Recent World Series win gives some fans new outlook

Brian Messenger

October 25, 2007 09:54 am

— The commemorative shirts and hats worn by Red Sox players during their pennant-clinching celebration late Sunday night arrived in downtown Andover until Tuesday afternoon. Within the first 90 minutes, local Sox fans had already scooped some up.
"We didn't get a lot," said assistant manager Lee Freedman of Athlete's Corner on Main Street. "We hope in a week we'll need new (World Series winners) ones."
With Boston back in the World Series for the first time since its historic run to the top in 2004, many baseball fans in town have put the Curse of the Bambino behind them and are looking forward to celebrating a second title in four years, this time over the Colorado Rockies. The teams were scheduled to play Game 2 of their best-of-seven series tonight, Thursday, at Fenway Park to decide baseball's best team -- for this year, anyway.
For Freedman, a Red Sox fan since 1975 who has lived through several past playoff disappointments, there are no guarantees | even after the hometown team broke a supposed 86-year-old hex by winning it all in 2004.
"I think there are still people who have baggage with the curse," said Freedman, referring to Boston's often-tragic championship drought that started in 1918, when the team sold baseball legend Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. "I think I tend to fall in that. ... The curse is gone. I just think we still have somewhere in our head that we could blow it."
Devon Martell, a 15-year-old freshman at Andover High School, was more optimistic.
"I think we'll win," she said, noting that several of her friends had camped outside Fenway Park in an attempt to get World Series tickets this week. "I think it's worth it. They seemed pretty excited."
The excitement can also be felt at some of Andover's downtown bars and restaurants, despite the common belief that major sporting events can hurt sales, according to Sam Petrovich, owner of Dylan's Bar and Grill on Park Street.
"Normally it does not help the restaurant business, but we have been very, very busy the nights they've been on," said Petrovich. "It's fun to watch it with your friends and it's been a good time."
Playoff fever has even penetrated town hall, where Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski predicted the Red Sox will prevail over the National League champion Rockies in five games.
"It's great entertainment," said Stapczynski. "Isn't everybody a fan when you get to the World Series?"
With Game 5 scheduled for Monday, Oct. 29, the potentially series-clinching contest would coincide with the Board of Selectmen's next scheduled meeting, which typically begins at 7 p.m.
"I don't want it to go to seven," said Stapczynski. "That will drive everybody nuts."
Andover resident Ernie Paicopolos, editor-in-chief of the Red Sox fan Web site fenwaynation.com, thinks Boston will pull out the series at home in six games.
"Appropriately enough, on Halloween night," he said.
Paicopolos, who founded fenwaynation.com in 2000, said Red Sox Nation could be stronger than ever this year.
"It just completely amazes me how widespread the interest in the Red Sox is," he said, noting that the cofounder of his Web site has followed the team from Uzbekistan for the last five years.
Paicopolos' site has prospered as interest in the team has surged; 27,000 people visited fenwaynation.com on Oct. 22, the day after Boston clinched the American League pennant. He was interviewed by a Japanese television crew in late August and expects to be featured in a story about the Red Sox this winter.
Though in Paicopolos' mind Red Sox Nation was forever changed by the 2004 World Series win, he still believes the club's fan base in New England and around the world is second to none in professional sports.
"We're never going to be the same as we were before 2004," said Paicopolos. "I think the core passion is still there. It's different, but it's still intense."

Copyright © 1999-2010 cnhi, inc.