Believe, Why Not Us

I am a huge, huge baseball fan. Have I mentioned that? Hub and I have a dream of going to all 30 MLB parks. More accurately, we plan on seeing all 30 MLB teams' home fields- 2 teams have new parks since we've been to them. I can't keep going back! So far we've done: Yankees, Mets (only me), Orioles, Nationals, Phillies (only me), Braves, Rays, Marlins, Angles, Padres and Dodgers. And the Red Sox of course. My team.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox asked the question:

The answer to that question was "Why not indeed". It didn't come easily: they had years of struggle. Near misses (1986, 2003) dismal failures (Last in the division in 1992, 33 games back in 1961). Still they tried, year after year. Fans too stuck it out, going to Fenway park (now 101 years old!) in the April cold, the August swelter and the seemingly cursed October. An entire generation was born and nearly died out without ever seeing a championship. But in 2004 they asked us fans to "Believe", and we did.

This is no small thing, this "Believe" request, it was just a year after a historically exciting upsetting series with the Yankees in the league series (the series of games before the Wold Series), which they lost in what was then called "typical Red Sox fashion". Game 7: A bad call, a poor managing decision and a blown late-game lead.  Then the Yankees get a home run from Aaron (insert choice word here) Boone.. ever hear of him other than this game? Nope, not Ray Boon, that's his grandfather, not Bob Boone either, he's Aaron's father. Are you now thinking of Bret Boone? That's his brother actually. All three are all-stars. Aaron... well he had one night that will live in infamy. An amazing, heartbreaking home run. Game over, series over, summer over.

But they asked us to Believe, and they made it back to Game 7 in New York against the Yankees on a cold October night.

And they won.

They won the next series as well, against the Rockies in 4 games. The World Series.

World Champions.

Honestly, this was one of the greatest moments of my life. (no hyperbole)

The team asked "Why Not Us" and then they answered "It will be us" and then, Dirty Water played on the final night of the World Series in bars all across New England: "it is us". They asked us to believe and an entire nation of Red Sox fans did, and then thanked the team for bringing that trophy home. You see, we wanted it so badly, but it was something we been raised to believe was our birthright to wish for, but to never actually experience. The morning of 10/28/2004, children brought copies of the morning newspaper to cemeteries, to read the news to their parents.

It was wonderful, but the memory of what went before can never be erased. 

That is what I hope our infertility journey ends like. The question to "Why not us" ends with "It is us" but that we don't forget the lonely, empty years. The bitter taste of tears on a cold October night.  It was those tears, that struggle that took something that would have been cool:

"Hey! I'm a Yankee fan and they won the World Series again, yay! Want to go the the parade, or do you think it will be too crowded" *

to something more than that.

 This is the greatest moment of my life. I wish Papa was here to see it.

This win inspired people to kiss and cry in the streets, to thank people who make millions of dollars a year.

Why not us, ladies?

*I am not trying to pick on Yankee fans I am actually.... friends.. with a few of them (That was hard to admit!)