The apathetic blink as history repeats
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HISTORY REPEATS itself principally because we don't recognize it when it comes again. In October 2004, I was so crushed by the Red Sox' devastating losses to the New York Yankees in the first three games of the American League Championship Series that I refused to watch Game 4, a fact that shames me to this day. Of course, I repented and swore I'd never do such a thing again - but Thursday night, frankly less crushed than apathetic, I turned the game off in the top of the seventh. Reading yesterday morning about the miracle that began in the bottom half of the inning, I was reminded of myself 22 years ago, 11 years old, watching Game 5 of the ALCS with my father, demanding that my dad leave the TV on just long enough to see what my hero, Don Baylor, would do. Needless to say, we were still watching when Dave Henderson came up. There are lessons here that reach beyond baseball, but I think that if we were capable of learning them, we'd already have done so.
LEEORE SCHNAIRSOHN
Jamaica Plain
I LIVED in the Boston area in the late 1990s, and recently moved back. I had expected, following the Red Sox four-game sweep in the 2004 World Series, as unsuspenseful as that was, that the fervor for the team would have died down somewhat. That didn't seem to be the case. Bars aired reruns of Red Sox games instead of live contests involving other teams. Everyone on the subway seemed to be wearing a Red Sox cap. This all struck me as a little disingenuous in contrast to the era of Pedro Martinez and Co., before steroids had tarnished the game, when pre-success excitement simmered everywhere from Haymarket to the hills of Somerville.
That's why I was pleased to read Michael Levenson's story, "Suddenly, Sox no longer the hot ticket" (Page A1, Oct. 16). It rang true to learn that ticket prices are down, and that a strain of apathy has moderated some fans' avid focus. And this, on a night when a Boston baseball team showed it can still send fans into ecstasy - whether the effects last a decade, or just through the next day.
JASON WARSHOF
Jamaica Plain
OH NO! Crisis! Ace Ticket can no longer sell seats for $600 above face value? What's a legalized ticket scalper to do?! Did someone say "government bailout"?
MATT CLARKE
Brighton
