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A SEASON OF PAIN

By on • ( 68 )

72-Fenway-Park_169

The look of sudden shock and pain on Garry’s face was alarming.

“What’s wrong?” I cried. He was obviously hurting.

“I just saw the score,” he said sadly. Which is when I realized he had turned on the Red Sox game. They were playing the Angels, the first game of a double-header on the left coast. “It’s eleven-to-one,” he explained.

The agony of defeat!

The agony of defeat!

“Ouch,” I said. “I don’t suppose they’re going to stage a come from behind victory.”

“Actually,” he replied, “I was wondering exactly how bad they’re going to be in the second half of the season.”

There seems to be no bottom for this year’s Sox. No pitching, no bottom. No hope. (Houston put the seal on the deal. If you don’t know what I mean, maybe it’s best you don’t find out.)

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Indeed, I had seen correctly. It was pain. Mental, not physical, but the look of agony on his face will stay with me a long time.

There’s no medication that can take away the pain of your team in the dumpster. This will be a season of pain in New England. It’s not our year.

 

If you follow baseball and especially, the Red Sox and Fenway Park, check out Fenway Park 100.

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Categories: #Photography, Anecdote, Baseball, Humor, New England, Sports

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68 replies

  1. Hawkswill
    07/25/2015 • 02:07

    Oh I forgot about our Atlanta Braves. They came to town and my husband to be follow us to the best season tickets. We went to all the games at home and some away from home. I remember the Alou.boys played then. My fiance’s name was Bob and for some reason or another he yelled out OlouBob while they were warming up. Unreal but son of gon Philippe turn around and threw the ball to us. After that it was pretty much a normal thing we would go down near the entrance to the outfield and yell A LOU BOB, and when Felipe got the ball he would turn around and throw it to us we must have gotten 15 or 20 of those balls lol Those were the days. KP HE and Eddie Mathews were M the first game in Atlanta and we were there. Dang had no idea how long ago that was. Eddie Mathews? Mama mom mama how time flies!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Garry Armstrong
      07/25/2015 • 11:40

      Keith, I love your very up close and personal anecdotes. I remember Felipe Alou when he was a kid outfielder. Didn’t realize it was but the beginning of the Alou dynasty. He’s still a handsome dude all these years later.
      Eddie Matthews was another handsome guy and slugging third baseman. He’s gone now but was the Toast of the MILWAUKEE Braves before they moved to Atlanta.
      Milwaukee team of the 50’s was memorable. Billy Joe Adcock (a cracker! but awesome slugger) at first, Matthews at third, Henry Aaron in right, Billy Bruton in center, Wes Covington in left and Del Crandall behind the plate. Pitchers included Warren Spahn, Johnny Sain (Spahn and Sain and a day of rain), Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl.
      I loved when Milwaukee played the Dodgers in Brooklyn. My Boys of Summer. Duke, Peewee, Jackie and the gang.
      One night, Billy Joe got in Jackie Robinson’s face and Duke stepped in — Billy Joe backed off.
      A young Vin Scully called it all!
      Baseball — when the grass was green…

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  2. Hawkswill
    07/25/2015 • 01:28

    Well you can talk all about your pain that you have had in a season or so.

    My family was so excited when we got our four 50 line season tickets for the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta’s first professional football team. Dad was one of the first to sign us all for the bus from our country club so we wouldn’t have to drive in the traffic and worry about parking. Plus it had a bathroom, butler passed hors d’oeuvres on the way to the game, and butlers service light dinner on the way home! Brother and I were a bit young to enjoy the Fullbar, but that 45 years ago lol. Our good old Falcons never won a home game that I went to but I never missed one and I always thought we will win the one we were going to……. ever the optimist I was. A few years later my parents moved to Tampa. I had been living in Miami And had been reveling in the dolphin wins. Luckily Tampa had no pro football team. Hello I had to move up to Tampa and guess what? My parents were so excited. The Tampa Bay Bucs came to town. Same thing dad bought season tickets for four of us and yearly seats on the country club bus. It was Atlanta all over again. But those two were forever our teams. And eventually….. Both won the Superbowl. Of course season tickets were way above our heads by then. But we celebrated just as hard watching it on television.

