It wasn’t against the Dodgers, so I didn’t spend the bank to get to the Bronx. Instead, I watched the games at the Thirsty Scholar in Somerville, which appears to have (as I’ve mentioned before) become an unofficial Yankees bar. I showed up with my high school buddy Carlo Cerruti; other friends drifted in as the night progressed. Ultimately, there were six of us; but we were there with around fifteen other fans who’d independently discovered that you were unlikely to be assaulted in Yankees regalia at this place. I speak as someone who has been told by one Boston bartender that his cheering was “inappropriate” and by another “I’m going to have to ask you to tone it down, if you’re going to root for them.” And those were in yuppie upscale places that I’d scouted in the Harvard Square area because I thought they’d be more Yankees-friendly. Polite yes, friendly no.
The other good thing about the Scholar is that you can smoke outside in full view of several large vidscreens.
No blow-by-blow of the game. I mean, it was a bar! Nothing interesting, the way there woulda been at an actual game, that you can’t get from the sports pages. There were three Phillies fans in the place, all dressed up with Victorino jerseys and all, but they left in the seventh. What?? The game was by no means over at that point. If they hadn’t dressed for the occasion, okay, but they had. Why put in all that prep work and go to a Yankees-friendly place just to give up and leave before the fat lady has sung?
There was also a bartender from Terry Francona’s favorite bar. He bites his tongue about his true allegiance when on the job. You also had the brother-and-sister team from the Big Apple. I know, the great thing about New York is that nobody looks like they’re from New York. But to this native New Yorker, this pair just looked like they should be from New York. (They were. The Bronx, in fact.)
Bartender gave us victory shots. On top of at least four pints of brown ale and three cigars that proved to be a serious mistake.
Anyway, the Series took my mind off the frightening amount of work I have to do and the depressing sight of the U.S. Senate doing whatever it is that the Senate does. And it brought a ring back to where it belongs. Now all we need to do is repeat the feat in 2010.
I'll concede that the better team may have won Aside from Lee, the Fightins' pitchers just didn't put up good enough stuff. And Ryan Howard was a big disappointment.
It's been argued on talk radio down here that the world series was decided when the AL won the all-star game, awarding home field advantage to the Yankees. I have no sense of whether that's ludicrous.
Just promise me that you won't turn into either of these guys:
http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2009/11/20933.html
Posted by: Dennis Brennan | November 06, 2009 at 12:54 PM