Wow, what a great story.

Face it everyone, you're all like the Red Sox. Unless you are one of those extraordinary human beings who is first in their class at Harvard and marries their high school sweetheart, chances are, you've had quite a few disappointments in your life. Sometimes things never seem to go right, they seem headed in the correct direction but little things derail you. Sometimes you sit up wondering "what if?" and imagining things as they might have been. Sometimes you look jealously at the guy who got the girl (or the guy that got the guy) and wonder why that is never you. Things can get hopeless, life knocks us all around, and some days it's a struggle getting up in the morning, and you wonder why you go on.

That was the story of the Red Sox and their fans for 86 long years. There were so many promising moments, so many stars who lit up the sky with their talent and their spectacular play. There was Ted Williams, who mastered the art of hitting and brashly told reporters that he wanted to be "the best there ever was." There was Tony Conigliaro, the wunderkind from Massachusetts who hit a home run in his first at bat at Fenway Park and was one of the best young hitters in the game. There was Luis Tiant, Roger Clemens, and Jim Longborg who mowed down opposing batters at a fearsome rate. But all of them eventually and tragically failed to accomplish what they all set out for, Williams ended his career brilliantly and bitterly, hitting a home run in his final at bat, but not tipping his cap to the fans. Tony Conigliaro's career was cut short by a fastball to his eye that ended his prowess with a baseball bat. Tiant, Clemens, and Longborg had their moments, but on baseball's biggest stage, the World Series, they were known for their bad final outings when the team needed them the most.

Their final failings tainted their most precious moments, just as our memories are tainted by the specter of what would later come. We may all remember our first kiss that really meant something, but many remember how that person would break our heart. We may remember great moments with our friends, but many of us also remember how some of them would later fail us.

The Yankees, for all their greatness, could never capture this part of us. The Yankees were the United States of America at its best: strong, hardworking, and successful. Presidents and politicians rush to associate themselves with the Yankees. Everybody likes winners and everybody sees the Yankees( at least when they were at their best) as the image of what we ought to be, but the Red Sox are who we are. The Red Sox are the team of the marginalized, the people that never fit in, all of us losers who keep going at our lives not happy with how things are right now, but hopeful that the future holds something better. Yes, I'm sure it's nice for Yankee fans when their team wins the World Series, but they are expected to do so. They are the valedictorian with the polished record, the perfect hair, and the girlfriend who everybody else wanted. The Red Sox winning the World Series shows us that yes, happy endings do happen, even for the rest of us. And that is fucking amazing.

Before tonight the author of a book on Red Sox history could have borrowed a title from Gabriel Garcia Marquez and called it "A Hundred Years of Solitude." Because that is exactly what is has been. Our fandom has been a history of 9th inning collapses, second place finishes, and defeats at the hands of the New York Yankees, but now all that has changed.

How is it possible that the Red Sox, down 0-3 to their nemesis, their archrival, the team that has always outspent them, out maneuvered them, and out played them since 1918, came back and won four in a row to capture the American League pennant? Folks, this is the dorky kid sucker punching the bully. This is Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star. This is the Rabbit finally getting his Trix. This is Wile E. Coyote finally taking a big suculent bite out of the Road Runner. This is, in short, the most stunning on-field turn of events in the history of professional sports. Whatever happens in the World Series, the Calvinistic sense of doom that has pervaded these parts for oh so many years has been lifted, this team has truly shown us that anything is possible, that the past means nothing, and that the future is ours to take.

This may seem overdone given that it is simply a sporting event. But for those of us who watch it intently and closely, it is more than simply a bunch of young-middle aged men swinging bats around. It is a human drama, and at times like these it can be more powerful than the most skillfully directed movie or the most poignant moment in any television series. Just like in those movies and television shows things we identify with their characters, their hopes, their dreams, and their aspirations, only unlike those we don't have the sense of being led around towards an inevitable pre-packaged ending. Things don't always work out in the end, sometimes rather than heroic endings or meaningful final confrontations, there are anti-climaxes. Most of the time, fans of teams slowly come to realize, over the course of a season, that this just isn't their teams year. Despite the fact that they paid attention, despite the fact that everybody wanted one thing to happen, and despite the fact that it would've made for a better story had the team won the championship, most of the time the teams' season would end in a meaningless game or a bitter loss. It is, in a sense, like having to walk on a tight-rope with no net for your emotions.

