My fellow Boston fans... the 2000's are over

When the game ended at the Staples Center Thursday night and Kobe and company were crowned as repeat champions, a thought crept into my head:

This wouldn't have happened in the 2000s.
If this were the 2000s, the Celtics would have drained a bunch of threes in the last minute and the Lakers would come up just short.

That's the way the 2000s were for Boston teams it felt like.
But it is 2010 now... and despite some nitwits insistence that it isn't a new decade yet, the results on the field, on the court and in the rink suggest otherwise.

For so long, the Boston sports scene was a place of futility. And after the 1986 Celtics title it was barren of titles.

After the Celtics beat the Rockets that year you had the 1986 World Series and the legacy THAT gave Boston.

You had Magic's hook shot over the Celtics. That along with the deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis, the breakdown of Bird and the M.L. Carr and Rick Pitino years turned the once proud Celtics into just another team on the schedule.

You had the two Stanley Cup Finals where Edmonton waxed the Bruins (and the lights were shut off in the Garden during one of the games.)

You had the Patriots in the Super Bowl against the Packers, only to lose and the Bill Parcells/Robert Kraft Soap Opera hanging over the entire game. And let's face it, the Patriots were an afterthought in New England.

For 16 years that was it. The 1990s saw each Boston team sinking into irrelevance and the Yankees AND Lakers transformed themselves into dynasties by the beginning of the 21st Century.

It was tough being a Boston fan. We thought Drew Bledsoe, Joe Thornton, Antoine Walker, Mo Vaughn and Nomar Garciaparra would be the next great Boston sports hero... but all fell short.

Then came the 2000s.

And the change in Boston sports came without warning. The tuck rule went the Patriots way, but the Super Bowl was going to be yet another mismatch like the Bears in 1986 and the Packers in 1997. The Rams were going to kill them.

But when Vinatieri's field goal went through, I remember my friend and current workmate Jon Corbett yelling with disbelief "I can't believe the Patriots won the Super Bowl!"

It is hard for young Boston fans to understand how unbelievable this was. Using my theory that you don't really follow a sports team until you are 8 years old, there are 16 year olds who only know Boston sports as a place where championships are expected.

But between the 86 Celtics and the Patriots first Super Bowl win, there was a grand total of zero victory parades in Boston.

That's a 16 year gap. There were 24 year Boston fans where that Super Bowl was the first real memory of one of their teams winning.

Then they did it again... but when Grady left Pedro in too long, it looked like more of the same for the Red Sox. Sure the Pats could win, but the order of the universe was still the same.

Then Dave Roberts stole second... and anything became possible.

Could the Red Sox beat the Yankees?

Yes and in humiliating ways never seen before.

Could the Red Sox win a championship?

You bet... and like the Patriots, they could have MULTIPLE titles.

Could the Celtics be champs again? Why not? And why not have one of the biggest thumpin's in NBA history for a clincher against the Lakers no less?

Could the Patriots go undefeated in a regular season? Check the videotape!

Could the Red Sox win an elimination game where they were down 7-0? Do you even doubt it?

The Duck Boats got a lot of miles on them and we Boston fans showed we could be just as obnoxious in victory as we were in victory.

There were so many new heroes in Boston sports lore that they threatened to push many older legends out of everyone's memory.

Tom Brady! Tedy Bruschi! Richard Seymour! Curt Schilling! Big Papi Ortiz! Josh Beckett! Paul Pierce! Ray Allen! Kevin Garnett!

And cult heroes like Kevin Millar, Ty Law and Big Baby Davis!

But it was more than just victory... remember with every victory there is a team defeated and for a glorious period of time some of the most hated figures in Boston sports kept wetting the bed.

The Yankees had two of their biggest collapses in team history in the 2000s with the 2001 World Series and the 2004 ALCS... and after 2004, they couldn't make it out of the Division Series and missed the playoffs altogether in 2008.

And the pick up of A-Rod seemed to blow up in their face as he kept folding like a tent and slapping wrists in the playoffs.


The Lakers imploded in the 2004 Finals and the team was dismantled to please Kobe... and the titles dried up as Kobe couldn't deliver a title without Shaq.

And Peyton Manning had the stats, but Tom Brady was the CHAMPION.

Phil Jackson and Joe Torre wrote books about how rotten things were behind the scenes.

It was a glorious time and it was a petty time.

It was a time of happiness for our team's victory and for schadenfreude for other fan base's misery.

It was a perfect storm of our ability to celebrate and be pricks.

And it's over now.

Manning? He's a Super Bowl champ now and he's won one more recently than Brady because of the OTHER Manning.

A-Rod? He's a World Champion now and he hit key game tying homers and game winning hits in the Division Series, ALCS and World Series to get his ring.

Kobe? He has back to back titles now, the last one coming at the expense of our Celtics not being able to hold a 13 point second half lead. People are now talking about him in the same breath as Michael Jordan.

Since October 2009, Papelbon let up 3 ninth inning runs to eliminate the Red Sox, the Patriots got blown out at home in the playoffs, the Bruins blew a 3-0 series lead and the Celtics blew a shot at the NBA championship with less than 6 minutes to go.

The swagger is gone and that sense of impending doom has sadly crept back into our consciousness.

It's kind of like the movie Awakenings. For a brief moment we were able to come out of our slumber to experience the joys of winning teams, only to slip back into our immobile state.

