Ok, so my rants (and honestly the rant of ANY self-respecting Orioles fan) about Peter Angelos’ obvious, intentional and mean-spirited snub of the 1966 World Series championship team last year are well-documented.
And if you think I’m crazy — all two of you idiots who might think it’s cool to insult the past legends in the world of sports like Brooks Robinson — you should’ve seen the look on my face somewhere over Connecticut on the plane ride back from New England earlier tonight.
At some point Saturday at Fenway Park, I threw a copy of the Red Sox Magazine into my computer bag, and my wife found it on the way home and started browsing.
And there is was: in LOVING, LIVING, BREATHING COLOR — a full tribute and honorary section of the magazine devoted to the Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox coming back on Opening Day to kickoff the 2007 season.
Keep in mind: this team — the ’67 Sox — actually LOST the freaking WORLD SERIES! They didn’t even WIN!
And forty years later, the Red Sox ownership, management and anyone with an iota of common sense can see that THIS IS WHAT YOU DO: you HONOR them because the fans remember them and appreciate them and loved them and died with them in October of 1967!
And for folks like me, whippersnappers who are almost 40, but who weren’t even BORN, you STILL honor them because it’s all your parents and grandparents have ever talked about all of your life — Yaz and Lonborg, Conigliaro and what could’ve been!!!!
For crissakes, is this so hard to figure out?
If THIS ALONE doesn’t tell you that FREE THE BIRDS 2 cometh, NOTHING WILL!!!
I’m getting pissed again…and the press pass b**s**t only has me more defiant than ever, when it comes to why this thing needs to get fixed and fixed soon! The city has been empty downtown every night for six weeks! And the team’s morale must stink playing in front of an empty stadium every night!
But, alas, I’m rambling at 2 in the morning and I’m awake and I can’t sleep…
Anyway, here are the three pages devoted to the Red Sox honoring their past heroes of 1967, complete with a banquet where the 1967 players walked the aisle one by one next to the 2007 Red Sox. Curt Schilling walked with Jim Lonborg. Rico Petrocelli walked with Julio Lugo. You get the idea…
And even if you HATE the Red Sox, you have to admit — that’s class.
And unfortunately, class isn’t the Oriole Way. Or the Angelos way!
FREE THE BIRDS ALREADY!!!!!!!!