Win it For Ten Years Later

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jacklamabe65

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[SIZE=12pt]At 11:25 on the morning of October 20, 2004, I sat down at my teacher’s desk in Room 7 of the old Upper School Building at The Greenwich (CT) Country Day School and began pounding away on my Dell laptop keyboard, crafting my own particular mojo that – I hoped – would ultimately defeat the MFYs. Thankfully, you all took it from there. The following are some representative posts that capture what you ended up composing. In the end, you did yourselves (and your relatives) proud:    [/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] my grandfather (1917-2004), who never got to see the Red Sox win it all – but always believed.  And for my Dad who watches each and every game wishing his dad were there to watch it with him.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] my mother who died of ALS in 1999.  The only personal item I have left of hers is her Red Sox visor.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] my grandfather, who succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease in 2002.  In one of my last conversations with him, he asked me how Ted Williams was doing.  During Game 7 on October 20th, against the Yankees, his birthday, he was smiling down on the Red Sox.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] the elderly Sox fan that I hugged at Yankee Stadium last Wednesday night after Game 7 of the ALCS.  Seeing the look of relief and jubilation on his face was one of the most emotional experiences I have ever been through.  Yes, baseball has the power to unite generations of strangers.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] my Little League coach, Ralph Retera, a tough man who landed on Omaha Beach, and yet a tender man as well who always gave on extra pat on the back of those of us who frankly weren’t very good.  ‘Baseball is a game of failure, boys,’ he’d say, ‘look at the Red Sox.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t give it our best.’  Coach Ralph used to wear a grungy Red Sox cap that he bought in the 1950’s and would take us to games at Fenway when we played for him.  When he died in 1988, Coach Ralph’s tattered Bosox hat adorned the top of his flag-draped casket.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] my boss, a dear friend, who lost his dad unexpectedly in March of this year.  More than once this season, I’ve seen him glance at the phone after a game, half expecting his father to commiserate, rejoice, or just shoot the breeze about the game that just ended.  I’ve seen the sadness in his eyes as he realizes that the call isn’t coming.  Win it for his dad, a lifelong fan who never had the opportunity to witness his beloved team taking it all.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] my buddy, Brian Kelly, who worshipped at the feet of Tony Conigliaro growing up.  He even used to copy Tony C’s swing and was devastated when Jack Hamilton almost killed him.  Brian’s favorite time as a Red Sox fan was that magical summer and early fall of 1967, two years before he went off to Vietnam.  If we win this whole thing, I plan to go on down to the Vietnam Memorial Wall where you can find Brian’s name.  God, he would have loved this team.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]“Win it for[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] my aunt, God rest her soul, who, at her funeral, the priest said, ‘She was a woman of great faith. She believed that she’d see a Red Sox championship in her lifetime.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]TrapperAB[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  “Just like last year, there will be an empty spot on the couch as I watch Game 7 of the ALCS tonight.  Dad cheered for the Sox from the age of eight in 1930.  He went to games at Fenway with his father and told me about it when he took me to the most glorious stadium on God’s green earth.  My father passed away in 2001, which means, of course, that he never saw the Sox win one in his lifetime.  One of his final moments of clarity was seeing Rivera blowing a save and the D-Back’s winning the World Series that year.  That was also his last smile.  I believe that my father has been busy lately, along with a lot of other fathers and grandfathers and brothers and sons – helping umpires see the truth and helping David Ortiz lead the way.  That hand that Curt Schilling talked about last evening after Game 6?  It was the legion of dearly departed Red Sox fans – of which my father was one.  Once again this year, there will be that empty spot on the couch…reserved for my Dad.  I can only hope that he’s sitting there with me.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Monbo Jumbo[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  “Shaun – add my old man to your list (1909 – 2000).  He saw Ruth pitch, and he saw Pedro pitch.  And now, he’s upstairs playing gin rummy with Joe Cronin between games.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Sooner Steve:[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]  “Win it for my old man, who taught me how to love the game and this team; who taught me what it means to be a man; who, even in his darkest hours facing the end, still wanted to talk about his team; who never saw them win it in his lifetime, but who loved every minute of the Impossible Dream to Morgan’s Magic; who worshipped ‘The Splendid Splinter’ and extolled the virtues of Yaz.  