This isn't really the day of anonymous friends saying things. With this one I am just helping someone save face.
I get an instant message, "a prayer request"
Next line: "trading deadline is today, you know the sox are close to getting jermaine dye
and, you know, pray for poor people and the sick, too"
Translation: the Red Sox are about to get a really great player but my friend - as a Sox fan - still lives in total fear that everything will go horribly wrong and somehow the Yankees will get everyone...at the same time... a not irrational fear.
My friend and I have long gone back and forth on prayer - is it right, for instance, to pray for parking. My friend says no - it is arrogant. I say yes - if God cares about sparrows he can care about parking... or the Red Sox. So I've said a quick prayer.
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I grew up in the NY area with parents from Boston, so was indoctrinated into the Red Sox cult. (I now refer to this as "child abuse"). My first exposure was the 1967 World Series loss to the Cardinals. Later I found out about the cursed Yankees. The issues predate the Steinbrenner / free agent era, that's just the latest glob of goo the Sox fans cling to. The problem with the Red Sox was not that they were not good, like the Chicago Cubs or White Sox, but that they were very good, and lost "the big one" in spectacular fashion. The final straw for me was in 1986 with the Mets, a team I had never hated because they never were any harm to my beloved Red Sox. I actually stopped watching baseball or caring. And do you know what happened? I developed a sort of serene inner peace about the game. I watched the final games of the world series every year, getting caught up in the emotional high of watching the celebrations, not caring who won. I got chills watching Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens win their first World Series, yes, playing for the YANKEES!!! And, finally, ultimate chills and tears of joy in 2004 when the Sox finally won. It seems like alot of things, if you search for peace and stop struggling so hard for things, you live happier, and sometimes the things you were struggling for come to you. So, I will not pray for the Red Sox. There is no need. It is a baseball game. Relax and enjoy.
I have to agree with the friend here. I will pray for guidance, wisdom and the ability to live the will of God, but to pray for the mundane seems a bit arrogant.
But John Henry IS George Steinbrenner in almost every significant way.
When it was George Steinbrenner spending tons of money on free agents. Red Sox fans grumbled that Steinbrenner was "buying the pennant." So, how did John Henry assemble his championship team? By spending tons of money on free agents!
This year, it's clear that Henry got better value for his money than Steinbrenner did (if you MUST overpay for a starting pitcher, Curt Schilling is a much better buy than Carl Pavano!). I congratulate him for that. I just can't grasp how Red Sox fans continue to believe their team is somehow more virtuous than the hated Yankees, when it's clear that the Red Sox have achieved their current lofty status by doing exactly what they've always condemned George Steinbrenner for doing.
On behalf of all of us here in Red Sox Nation, thanks for the prayers! I suspect that the team's success in recent years (after being SUCH a trainwreck for SO VERY LONG) has done more to stir up belief in God here in New England than any evangelical outreach ever could.
And when one lives in Greater Boston, prayer is the only viable way to get parking...
Hey, David, where do you think the Bambino's curse came from? It came from God Almighty. The Red Sox don't need your prayers, they've got Ortiz, Ramirez, Pabelbon, Becket, Varitek, etc. The town of Boston is the place that needs your prayers. Go Angels!
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