‘Oh, Boston, you’re my home’

This being the last paper of the year, I spent countless nights sleepless as I thought about a topic big enough to end the sports section on. Over the term I’ve touched upon a lot on the things I hate in sports: floppers, recruiting 13 year-olds, LeBron James, refs, the failure of All-Star Weekend and Brett Favre (who, if you’ve been watching ESPN, is playing his yearly “keep whoever I’m playing for hostage while I take my sweet time deciding if I want to play this year” game).

It would be easy to say I’m a bitter and grouchy person, sometimes I am. I like to consider myself a visionary.

I see the things wrong and see possible solutions. Contrary to what my column may have alluded to though, there are things I love about sports. This leads me to the topic of all topics, one worth my ending the year on. I love everything about Boston sports.
Boston has had its share of tragedies over the years. Trading the Bambino for a Broadway show, Bill Buckner letting the ball through his legs, Len Bias and Reggie Lewis dying well before their primes and Aaron Boone blasting a Tim Wakefield knuckleball into the left field porch at Yankee Stadium in game seven.

“But Mike, all those tragedies make it sound like you only root for the Boston teams out of sympathy!” Sure, the heartbreaks play a role, but no more of a role than the great sports moments. With every one of those tragedies there is a great moment. Who could forget Adam Vinatieri nailing every clutch kick imaginable on the way to two Patriots Superbowls? The “Band of Idiots” leading the Red Sox to their first ring since 1918, the new “Big Three” leading the Celtics to their record seventeenth title, Jon Lester overcoming cancer and throwing a no-hitter at Fenway.

Take the other night for example. The Celtics were pulling another one of their patented fourth quarter meltdowns against the Cavaliers in game one. Of course, the team ended up blowing their lead and losing the game. Here I am sitting in a dimly lit room, surrounded by my friends who are afraid to talk to me for fear of me throwing something at them. Damn the Celtics, same crap different day. They don’t stand a chance at beating the Cavs. Then I hop on ESPN and read an article about the Celtics talking about how realistically this is their last chance at dominance with their current roster. Sure this thought had been brewing in my mind all year, but it had never really hit me what the significance of the outcome would be.

Immediately thoughts of Pierce crying at the ring ceremony flooded my mind… followed by me crying watching the ring ceremony. This was my team. I’ve lived through every dribble of that ball for the last two and a half years.

All of a sudden I started getting pumped up. I started to believe that pure heart could carry this team past LeBron’s Cavs. Surely everyone on the team knows what’s at stake in this playoff series. Lose now and it’s the end of an era.

So where was I Monday night? At “Club Garden,” enjoying watching LeBron struggle and listening to the TNT announcers trying to make excuses for LeBron’s comparatively subpar performance. Rasheed started hitting shots, Rondo and Ray Allen remembered how good they were last year and took over, heck even Dick Bavetta brought his A game (or at least as close to an A game someone who’s old enough to have played one-on-one with Jesus can bring).

After the game, and a few celebratory man-hugs, I checked the score of the Bruins game.
The same Bruins who every single ESPN analyst predicted would get knocked out in the first round, had won their second game in the series. Now all of a sudden analysts are talking like they knew this would happen. Typical bandwagon fans. I never lost faith.
Only one more team, and it just so happened to be the most on and off team in Boston right now; the Red Sox. Surely their recent sweeping by the Orioles would slap some sense into them. 17 runs later the Red Sox dismantled the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. God it’s good to be from Boston.

Sure, I’ll admit to being quick to give up on teams. This doesn’t mean I’m not loyal to the teams, it just means I take frustration a little more poorly than most. I say negative things to hypothetically pump myself and the team up. So far it’s worked right? 6 championships in the last decade for the Boston teams. How many cities can say that?

With the Celtics looking good and the Bruins thriving in their underdog role in the playoffs, I have a lot more things to look forward to once I leave school for the summer. I’m sure I’ll throw my hat down a few more times before everything is said and done, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Legendary coach Red Auerbach had a motto he coined while coaching the Celtics; “What have you done for me lately?” Oh Boston, if only you knew.

Mike Steiner can be contacted at msteiner@keeneequinox.com