They'll be a Lot of No-Shows at Work Today

Today is a sacred holiday in New England. It is Opening Day at Fenway Park, and for the first time in 86 years, the Sox will hoist a new Championship banner over the Church of the Faithful.

It's hard to explain what this means to us. If you're not a fan of baseball, it'd be impossible to explain it to you. Fans from other teams might sorta get it, but not entirely. At the risk of scandalizing many Christians out there, baseball IS the official religion of New England. Nothing else even comes close, no, not even Catholicism (which is pretty dominant around these parts).

There is so much history, personal history for each of us in all this. For example, I never knew my grandfather, but I do know that when he came home from his grueling job working for the electric light company, he liked to work in the community victory garden down the street with a little radio tuned to the Sox game. I know that when his wife passed away, he took his young son, my dad, to as many games at Fenway park as he could in an effort to help soften the loss. I know my uncle saw Babe Ruth bat in Sox uniform, before "The Babe" became both a Yankee and a curse word.

In one post I could never explain what all this means to me as a fan. If you could see me sitting here on the couch with my big box of tissues, already dabbing my eyes as replays from the Sox' historic 4 game sweep are replayed, you'd rightly think I'd lost my mind. So I won't try to explain. I'll just settle in, gripping my tissues, and let the tears flow freely as they raise that beautiful World Championship banner.

It's kind of bittersweet for me that Mr. F can't be here for this - he dutifully went into work today, the stand-up guy that he is, even though so many are playing hooky to catch the game on TV. I wish he was here! But we are recording all the pregame ceremony and the game itself so he can see it tonight. Oh, and I bought a cake at the bakery today that has "World Champs" written on it in red icing. Yes, we're all nuts around here. Even the bakeries are getting in on the celebration.

What a beautiful day it is in New England; a beautiful day indeed.

p.s. Having the New York Yankees here to see that banner go up is just the absolute epitome of poetic justice for us Sox fans. It couldn't get any sweeter!