Feeling the love of Red Sox Nation

SOMETHING HAPPENED last Saturday night before the Red Sox game even started that I won't soon forget.

The team was celebrating Disability Awareness Night. A young gentleman with challenges of his own was singing the national anthem. Unfortunately, he ran into some problems.

As he struggled to finish, it became clear he wasn't going to make it. In one magic moment, 36,000 Red Sox fans "picked him up" and began to loudly finish the song. To say the moment was magical only begins to describe it.

Over the years, I've been to hundreds of sporting vents. This was, by far, the loudest I've ever heard our national anthem. The young man found his footing, joined in with the crowd, and everyone finished in unison. I saw more than one tear in the crowd, and was moved to silence.

On the same night that the Sox fans gave a young center fielder a standing ovation for hustling out his first Major League hit with "a single to short" that followed his initial "ground out to the catcher," I was proud to have been part of something very special. To me, it says something very clearly about the nature of people.

TOM CREMONA
Enfield, Conn.