Now in full disclosure, I am not a Boston Bruins fan. I am a San Jose Sharks fan and they have their OWN issues!

And my devotion to the Patriots is tenuous at best. I would trade all three Super Bowls for J. D. Drew to get a double off of David Price in the 8th inning of Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS... or for the Celtics to hang on to the 4th quarter lead on Thursday night.

And I am sure my friends who follow the Bruins primarily would trade the 3 Super Bowls, 2 World Series titles, and the NBA title for one Stanley Cup.

Maybe it will be good for us Boston fans to take a few lumps. It will help us appreciate what an amazing decade we experienced. What a huge class of water we had after a long thirst.

I'm not saying we shouldn't root hard for our teams. We should.
I'm not saying we won't see our teams win this decade. I bet some will.

But perhaps it was appropriate that Manny showed up t Fenway the day after the NBA Finals loss.

It was a reminder of that glorious decade where everything seemed to go our way.

We may never have a decade like this again.

Think of how lucky we are that we could experience it.

I feel bad for the kids born in 2002 and are 8 years old just following teams now. They missed out on a great decade.

Turn the page and let's give those kids some memories of their own!

Responding to Adam Felber

I've been good friends with Emmy nominated writer, NPR personality and author Adam Felber for well over a decade now.

We've worked on projects together, done comedy together, our wives have become friends, our kids play together and our siblings are all friends as well.

We get along about as well as any friend I have... with one exception. Our lone true tensions have arisen during Red Sox/Yankees match ups.

As you all know, I am an obnoxious Red Sox fan.
And Adam is a cocky Yankees fan.

While I have preached goodwill between Sox and Yankee fans, I can't claim I've always PRACTICED what I preached.

And when we both lived in New York, no matter how good our will was, it sometimes caused some tension, apologetic e mails after nasty passive aggressive taunts and some moments where we both wished the match up would just be over with.

Adam is a lifelong Yankee fan who went to college in the Boston area... and lived among Red Sox fans and saw us at our worst.

I am a lifelong Red Sox fan who went to college and lived 15 years in Manhattan... and I have always wondered why Yankee fans consider themselves to be classy.

In a recent e mail exchange, Mr. Felber tried to get me fired up about the upcoming clash between the Red Sox and Yankees.

I couldn't take the bait. Earlier in the year, I compared a lifeless Red Sox/Yankees series with Superman IV.

All the players were there, but it just seemed tired.

Well with the decimation of the Red Sox this season, I have a hard time getting pumped for this series. No Youk, No Pedroia, possibly no Lester and nearly a week behind in the standings...

It's worse than Superman IV.

It's like Caddyshack II.

There are too many replacement Red Sox to give me any real hope for making up six games in the loss column.

I wrote to Adam "This Year is Lost for the Sox."

I guess this was NOT what Adam had in mind.


"What are you talking about? With a sweep the Red Sox could be 2.5 games behind the best record in baseball. There are 4 teams in all of baseball with more wins than the Sox right now. And the Yankees have been kind of sucking this week. If the Sox win a couple this weekend, talk sh*t and rub it in! Make me hate Boston fans all over again. What's the matter with you?"

He then tried needling me comparing the Sox with the 1980s era Yankees and talking about how if this were a small market team this close, people would be pumped.

But alas in order for the Sox to really make any headroom, they would have to sweep. And in case you missed it, they couldn't even WIN a series against Seattle nor Cleveland, 2 of the 4 worst teams in the American League.

I'd love to see them back in it and when they slapped around the Angels and the
Tigers I thought "Oooo, maybe they're making a run at it."

However Youk's injury and Lester looking hurt may just be the final white flag.

But hey, the morons who said we Red Sox fans were going to miss "The Curse" are
proven wrong again. If I were still waiting for the Series win, this year would
be agonizing. After seeing them win a few titles, I can be a little less frantic and more practical.

That being said... there is one constant to the world of Red Sox and Yankees... the pleasure felt by seeing our team win can only be rivaled by the sick joy of watching the other team squirm.

That's why Yankee fans were so happy all those years.
That's why we Sox fans were so nuts in 2004.

In 2009, I had to sit through the Lakers and the Yankees each winning a title.
This year I had the gut punch of the Lakers beating the Celtics... I can't deal with a Yankee repeat.

Chances are the Yankees and the Rays are both going to the post season. And one of them will probably have to face Cliff Lee and the Rangers in a Best of Five series.

And with the Yankees shaky starting staff, uncertain bullpen and the implosion of Joba Chamberlain, a team like the Rangers could certainly steal a game from the Yankees and throw Cliff Lee at them in games 1 and 5.

And if the Yankees are the Wild Card team, they'd be facing Lee on the road.

And if that is the case, there would be a damn good chance that the Yankees would lose, Derek Jeter would have his 1,000 yard stare and Yankee fans would be sad.

And that's a GOOD thing!

So one way to help set up that match up that would NOT favor the Yankees is to WIN THE SERIES!

That's it!
I got all the motivation I need to get pumped for this series!

Schadenfreude is a powerful muse.

OK, Felber... it is ON!

My Red Sox may not win this year, but I'll be damned if YOU feel any joy this October!

Let's Go Sox!
Suck on it Felber!

(And we should get out families together soon.)

Sully