it going until they can’t. The “current window” is never that long (unless you’re the Pats) so I want them to maximize while they have the opportunity.
 

Return of the Dewey

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I grew up a Sox, Celtics, Whalers and Jets fan (in the order of importance to me....football was always something to watch when Sox, Celts or Whalers weren't playing). Been pretty blessed, especially lately, with the Sox and Celtics, but I'd like to see a back-to-back Sox championship as I've never seen back-to-back with any of my teams (really pined for this in the '80s with the Celtics). I'd like to see this group of kids and Brad Stevens win a championship, preferably against the Warriors, as I've become invested in the players and Coach over this development period. I've pretty much given up on the Jets, but, like I said, it's not of great importance to me. As for the Whalers, at this point I would just take a Whalers franchise coming back to Hartford.
 

jaytftwofive

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Jan 20, 2013
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Well said.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to game 4 in St. Louis in 2004. I flew up from Orlando, watched the game, stayed up all night watching highlights and gambling, then flew home around 0600. When I finally got home, I laid down on the couch and turned on the game I had recorded. As soon as the national anthem finished I cried like a baby. I mean bawled. Lack of sleep, crazy waves of emotion from the previous few days/weeks/months/years all came flooding out. I'd not only seen my favorite team finally win it all but I was there. Absolutely nothing sports-related afterwards could possibly top that moment. As I drifted off to sleep I knew my life as a sports fan had changed for the better - I realized I was taking sports way too seriously and was able to finally relax, and no matter what happened going forward I could say "we'll always have 2004".

I will say there is one more "Greedy Bucket List" item left for me after this season's 100+ win complete domination season, and that's a back-to-back. I would def buy more than one of those t-shirts.
Ditto, back to back would be nice!
 

Bowhemian

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Serious non-aggressive question for the "I'm Good" folks. Were there not times this post seasons when you were racked with nerves and butterflies? When Kimbrel was melting down against the Mother Fucking Evil Yankees, were you not pacing and full of nerves? How about just before the Benintendi catch?
I'm good. I'm satisfied. I am happy with the multitude of titles over the last 16 years. Growing up in the 70's/80's with the clownshoe franchise Patriots, and the tear your heart out Red Sox has made this run pretty epic in my mind. I'm good.

Regarding the portion quoted above, unfortunately for me, with all the late games, I was unable to watch many of them. My alarm goes off at 4AM, so staying up until after 9 or 10PM is not an option for my old bones. I did stay up until 1AM for WS game 3, but couldn't last any longer. I relived each of the games through you guys in the game threads the following morning. That was the best I could do.

Of course, would take more titles in a heartbeat. I won't live or die by them. But I will enjoy them.
 

AlNipper49

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I need at least one more Sox championship during my lifetime. I hope to still be around for a few more decades and I don't want to have to listen to idiots blabber on about a 'new' curse that began exactly 100 years after the Bambino nonsense started.

As for the other teams, while I'd love to see the B's win the Cup a time or three more in my lifetime, the Hayward/Irving/Tatum C's seem like the next great Boston sport team right now and it would be a shame if they fail to win at least one NBA title.
The 2018 chant that we can use next year, in the same cadence as the 1918 chant that disgusting Yankees fans used, will be pretty awesome though.
 

Leskanic's Thread

lost underscore
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Having been around Dodger fans lamenting the last 30 years, despite a record of success over the 30 years prior...I can see that maybe a drought between now and 2048 would get rough. And i'll want my teams to win every year they are playing a season. But even if things turn, having this magical run will be very warm comfort during any potential dark winter.
 

shepard50

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Nov 18, 2006
8,167
Sydney, Australia
Serious non-aggressive question for the "I'm Good" folks. Were there not times this post seasons when you were racked with nerves and butterflies? When Kimbrel was melting down against the Mother Fucking Evil Yankees, were you not pacing and full of nerves? How about just before the Benintendi catch?

Now you might answer that "yeah, in the moment, I was tense, but not in the grand scheme." Or you might say, "no, I was totally relaxed." But unless it's the latter, I think you could be overstating the level of how good you are. Perhaps I am colored too much by own proclivities, but I can't really imagine watching if winning wasn't really important to me. That's why I rarely watch college sports, the Olympics, tennis or golf. All are really good TV on their own, but I have no stake in the outcome and therefore they each do not hold my interest.

Curious as to how folks reply as I can't fully process being totally content and yet still watching every pitch or virtually every pitch.

And very sorry, Buck.
I'm good and I am grateful. It doesn't mean I don't care. It doesn't mean I don't want it, desperately in fact.

