I'm not quite sure when it started. Perhaps it was empathy stemmed over from the year of my birth.
I was born in the midst of the Big Red Machine, in December 1975, between back-to-back World Championships. Just two months before I was born, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Boston Red Sox in seven games.
But it probably started with those Saturday baseball games on television when I was a kid. It was the only time I had the opportunity to see this bizarre phenomenon known as the American League— teams like the Yankees, Tigers, White Sox, and Royals. But the one I enjoyed the most played in a stadium with a big green wall in left field. That was the team I liked the best. So in the mid-eighties, I chose my American league team: the Boston Red Sox.
The recent futility of my hometown club led me to live and die with the Sox. I remember Buckner losing the ball in the five-hole. I remember Clemens getting ejected from the ALCS in 1990. I remember when Mo Vaughn was mashing and Pedro Martinez was menacing. I remember staying up to watch the 11th inning of game 7 of the ALCS when former-Red Aaron Boone took Tim Wakefield yard.
But watching the Red Sox win to championships in four years has been enjoyable. True, not as enjoyable as it would be if the Reds would win another, but fun nevertheless. But the recent run of championships has taken a little bit off of my relationship with the team. They used to be underdogs. Now they're poised to become a dynasty. It's just different.
So as the Red Sox come to town for the first time since the year of my birth, you'd think I'd be lined up to get tickets [ironically, even though the Reds sold these tickets like it was the greatest sporting event in Cincinnati history, you can walk up and purchase them for any game this weekend]. But, as of now, I'm not going to any of the three games. Sure, it's the match-up of my two favorite teams, but it's not worth the premium price to me. The Reds are reeling and the Red Sox are cruising. Plus, the games will be on television, so I won't have to miss a play
Here's to hoping that a little love will come the Reds way so that the next time these teams face-off it'll be in a World Series [which the Reds will win].
UPDATE
Two more things:
1) I forgot to mention that the first manager of the Red Sox came from the RedLegs. I believe that they weren't the Red Sox until that manager renamed the team the American League Red Stockings, later the Red Sox. Additionally, I thing the Reds later dropped the "Stockings" because it had German connotations,
2) Of course, wouldn't you know it that I received a call an hour after originally posting this offering me a ticket to tonight's game. I ended up going and was proud that the crowd, while filled with Sox fans, was mostly for the Reds. And they ending up winning to boot. Thanks, Tye and Andrea.