IT’S A MARATHON
Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts and seven other states offers valuable counterprogramming to yesterday’s post and a reminder the 162-game season is not a sprint; early performance is not destiny.
It is also Marathon Monday in Boston and the Red Sox play brunch baseball, first pitch at 11 a.m. Will Flemming and Will Middlebrooks, the Battle of Wills on WEEI, used the somber and celebratory occasion to reflect on the early-season frustrations for the faithful.
“The most special day of the year. … There is not one single place on the planet I would rather be than right here, right now,” Will Flemming said at the top of the broadcast.
“What better day than today to turn it around than right here, right now,” Will Middlebrooks countered.
Boston entered the day 8-13 and in last place. The discontent was palpable from chatter online and during call-ins. The boobirds, as Will Flemming pointed out on Sunday, were out. (It’s a great word, but it doesn’t make it into The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition. Another word, however, does: booboisie. This is a worthy alternative offered free of charge to any baseball radio announcer.)
#BostonStrong
Image courtesy @RedSox.
When the Tigers took a 3-2 lead on a Jahmai Jones single in the sixth, early optimism turned grim.
“What a frustrating day, series, and season,” Will Flemming said.
Earlier he had offered the right response.
In 2013 as the Red Sox returned to Fenway in a delayed game in the aftermath of the bombing, David Ortiz took the microphone on the field and cemented his position at the heart of Boston fandom with a short, defiant declaration.
Will Flemming repeated it on air 13 years later.
“This is our fucking city.”
“It was the most important line uttered in the history of Boston sports,” Will Flemming said, and Will Middlebrooks agreed, affirming it reflected the sentiments of every Tawmy from Southie who ever pulled on a Yankees Suck T-shirt. (Even now, when the president of the United States utters the profanity himself, it still has the power to shock. It did when Ortiz said it, it did again when Will Flemming repeated it Monday. “If there’s an FCC fine, I’ll be happy to pay it,” Will Flemming said.)
Monday marked the 13th anniversary of the running of the Boston Marathon after the bombing that took five lives and injured hundreds at the finish line. Will Flemming remembered the three who died at the race, Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, and Lingzi Lu, as well as two law-enforcement officers who died after confrontations with the bombers, Sean Collier and Dennis Simmonds.
The game turned the Red Sox way.
Roman Anthony tied things up in the Red Sox half of the sixth. Then Ceddanne Rafaela singled to score two in the seventh and Boston grabbed the lead for good in the seventh.
Patriots’ Day Finery
Image courtesy @FenwayPark
Things turned around in the game, as the Red Sox season still may. Baseball is not magic. Beginnings are not the final word. Radio broadcasts are not the cure to anything. But winning can soothe frustrations and pave the way to greater heights.
It’s a marathon.