Today I read an article in the Boston Globe, and it brought on Six Degrees of Recollection.

1. In 1972, when my family moved from Colorado to New York, I was a 9-year old suddenly plunged into a strange, passionate argument: “Yankees or Mets?” Just to be difficult (and since much of my extended family are New Englanders), I went with a dark horse and threw my support behind… the Red Sox! Three years later, I was rewarded when the Sox drafted Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, and together with Yaz and Dewey and Luis and the Spaceman they came THIS CLOSE to winning the ’75 Series. (Drat you, Ed Armbrister.)
2. Things turned for the worse in ’78, when the Sox suffered a late-season collapse and lost in a one-game playoff to the Yankees. That September was the beginning of my sophomore year, and I spent it, lonely and bereft, being heckled mercilessly down the hallways of Byram Hills High by all my pinstriped buddies. (Double-drat you, Bucky Dent.)
3. Soon after that, my baseball jones faded and was replaced by lax love, and so thereafter as a pseudo-fan I was spared some of the pain of ’86, and I can’t say I deserve the joy I felt witnessing the miracle of ’04. (I actually watched the turning point, Game 4 against those Yanks, on a television in Maine.)
4. Through it all I’ve kept a warm spot in my heart for Beantown. And so, in ’12, when my client Tyco Security asked us to produce a video case study about one of their latest installations in the city, I went with professional pride and personal joy. And it turned out to be a great cause: the security system was being installed at Dana Farber Cancer Center’s newest addition, a place called The Yawkey Center. We were very happy to spread the good word about this wonderful place. (Though that Yawkey name meant nothing to me at the time.)
5. And then came my epic Sawx moment. In ’14, Tyco called us back to do a second video. At a certain dilapidated 100-year old baseball stadium in town that had recently gone through a complete upgrade, with all sorts of cool new features, and a state-of-the-art security system. We grabbed our cameras. Drove on up 95. Met the client. Headed over to the stadium. And spent one magical day exploring, filming, and celebrating the most beloved park in baseball. (You can see our salute to Fenway on our website at http://quicksilverhg.com/tyco.php, click on the Documentary.)
6. And then I read that article and I learned a bunch of things I never knew. Turns out the team’s owner from ’33 into the ’70’s was a guy named Tom Yawkey, He was a polarizing figure: on the one hand he was well-liked by the other owners and was always generous to the city of Boston, but on the other hand he was branded a racist by Jackie Robinson, as the Sox were the last team in the league to hire black athletes. This has always rankled the current owner John Henry, who requested that the street to the left of Fenway, which has been named Yawkey Way since the owner’s death in ’77, revert back to its original name. On Thursday, Boston’s Public Improvement Commission approved the request. (The street will be known once again as Jersey Street; how’d they know I live here?).

Suddenly I realized how little I actually knew about a team I once loved so dearly.  But more importantly, how much fun it is to be nine years old, and arguing about baseball with your friends. And it all came flooding back…

(Thank you Bernie. Thank you Pudge.)