Win it for me so I can pay a visit to Dad’s grave and toast that title we always dreamed about.  Here’s to you, Pops – in loving memory…DW Gibbs (1936-1993).”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Norm Siebern:[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] “Win it for my Granpa Harvey (1974) who would rise up from his seat along the right field line in the grandstand and defend Scotty from the boo birds, even if Boomer was only hitting .170 in 1968.  Win it for that seven-year-old kid who fell in love with a game and a team that long ago magical summer of 1967.  And for that eighteen-year-old young man who sat in the left field grandstands and watched a little popup hit by Bucky “Bleeping” Dent nestle into the screen on October 2, 1978.” [/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Ramon’sBrother[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]: “Win it for a certain nineteen-year-old who cried himself to sleep in the early morning hours of October 17, 2003.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]An unknown lurker[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  “Some morning next week, in the hours just before dawn, the cemeteries all over New England will be filled with middle-aged men, standing by ancestral graves marked - whatever the headstone - with the same bronze veterans’ plaques at the foot – First Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, PFC, served some range of years beginning with a high school graduation and ending with the year, 1945.  We will be reading aloud from tear-stained newspapers, sharing our first too-early libation of the day.  (A Gansett? A Ballentine Ale?)  We will be drinking to Cabrera’s defense; Foulke’s grit; Damon’s grace; Ortiz’s incredible sense of timing.  MAYBE we will even have a reason to toast Manny.  We will be waving the bloody sock – thanking God and Theo Epstein for sending us Curt Schilling, on whom all our hopes rested, and did not die in vain.  Remembering all those who came so close but did not get there, like Yaz and Boomer and Rico and Hawk and El Tiante and Dewey and Jim Ed, even Nomar.  Remembering all those who did not live to see us get there, like Ted and Tony C and my Granpa Dan.  The clock will be unwinding; the pages will be flying off the calendar; the earth will tilt slightly on its axis.  I will be there.  My brothers will be there.  Get there early.  It’s going to be crowded.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Tedsondeck[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]: “Shaun, Win it for my brother, Johnny, who left Boston in 1944 for the South Pacific, a Red Sox hat adorning his head.  He was a nineteen-year-old kid who loved three things – the Red Sox, Fenway Park, and Ted Williams.  He lost his life in a hellhole called Okinawa.  There hasn’t been a single day that hasn’t gone by when I don’t think of him.  This one’s for you, JB.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]SFGiantsFan:[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] “Win it for the people of Red Sox Nation.  You people are the legacy of what this great game is all about - or should be about…the love and support of your team through good times and bad.  People like you, and teams like this one, have brought me back to baseball after the shame of 1994.  Thank you all. You truly deserve this.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]PUDGEcanCATCH:[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]  “Win it for my brother, who worked on the 94th floor of the North Tower, and who died on September 11, 2001.  He used to look out the window and stick his tongue out in the direction of the Bronx.  Above his desk, he had a framed picture of Fenway with two baseball cards scotch-taped to the bottom, Reggie Smith and Pudge Fisk, his two favorite Red Sox players growing up.  Many times when he worked, he would proudly wear his Sox hat.  After the plane hit his building, I have a strong hunch that he then put his Sox hat on for the last time.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]BasesDrunk[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  “My mother-in-law was as diehard a Red Sox fan as they come.  She died of cancer in February, 2003.  My wife was born on October 7, 1967, literally in the middle of Game 3 of the World Series against the Cardinals.  Her mother kept asking the nurses for updates while in labor.  No doubt she now wants revenge for St. Louis ruining an otherwise perfect day.”  [/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Lurker OregonSoxFan:[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]  “Win it for my dad who passed away on 10/20/93.  When I was a seven-year-old boy, he introduced me to – and shared – the Impossible Dream, which was where my love for this awesome team began.  Last night, I watched the greatest Sox victory (so far this year) with his eight-year-old grandson, Jeremiah, who, in turn, is catching the fever.  We talked about Dad and all that he taught me about the game.  Mom called after the game, and we shared tears of joy, and a tear of grief.