I really have been a Red Sox fan for as long as I can remember.

August 18th, 1967.  I was 4 years old, but I remember when Tony C got hit in the eye with that pitch.  I remember my sister sobbing as she read the Sports Illustrated article over and over again.  She was NINE and man, did she LOVE Tony C.

(I also remember our Grandmother telling her she was " Man Crazy" and she'd "be a Grandmother before she was 16"  HA HA  But that's another story!)

I remember a game when all three Conigliaro Boys... Tony, Billy and Richie played the outfield for the Sox.

I remember my Father yelling at the TV... and I used to get so angry that come football season, my Dad would switch from the Red Sox to the Patriots.  Now I realize it was because the Sox had broken his heart so many times, he stopped watching at the end of the season.

(And don't get me wrong, he yelled at the TV when the Pats played, too.  Steve Grogan did a commercial for Ford, I think, where they popped the trunk and he climbed out.   My Dad used to yell... "Someone needs to put that sonovabi&*h back in the trunk!" )

I remember Bernie Carbo's Home Run and Pudge Fisk waving his ball inside the foul pole and over the fence.

I remember my Mom thinking Yaz was the hottest thing since sliced bread.

I remember HATING Pete Rose and Johnny Bench and the entire Cincinnati Reds team. 

I remember feeling so guilty when Thurmon Munson died in that plane crash because I had wished untold bad things on him and the entire Yankee organization.

I remember when Roger was a good guy and Calvin Schiraldi was his closer.  I remember the string of "K" 's that just grew...  inning, after inning, after inning.

I remember Eck starting the All Star Game.

I remember when Billy Buckner, in shame and anguish, tried to throw himself in front of a bus, but fortunately it went right between his legs, JUST LIKE THE BALL HAD!!!  

(And what can we expect but BAD KHARMA from the man they traded Eck for?? *sniff*gulp*sob*!!!)

I cried when I read reports of Billy Buck throwing out the first pitch this year! :0)  Great choice!

I was stunned when I opened the paper to read Nomar had been traded.

In 2004, I opened my Asti Spumanti in the 7th inning of game 4 and drank the entire bottle alone, only to wake my then 7 year old son up at midnight to watch the last at bat.  It was, after all, History in the making.

I cried like a fool thinking of my Dad and all the years he kept the faith and never saw them win. He died of lung cancer in 1992.  But I knew he was smiling that night.

I went to two games in 2005 and have been once so far this year. But I'll be back.  I love Fenway Park.  With all it's glorious noises and smells and memories and ghosts.  It is hallowed ground to me.

Some people have The Sistine Chapel.... I have Fenway Park!

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