It is these anti-climaxes that define a fan's experience, and it is what makes him/her one. The unrelenting hope for good things and the bitter struggles that a fan must endure before his/her team gets to the promised land (and sometimes they never do) are what make watching sports different than watching a sucession of good movies. When things work out in movies we decry it as a Hollywood ending that, while nice to watch, doesn't usually have a deeper meaning for us. When things work out in sports, like right now or in 1980 when the US upset the Russians, it gives fans hope that perhaps by struggling just like their heroes thing can work out in real life as well. And that is what makes tonight so special.

Another night of work, another baseball game, another blog entry.

I'm just not going to comment on the game or anything. I'll save my commentary for tomorrow night when the Red Sox are either going to the World Series or going home.

For now a facebook message I just sent:
From: Dennis Reardon (BU)
To: Dennis Reardon (BC)
Subject: From the Other Dennis Reardon

So one day a few years ago I went to register at a hospital for a test of some sort, and I claimed that I hadn't been there before. The nurse looked at me puzzled and asked me if my name was Dennis Reardon and I said "yes" and asked me if I was born on August 9th 1984 and I said yes. But then she brought up names for my father and mother that weren't accurate. So, it seemed, there were two Dennis Reardons with the same birthday living in Massachusetts.
But it gets weirder....
When I was a senior in High School I went to interview for Swarthmore with a teacher from Milton Academy. I told that exact story and her eyes perked up and told me that she too knew a Dennis Reardon, who was about my age, and going to Milton Academy. Life is strange sometimes.
So I must ask you....Are you this very same Dennis Reardon?
And if so....Isn't it fucked up?

Whew! I am done studying for the night, but that will pick up in the morning. My Enlightenment test now scares me alot less as I have been able to put the subject together in my own mind in some sort of coherent fashion. Now all thats left is last minute getting of names and works straight, which is the easy part.

Studying for these history/political science tests is a difficult switching of gears from studying for economics. In economics you must master each individual area of theory, usually on its own, and be able to do problems of that type. In history and other non-math disciplines, it is far more important to weave what you have studied into a cloth of ideas, with which you will tailor your essays and short answers. I think it is important though, to develop both skills at the same time, as one compliments the other when working on each subject. At some point I will have to unify the individual theories on economics into more complex ideas about the subject in order to achieve some mastery of the discipline. Also, the analytical breaking down of the individual pieces of a historical subject can help understand the whole. I may be bullshitting here, but this may also make sense. At this point who can tell......

The Red Sox have won again, they have been recalled to life in the most dramatic fashion, turning the tables on the Yankees, and, for a time anyway, showing them what is like to have victory so close at hand only to have it snatched away by mistakes, untimely home runs, and blown saves. If only the Red Sox could complete the comeback with similar dramatic wins in Games 6&7. If this happened, no Red Sox fan would be miserable about their performance in the World Series.

It has been said that sports is the new religion, and I comepletely agree. I've found it somewhat hypocritical of myself to mock those who assert that the Bible is completely true, and without error, while also worshipping at the Altar of Ortiz and believing the Red Sox can come back from a 3-0 deficit without any rational support for that feeling. But, I think that it would be positive if we used up our needs for irrational feelings in the area of sports, where the damage is limited to a few riots here and ther, rather than in religion, which causes people to persecute each other and blow themselves up.

I've come in second place once again.

The single event doesn't hurt as much as it's an accumulation of things, one more failure at relationships before they even got started.....well more than one actually. I don't know what happened. My year seemed bright with prospects. I went on dates with six people in the first 3 weeks of school. One by one they fell off though, for a variety of reasons, with the latest one coming tonight. Now I am sad and I wonder what more I can do. How can it be that out of so many people there has not been one that has stuck? How can it be that after all this time I still haven't found anybody that's dated me that's felt content enough with me to at least stick around for a few weeks? What is wrong?