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]BoSox Lifer[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  Win it for that little boy who was sitting with his dad and his uncle at Game 7 at Yankee Stadium last October.  With him crying as the game ended, I leaned over, and holding back my own tears, I told him with as much conviction as I could muster to cheer up because next year we were going to win it all.  Somewhere I know - that little boy is smiling today…”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Curtis Pride[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  “Shaun, I want the Red Sox to win it for my mother.  She became a fan in 1967 and has followed them faithfully via radio to this very day.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]“I was born deaf, so growing up was difficult for me.  But then I discovered the Red Sox in 1977, and my parents took me to Fenway that summer, which made me a Sox fan for life.  And since then, I would sit with my mother by the radio while she listens to the Sox and relayed the events to me as they unfolded.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]“We still discuss the Red Sox today, but I want them to win so that she can experience that sweet taste of victory that has been denied her for so long.  I know how it feels to finally overcome an enormous obstacle, and I want her to feel that as well.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Cheekydave:[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]  Win it for my father, who had a love for numbers and baseball and passed it on to me; it was the only way we could communicate.  But it was always a safe haven, and at least there was ONE way to communicate between us.  He died last year on his birthday, October 20th, one year to the day that the Red Sox beat the Yankees!  Also, win it for my mother, who died when I was nine on October 2, 1967, the day after the Red Sox won the pennant, and the day I became both a Red Sox fan and also a single parented child.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]A lurker from Australia[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  “Win it for all of you New Englanders who deserve at least one warm winter.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]“I became a Red Sox fan when I first read Roger Angell’s account of the Impossible Dream team; I became an official citizen of Red Sox Nation when I walked into Fenway on a dreary night in 1985.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]“I ended up living in Boston until 1993 when I returned to Australia.  October is the spring down here, but not a baseball season has passed by without me thinking of you hardy New Englanders preparing for a winter that most of my countrymen couldn’t even comprehend; dreaming of Spring Training, and thinking that maybe next year will be ‘the year’ for the Red Stockings.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt] “Well, next year is here!  This week, all of your dreams will come true.  And when it’s time to rake the leaves and put up the storm windows, you’ll be thinking, “Next year – back to back…”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Lurker Nomarfan31[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  “Win it for my mom, Mary, who died of lung cancer on July 9, 2003, and who loved to declare, “They’re gonna lose,” while inside wildly rooting for them to win.  I cried when Nomar was traded, not because it wasn’t time for him to go (sadly, it was) but because it was the loss of another link to Mom, who always call me whenever he did something spectacular in a game.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Red Sox Owner John Henry[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]: “There was a point during this season that was very, very tough.  But I came here, and read your Bandwagon thread, and was uplifted by the depth and breadth of your faith.  It was at the time the best thing we were reading anywhere.  These guys – I’m so proud of them – they refused to lose for the faithful this week.  I’m proud of everyone who refused to get off the bandwagon.”[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=12pt]Sargeiswaiting[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]:  The Mekong Delta is a long way from Boston.  During the summer of 1969, I found myself as a private in the army, fighting in a war that was becoming increasingly unpopular at home.  When I was homesick for Boston, a fellow private named Kevin, born and raised in the Boston area, kept my spirits up.  We used to listen to the radio after the hell of patrol.  There was one song by Neil Diamond that we used to love listening to in the outskirts of the jungle.  We would scream it out at the top of our lungs.  The girl in the song was the girl in our dreams!  Kevin was a big Sox fan.  He especially loved the Boomer.  He got Agent Orange and began to fade away in the early eighties.  The war killed him in the end.  I attended a Sox game against the White Sox this past August.  It was cold as hell for a summer afternoon, and the Sox lost in disappointing fashion.  Still, in the bottom of the eighth inning, I began to hear the strains of that song that Kevin and I sung so well back in Vietnam –‘Sweet Caroline.’  Jesus, Kevin’s favorite, playing at Fenway.  The tears are flowing now as I write this.  Win it for Kevin.  Win it for Sweet Caroline.”  [/SIZE]
 
