Bleacher seats at Fenway, 550 feet from home plate going for $150 each - you heard it here first.
Jimmie G - here's my 1978 story:
By the time I went back to Albany State in late August for my sophomore year, Fisk and Lynn were on the DL, Zimmer had blown the Sox summertime lead down to just a few games, and the Yankee fans in my dorm were hysterical for Red Sox blood. When the 4-game Massacre happened over Labor Day, it was relentless. While you were getting crap up in Hanover in August, I took a solid month of abuse in September from everyone in my dorm (about 300 guys). Albany State was (and still is, I believe) about 85% residents of the 5 boroughs of NYC, plus Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland counties. Then there was me - the Red Sox fan from Maine and Glens Falls. I might as well have been from Neptune. Even after the Sox won their last 8 straight to tie the Yanks in game 162, there were exactly 2 other Sox fans sitting in my room with me watching the playoff game on a TV I had rented from the electronics store around the corner. I couldn't afford the $35/day rental fee, but I also couldn't miss the game and there was no way in hell I could survive watching the game in the only dorm TV lounge with all the Yankee fans. No way. But, when the Sox won the coin flip and the game was scheduled to be played at Fenway, I made five $20 bets (that I also couldn't afford) with the five biggest Yankee fans in my dorm, just to shut them up and to prove that the Sox had someone on their side. But deep down, I was trembling.
OK, so we all know the Sox won the World Series in 2004, but the 1978 playoff game was much more intense. Much more intense. Hard to imagine 28 years later, but it's 100% true. The 4th game of the 2004 World Series was a formality - the Cards rolled over and we won. The 6th and 7th games of the 2004 ALCS were more like the '78 playoff game. That game was totally do or die, and baby, back in those days it was truly do or die - possibly more than now - ?? The Yanks and Sox hated each other and those players probably still do. I HATED Reggie Jackson and Mickey Rivers and Graig Nettles and Munson and Chambliss and Pinella and Gossage and Guidry and Billy Fucking Martin and George Steinbrenner more than you will ever know.
Sox fans wanted to win so incredibly badly that the game at Fenway was pretty much played in silence punctuated with screaming fits of ecstasy and rage. Sox fans were so uptight it wasn't even fun. We HAD to win. When Yaz hit the solo homer in the 2nd inning, we went nuts, but we had to keep cool since a very-average Mike Torrez was pitching against Ron Guidry who was all-world that year. The Sox were nursing a 2-0 lead when Bucky F. Dent popped the fly over the Monstah and Yaz slumped like a rag doll at the base of the wall when the ball didn't come down. The Yankee fans in the TV lounge down the hall banged on my door and almost broke it down (it was locked, thanks). Even when Reggie homered to put the Yanks up 5-2 in the top of the 8th, I still thought the Sox could come back. The 1978 Sox team was that good. But as usual, it was obvious that God is a freakin' Yankee fan and somehow allowed Pinella to catch Lynn's liner in the 8th and blindly snag Remy's potential game-winning double (shoulda been a triple) in the 9th, or else the Sox win. But - as always - the Yanks won when Yaz popped to Nettles with runners on 2nd and 3rd. I thought the world had ended.
In 2003 when Grady left Pedro in too long and the Yanks won on Boone's homer in the 11th, I threw my Sox hat into the garage and left it there for a few days. But when the Sox lost the playoff game to the Yanks in 1978, I was inconsolable. It was as if my family had gone down in a plane crash. This was the first time in my lifetime the Sox legitimately had a chance to win the Series, de-throne and humble the Yanks and perhaps start a dynasty. Go look up the roster for that team and check out how many Hall of Famers and Near Hall of Famers were on that team - and they never won a goddamned thing. Every year was the same thing. And when 1999, 2003 and the first 3 games of the 2004 ALCS happened, I was bummed but my heart was steeled from 1978. Even when the Sox lost to the Mets in 1986, I had the scar tissue from 1978 to protect me (but that was #2).
All right - I will give Yankee fans at least this much credit - in 2003 when Grady's brain fart blew the game, the next day all of my Yankee fan friends called or emailed to make sure I hadn't driven off a bridge. And in 1978 the 5 guys I made the bets with took me out and got me loaded on my own money. After about 10 Scotches I finally was cooled out enough to try to sleep, and I think it took me a week to get my head back on straight. As you can tell, even 28 years later and even after the Sox won the Series, 1978 still left a scar. And I know 2004 did the same for the Yankee fans..........
It sometimes amazes me that humanity survives...people do alot of really crappy things to other people.
Today, I always remind myself that it's just baseball.