When people that I "like" go off with someone they really like I'm happy for them, but there's also a part of me that wants to scream "What about me! Wasn't I good enough?!" Of course its not that they found me low quality or whatever, I think, it's just that I wasn't the one. Rationally I know that, and I even know the feeling. Hell I even know the feeling because I've felt it about some of the people who haven't been happy with me. Rationally I know it makes sense, but I'm not rational when it comes to such matters. When I'm stepped over for someone else, it bugs me, and I feel sad like I do now, no matter what the state of the dating process we were in (I've never gotten out of the earliest of stages). It's probably some unpleasant mix of emotions including jealousy, not knowing how much you like something until it is gone, etc. But knowing that and getting over how inferior I feel are two different matters.

WOW! So the Red Sox nearly performed the biggest choke job of the year and lived to tell about it. In the clinching game of a three game sweep the Red Sox were up 6-1, the annoucers had basically declared the game over and were speculating about Red Sox-Yankee pitching matchups. Then, in about 10 minutes the lead disapeared on a 7th inning grand slam home run by Vladamir Guerrero. GASP. Fenway Park was in shocked silence. What looked like an easy sweep of the series turned into doubt. If the Red Sox lost the game they would still be up 2-1 in the series but the momentum would be going against them, and if they didn't close them out tomorrow they'd have to go back to Anaheim and actually be underdogs...SCARY.

I think we all expected the Red Sox to loose after giving up the home run. It's very hard to bounce back from such a thing, and it was like and old script pulled out of Red Sox history. "Red Sox victory seems certain, Red Sox loose lead, Red Sox hold on for a while and tease you, Red Sox collapse in heartbreaking fashion." But amazingly that did not happen tonight. With the bases loaded and one out Keith Foulke actually struck a few guys out to get out of the ninth. In the tenth, Cabrera actually made an excellent play (i.e. the ball didn't go through his legs or flying into the dugout) to get Lowe out of the inning. In the bottom of the tenth, David Ortiz actually hit a home run to win the game. WHO ARE YOU GUYS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE RED SOX?

Again, I'm not amazed that they won the series. I thought they would win the series. The part that amazes me is that they seemed headed for their usual dissapointing defeats many times, but somehow things didn't follow the usual storyline. When the Red Sox blow scoring opportunities early in the game yet still have the lead, they blow to lead and loose only to be reminded of those early blown scoring opportunities. If the announcers say the Red Sox are sure to win and then the Red Sox blow the lead, they lose that game... the next two...and the series. 1+1=2. The sky is blue.

But this didn't happen. Left was right. Up was Down. It was the Angels who were making stupid managerial decisions, like taking out your best reliever to put in a guy who had been knocked around only a few days earlier. It was the Angels who made errors, like bobbling a sure double play ball and allowing a run to score. And it was the Red Sox who pulled it out. WOW!

So it's 3 am and I'm too pumped to go to bed. The Red Sox did what the Red Sox just don't do which is win two tough games, on the road, in the playoffs. You better believe, though, that neither the fans nor the players have put this series in the win column yet. They still have to put them away with either Bronson Arroyo or Tim Wakefeild.

It's always a hilarious experience to watch games with other Red Sox fans when the Red Sox are well ahead late in the game. The announcers begin to talk as if the game is in the bag for the Sox, while Red Sox fans shout "SHUT UP" at the TV. I think what most Red Sox fans fear is a repeat of something like the Bill Buckner game. During the 9th inning of that fateful game 6 of the World Series in 1986, Dan Shaughnessy of the Globe said that the champagne had been put in the dugout, the reporters had been ushered in, and Jean Yawkey (widow of racist SOB Tom Yawkey and owner of the Red Sox) had been carted in to congratulate the team for their first World Series in 68 years. Then as the team collapsed in the most mind boggling manner possible, everything was literaly rolled back out, including the senile Yawkey, leaving only the reporters to ask the players how it felt to be a part of the biggest fuck-up in World Series history.