It means I am not broken by it.

I am 53.

1975, 1978, 1986, 2003...That shit was SO FUCKING HARD AND PAINFUL. Against all better judgement we continued to care and to believe. For 86 years being a Sox fan was like dating Tommy Lee, or being the Rick Shroder character in The Champ, constantly disappointed but still filled with belief, to the point where you stand next to the fucking corpse begging it to wake up, because you need it to be what you believe it to be...but it never was.
 

Remagellan

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I don’t think it’s a matter of greed as it is a matter of teams. I grew up rooting for the 70s Sox that came heartbreakingly close to winning a championship, and suffered a heartrending collapse. I wasn’t just rooting for the Red Sox, I was rooting for Yaz and Fisk, Lynn, Rice, and Dewey, the Rooster and Remy, El Tiante, the Spaceman, and the Eck. That none of those teams won bothered me.

It bothered me that Clemens and Hurst and the Can and Boggs and Greenwell and Burks never won here. It bothered me that Valentin and Mo Vaughn amd Troy O’Leary and Nomar never won here. (Although I guess Nomar got a ring from 2004, but that’s not the same.)

If the Idiots never won, it would have been crushing, especially since it would have meant that Pedro’s brilliant time here would have ended without a ring. If those special teams in 2007 and 2013 hadn’t finished the job, it would have hurt.

The MFYs and Astros are going to be serious threats for the next few years. The Indians perhaps as well. On the other side those Dodgers are going away, nor are the Cubs, the Brewers, and the Braves and maybe the Phillies are coming.

But now I never have to worry about Mookie Betts being a World Series champion, because he now has a ring. As does Benintendi, and JBJ. Devers won a ring as a baby like the guy he plays next to, and now he can chase X trying to catch and surpass him in rings as they both get further along in their careers. BROCKHOLT is not just an all-star, he’s also a champion. I never again have to hear about Price’s contract, or Porcello’s extension, or the Lackey trade, or the prospects we surrendered for Sale and Kimbrel, because all of that gave us this year.

So yes, I hope this team wins again, but if they don’t, it won’t be a pre-2003 like disaster. But if they or future Red Sox team puts up the best record in baseball in some season to come, it will hurt if they don’t finish the job with a championship, because that’s what’s expected now.

And as long we continue to be blessed with the ownership group that’s currently in place, I imagine those expectations will continue to be fulfilled every few years or so.
 

OurF'ingCity

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But now I never have to worry about Mookie Betts being a World Series champion, because he now has a ring. As does Benintendi, and JBJ. Devers won a ring as a baby like the guy he plays next to, and now he can chase X trying to catch and surpass him in rings as they both get further along in their careers. BROCKHOLT is not just an all-star, he’s also a champion. I never again have to hear about Price’s contract, or Porcello’s extension, or the Lackey trade, or the prospects we surrendered for Sale and Kimbrel, because all of that gave us this year.
Expanding on this a bit, it's kind of amazing how the Series wins for the Sox have been almost perfectly spaced to allow every core player since 2004 to get at least one ring. That's not even the case for the Pats, where guys I consider to have been "core" players for multiple seasons like Welker and Mankins never got a ring.
 

WenZink

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Apr 23, 2010
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I'm ready to take that long dirt nap without seeing another title.

I'm in my mid-60s and, in my lifetime, there have been 28 titles by the 4 professional sports teams. That's about twice as many as would be expected, I think. I have seen the Celtics during the Bill Russell era, have the greatest dynasty in NBA history, and the Brady/Belichick Patriots have the greatest dynasty in the NFL. The Red Sox just played in their 7th World Series in the past 51 years and have won the last 4 with a WS-game record of 16-3. And even the tail-enders, the Boston Bruins, were the first great NHL franchise when the league expanded from it's "original 6" to becoming a coast to coast league in the late 1960s, and the "Big Bad Bruins" were all the rage.

What other city can lay claim to having the greatest dynasty in TWO of the four professional sports leagues. (sorry Revs!)

I'm fine with the Sox not winning it again in my lifetime, as long as the Yankees suck.
 

SoxVindaloo

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For me it's not that I don't care if they win. I want them to every year but if it didn't happen again....and upon my death bed I looked back over my life...I'd be able to smile and be happy for what I was able to experience through sports. That wasn't true prior to 2004.
Well said. I watch the games with the same nerves and intensity as I did pre-2004 but what is gone is the dread of failure if it doesn't work out. In Football that liberation came with Super Bowl 49 (to me the one that cemented ALL the legacies), now if they have a great season like 2015 or 2017 and fall short I am not nearly as gutted.