Even today, exactly ten years after it first began, the original “Win it For” thread still has the capacity to bring tears and smiles together as close as they can ever be. http://sonsofsamhorn.yuku.com/topic/1611/Win-It-For[SIZE=12pt]At [/SIZE]
 

Buck Showalter

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Feb 26, 2002
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As an individual that has a love-affair with our country --- I'm always inspired by the American-story as portrayed by the different generations and peoples that contributed. To know that I lived (or had parents and grandparents that lived here) during those timeframes makes me feel proud and part of something much bigger that self.
 
As an individual that has a love-affair with the Boston Red Sox - I will always be inspired by the writings contained in the 'Win it For' thread. To be able to read those submittals and have them resonate (having a grandfather who passed this great game and this great franchise down to me....and knowing he never saw them win the WS) in such a strong fashion also allows me to feel proud and part of something much bigger than self.
 
I've said it before --- 'Win it For' can be read 100+ years from now.....and it will greatly assist an individual --- that won't be born until decades from now --- who is seeking to learn the emotions of the 2004 Boston Red Sox fandom.
 

Al Zarilla

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Dec 8, 2005
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San Andreas Fault
Jack, I wasn't planning on leaving the table over coffee because I didn't want my wife to see the tear coming down. 
 
I wasn't a SOSH member quite yet back then, so I'm going to read the whole thread when I get back from the morning walk.
 

JimMonaghan

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Aug 13, 2001
370
NJ
So glad you posted this...I spent a lot of time this morning going through page after page. 
 

hoothehoo

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Jul 15, 2005
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Here
That's always been one of my favorite things on the internet ever.
 
It really just hit home how much time has passed when I realized that all three people I mentioned in my post have since passed on.
 
They really won it for them, and all of us, didn't they. Still amazing, after all these years.
 

syoo8

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Jun 2, 2007
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New York, NY
My dad and  I had a rocky relationship from my early teens.  One of my favorite childhood memories, however, was going to a Red Sox game- spur of the moment- after music lessons in Boston.  (We lived in Connecticut.)  He was a Red Sox fan as a student in Boston in 1967, and was very fond of Yastrzemski, Dwight Evans' arm, and Fred Lynn.  He feared Bob Gibson.
 
It was against the Twins, and I don't remember much about the game- I was 9- but I do remember the old Fenway PA announcer intoning "now batting... Roy Smalley."
 
Afterwards, we drove home and met my mom, who had (pre-cell phone) called the state police and all local hospitals, since we returned many hours after we were supposed to.
 
In 1986, he took me to a music lesson in New York- on a Friday- and we stayed at the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Station.  He was taking a nap in the room, and I decided to go to the lobby, where by coincidence the entire '86 team was lounging in the bar.  I hastily grabbed a Boston Globe and got autographs from Boggs, Buckner, Baylor, and Stapleton.  Little did I know the irony of Stapleton and Buckner.  I also got an autograph from John McNamara- on a $5 bill- which I later spent, much to my regret.  My dad was so excited that I had gotten the autographs.
 
In '04 the WS win was one of the first times my dad and I spoke- and I gave him a DVD set of the World Series for Christmas.  We rarely exchanged Christmas gifts, but he was very excited to receive it.  
 
I'm glad that he got to see three Boston World Series Championships- he and my mom even drove 100 miles to Kenmore Square to watch the celebration of fans after game 6 last year.  He passed away May of this year.
 

TrapperAB

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Nov 25, 2002
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West Hartford, CT
Wow... thank you for posting this... thought I'd never see my "Win it For" post again... it didn't end up in the book (my fault -- missed the permission giving thread)... getting a bit dusty in here.
 

tims4wins

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Jul 15, 2005
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Holy crap a post that had me crying back in 2004 just got to me again. Courtesy of Boomer Scott
 


I know it sounds selfish, but win it for my 2 and 1/2 year old son. With whom I watched games 5,6 and 7 from his hospital room. He was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night earlier this week when the pneumonia he's had for the last couple weeks took a turn for the worse and he had severe trouble breathing. He was put in an oxygen tent and the only physical contact I could have with him was to reach my rubber glove enclosed hand through a hole in the side of his tent to hold his hand. When the nurses suggested I bring in a few things from home to make him feel more comfortable, I asked him what he wanted me to bring. He asked for only two things, his Thomas the Tank Engine pillow and "My Sox Cap Daddo." He was sleeping roughly 20 hrs a day but tried his best to stay awake with me during the games. He would wake up every few innings and ask how they were doing, I'd say they're doing good buddy, regardless of what the score was and he'd fall back to sleep with a smile on his face. He's now doing better and I should be able to bring him home in time for the Series opener on Saturday. In either case win or lose, I thank this Sox team for forging the beginning of a life long bond between my son and I. For it just doesn't get any better than watching ballgames with your son.
 
Just... I'm crying.
 
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