Ever since that game every Red Sox/Any Boston Team's lead in the post season seems a candidate to be just like 1986 only worse. So when Chris Berman says "well it looks like the Red Sox will go back to Boston 2-0" every Red Sox fan hears that, except they imagine it's on Sportcenter the next morning followed by "but then came the collapse.....BOO Yah Eckstein homers in the bottom of the 9th to cap a SIX run rally and it's a whole new series." Even when watching the "Snow Bowl" game (Patriots playoff game vs Oakland in 2001) a few years ago with my family, I remember we all let out a collective gasp when we saw that as Adam Vinatieri lined up to kick the game winning feild goal, the three points had already been added to the scoreboard. All we could think of was the ball going over Vinatieri's head and Mookie Wilson picking it up and running it the other way for the touchdown, and having that play, with the scoreboard showing Pats 16 Oakland 13 in the background, being on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

All because of Calvin Bleepin Schiraldi, Bob Stanley, and Roger Clemens (I don't beat up on Buckner he's taken enough of the blame over the years.)

So this blog has been lacking juice in recent months. I wanted to end that with a commentary on two things I like, good looking men and debate. Though the intersect of the two is a limited catagory, it is a wonderful catagory, and should be celebrated with a Top Ten List. Now, this Top Ten list will be based soley on physical attractiveness and nothing else. It may be the case that I would want to date people not on this list more than those actually on this list, but the people on the list win out because of their raw beauty/attractiveness/intangible hotness. Also, the list will be limited to people still eligible to debate on APDA (including people around the world). This list will probably be slightly creepy to those of you who didn't know I was paying attention, but this is what gay men do, get over it. Because the Blog dealy doesn't allow you to cut and paste, and I wrote these before realizing it, each person will get a hottness score( 0 for the Crypt Keeper and 100 for the love child of Orlando Bloom and Justin Timberlake) and a rank (1 being for hottest) after the commentary.

The Ten Hottest Guys in Debate

Nate Goralnik, Brown- While I preferred cute, dorky Nate Goralnik of last year to "I am going clubbing on Miami Beach" Nate Goralnik of this year he is still very cute. Hotness Score: 72 Rank: 10

Adam Bonnifield, Cornell-Ever since Adam traded the perfectly combed hair and business suit of freshman year for the perfectly disheveled hair and Lacoste shirts of soph/junior year, his hotness has really come out. Love the pink shirts! HS: 85 Rank: 4

Karl from NYU- Don't know his last name, but I do know he's extremely handsome, and really keeps his eyebrows in shape. HS: 80 Rank: 6

Josh Bendor, Yale- A controversial pick, I realize, but c'mon folks....listen to that deep voice HS:74 Rank:9

Deon Provost, BU- Is anybody hotter than Deon? Well, yeah....but not many! HS: 75 Rank: 8

Ed Bush, Bates/UPenn- Where have you gone Ed Bush? Not many people remember him, and he's been gone for a while, but he still holds a place in the pantheon of APDA hotness. HS: 84 Rank: 5

Seb Isaac, Cambridge- It's almost unfair...one of the best public speakers in the world AND he's unbelievably hot AND he has a metrosexual sense of fashion AND he has an accent. Not many can top him. HS: 95 Rank: 1

Gavin Newsome, Oxford- A personal favorite, I totally had a crush on him throughout my Oxford/Worlds experience. He looks so cute in a kilt. HS: 79 Rank: 7

Jan from Utrecht- Tall, Dutch, Mick Jagger quality lips, HOT.....HS:87 Rank: 3

Greg Arthur, UMCP- Yah yah, I know BU people, he has been against us in most of our struggles, but he is fucking hot. He has an amazing body, and a really attractive face thats has this constant manly virile scowl. Wow!.......HS: 93 Rank: 2

So to recap:

10.) Nate Goralnik, Brown
9.) Josh Bendor, Yale
8.) Deon Provost, BU
7.) Gavin Newsome, Oxford
6.) Karl from NYU
5.) Ed Bush, Bates/UPenn
4.) Adam Bonnifield, Cornell
3.) Jan from Utrecht
2.) Greg Arthur, UMCP
1.) Seb Isaac, Cambridge

Comments? Arguments with the list?