    Those days way back then when I dated a top sports caster in Atlanta and he taught me all the different teams defenses offices excetera. When they came to town I got to meet most of them

    When the flames came to Atlanta Ed went to Canada to learn the game so he could report on it. He came to love it and I got to know most of the team.

    So from all my college sports and my pro sports I have learned one thing. If you wait long enough you won’t have to agonize all season. It will be a perfect one your team will win and you will be n glory until the next season starts.

    Then it starts all over again. Hopefully you will have a repeat of the last winning season. However things may drastically reverse what is the most important is to stay true to your teams I have to mine we could have done a lot better boy do I get a kick when we win. Sometimes I think it is better to have mediocre team because when you win it is the best! , hang tough you guys it will get better lol KP

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    • Garry Armstrong
      07/25/2015 • 11:26

      Keith, we broke our 9 game losing streak last night — eking out a 2-1 win versus the Tigers — who are also hurting — in 11 innings. It was almost keystone comedy time at the end. Sox were celebrating, ripping off their uniforms when Tigers appealed the winning play at plate. You could hear Sox announcers laughing their asses off. The season has come down to this.

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  3. Raewyn's Photos
    07/24/2015 • 16:00

    When I read the first line you had me worried. Then I read on and it was oh, that all. My ex-husband was like that with the All Blacks, our national rugby team. In 1987 we won the inaugural rugby world cup and until 2011 we never won it again. When the world cup was being played in Great Britain we got through to the semi-finals. When we played France. The rules are complex. You are not allowed to throw a forward pass – that is cheating and requires a penalty. Anyway one of the French players threw a forward pass which led onto a try (scoring 5 points – touch down in your football game). So we lost. My ex then got up and paced up and down the room, going up to the TV and yelled at it, telling the referee to do his job properly. The whole nation mourned over this loss and that referee was not welcome in New Zealand when we hosted the 2011 games with Australia. We finally won on home soil. The whole nation celebrated big time. So I know how Garry was feeling.

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  4. Soul n Spirit
    07/24/2015 • 14:14

    Don’t really follow baseball but can relate to Garry’s expression as the similar expressions I see on my kids’s faces when their team loses in NBA or in football world cup. India is all for cricket. People burn public property and shout slogans in front of players’ houses if they perform badly. We are hyper in every sense. lol

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  5. momshieb
    07/24/2015 • 10:50

    Just like the Red Sox seasons of our youth!

    Like

  6. nonsmokingladybug
    07/24/2015 • 09:07

    Oh laughter here! My husband, the football fanatic, looks like he is getting a tooth pulled each and every time his team is losing (again). It’s so amusing and it doesn’t help if I make fun of him.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      07/24/2015 • 11:15

      OMG do not make fun of a man whose team is in trouble! Relationships have gone on the rocks for less!!

      Like

    • Garry Armstrong
      07/24/2015 • 11:39

      Lady bug, it’s hard to explain unless you’re a die hard fan. We often look foolish, I know. I guess I’ve mellowed a bit, realizing there are other more pressing issues in life like our health, bills, etc.
      Still, I go to bed a little happier if my expletive deleted baseball team has won. The question is….with 50 or so games remaining…will they win again this year?
      To sleep, perchance to dream….

      Liked by 1 person

  7. bobmielke
    07/24/2015 • 08:56

    You should have seen me when the Seattle Seahawks blew that last Superbowl and gave Tom Brady another ring! 😦

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Judy @ NewEnglandGardenAndThread
    07/24/2015 • 08:06

    I wonder if there is another part of the Country that is like Redsox Nation here in New England? 🙂

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  9. draliman
    07/24/2015 • 03:16

    I thought I’d finally check the map to see where “Fenway Park” is and was amused to immediately spot Falmouth, Plymouth, Barnstable and Taunton – all towns in my part of England! Then I saw Worcester, Shrewsbury, Lancaster, Uxbridge… it’s like being at home!

    This is also the part where I rather embarrassingly admit I was actually looking to see where “New England” is and after searching for ages on the map discovered it’s a region and not a state 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  10. Rick
    07/24/2015 • 00:15

    It’s terrible to see your favorite team suck. We all go through it.

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  11. lifelessons
    07/24/2015 • 00:05

    Actually, “don’t” like your pain. I’m not a sports person but I remember the agony of defeat! http://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/07/23/the-boy-in-the-blue-feathered-mask/

    Like