The Fall Classic

Our long national nightmare is finally over.

We don’t have to hear any more about the Yankees or Red Sox.

It was fun last year, even for the overwhelming majority who don’t live in or who didn’t grow up in the Northeast. We heard about the Curse, and the Rivalry and the big dollars on each side. And the passion. And the tradition.

It was almost a fairytale ending. All that it lacked was World Series drama. The rematch of the 1967 “Incredible Dream” Series never materialized. (The modern Red Sox era came out of that year. Before that, attendance at Fenway was actually pretty poor for years.)

We even got Stephen King showing up ESPN. When the Sox were down a million to one in Game Three, they tracked down Stephen King for some woe in yet another apparent disappointment. Mr. King tripped ‘em up by being cheery and upbeat about the whole thing. “It was a good year,” he said. But you’ve gotta be feeling bad right now. “Well, the Sox had a good year, and it was exciting,” King said. But, you –must- be feeling bad right now, ESPN said. King kept merrily telling us how good the year was and so on. You could see Gary Miller, the ESPN reporter, getting irritated at fishing for a certain story and not landing it. Who would expect to get a –happy- horror writer at Fenway Park? Of course, King was co-writing a book on the season and would come out a winner regardless. It’s a pretty good book, too.

So this season came as bad sequel to a movie where the story seemed to end at the curtain call. You can’t keep replaying the same story. Yes, the Yankees and Red Sox have a rivalry. But so do other teams in other sports. It’s just that this one is a particular love of the northeastern media, so we get it over the national wires, in stereo, and up among the decibels. It was loud this year, and annoying. And fortunately, it’s done with.

Me, I’m rooting for a Midwestern Classic, the Cards and the White Sox. When I think of classic baseball, I think of corn, wheat and wide shouldered cities off in the distance. -That’s- red-blooded American baseball. Now that we’ve got the Curse out of our system, we can get back to our roots.

And the White Sox in six (they’ve got the pitching) when we get it.