We Were Red Sox Fans in Yankee Territory...
Michael Stewart. Getty Images.My oldest son graduated high school in 2007 and chose to attend Bard College, a private liberal arts school in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, in the town of Red Hook, in New York State.
I remember dropping him off there for the first time. He was the first of our three boys to leave the house, and my wife and I were pretty nervous about it. I knew Bard was an avant-garde school, that Bob Dylan had spent time living on campus with his girlfriend, and that his song “Subterranean Homesick Blues” referred to the annual Bard drug raids by local cops. The line in the song, “The pump don’t work/Cause the vandals stole the handles,” refers to a specific incident at Bard and an old water pump just off campus.
Chevy Chase transferred to Bard, where he played drums in a jazz group called Leather Canary, which also featured Chase's classmates Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who met at Bard and later formed Steely Dan.
The song "My Old School" is about being busted for marijuana while attending Bard. Fagen, Becker, and Fagen’s girlfriend, Dorothy White, were all handcuffed and arrested during that raid.
In 2006, journalist Rob Brunner wrote, "It was around 5 a.m., a Thursday in May 1969, when a swarm of sheriff’s deputies descended on Bard, sweeping through dorms and off-campus residences, including this small house, where Fagen lived with a roommate."
The lyrics tell a story of Fagan's bitterness towards the school and local police. "I was smoking with the boys upstairs when I heard about the whole affair." And, "California tumbles into the sea, that'll be the day I go back to Annandale." Further rubbing it in with, " And I'm never going back to my old school."
Fagan would later say of the lyrics, ”I don’t know how serious we were [about never returning], but at the time, both of us were very pissed off at the school, that’s for sure.”
I'm not sure if that history influenced my son's decision to choose Bard, but there we were, carrying his stuff up the narrow stairway to the third floor of Tewksbury Hall.
I remember seeing lots of Goth kids on campus wearing black skinny jeans, chain-smoking, and with tattoos and body piercings, some on their heavily made-up faces. I couldn't help wisecracking. "I feel bad for these kids…"
My son asked, "Why?"
"What the fuck are they gonna wear on Halloween?"
He didn't appreciate the humor…
By the end of October, we were back at Bard for parents' weekend. The Red Sox were in the World Series, facing the Rockies. They were up in the series 3-0 and looking to sweep. Dylan and I figured we could go just about anywhere to watch the game. Dylan was 14, a freshman in high school, and a big Red Sox fan. My other two boys, not so much.
We were staying at a Holiday Inn, and only a couple of channels on the TV came in. So we went into the hotel lounge, where there was better reception, hoping to sit at the bar, eat, and watch the game. But the bartender was a staunch Yankee fan, and even after pleading our case, he refused to put on the game. I couldn't believe it. The hatred ran deeper than I thought.
We headed downtown and went into a Bar & Grill, and that bartender had the same attitude: "No Red Sox on my TV!"
I drove back to the hotel, figuring we'd have to listen to the game on the radio in my plumbing van (crew van with two rows of seats), but the reception in the hotel parking lot was horrible, and we couldn't get the game. One of the hotel staff told us to head up a certain road and follow it up the mountain to the top. There, we'd find a small convenience store open till midnight, where we'd get good radio reception and could park and listen to the game.
We drove to the top of the mountain, and low and behold, there was a parking lot outside a well-lit convenience store. It was the perfect spot to listen to game 4 of the World Series. The reception was great.
Dylan and I went inside and loaded up on snacks and soda before the game started. I told the woman behind the register that we were from Massachusetts and would be listening to the World Series in the plumbing van in the parking lot so she wouldn't call the cops. She was okay with it.
It was just like being at the ball game, except we were in a plumbing van listening to the game on a car radio while staring into the large glass window of a neighborhood convenience store.
Ellsbury led off the game with a double, went to third on a Pedroia ground out, and scored on a base hit by Ortiz. 1-0 Sox. We were going nuts!
Advertisement
Mike Lowel led off the fifth with a double to left and scored on a single to right by Jason Varitek. 2-0 Sox! Dylan and I were high-fiving each other and chanting, "Sweep! Sweep!"
That's when we had to use the bathroom. I asked the woman behind the register if there was one we could use. She broke the rules and let us use one marked Employee Bathroom. We bought more snacks and headed back to the van for more baseball…
Jon Lester went 5.2 scoreless, giving up just three hits. Manny Delcarmen got the final out in the sixth.
The Sox scored again in the seventh on a Lowell solo job off Rockie's starter, Aaron Cook, who manager Clint Hurdle immediately pulled in favor of lefthander Jeremy Affeldt. 3-0 Sox!
Despite being just the two of us, we decided to do the Wave and duplicate the ballpark experience. It was quick, went down without a hitch, and we laughed our asses off! We did it a few times…
Brad Haufe led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run off Delcarmen, making it 3-1. Delcarmen got one out before giving up a single to Cory Sullivan. Tito Francona removed Delcarmen in favor of Mike Timlin, who struck out the next two batters swinging.
Tito pinch-hit a red-hot Bobby Kielty for Timlin in the eighth, and he delivered a leadoff home run off lefthander Brian Fuentes. Sox! 4-1 Sox! Dylan and I could taste it.
Hideki Okajima got one out in the bottom of the eighth before giving up a single to Todd Helton. Then Garrett Atkins went deep, tightening up the score at 4-3. Dylan and I were going crazy. We knew the Sox had a three-game lead in the series, but we didn't want to let Colorado back in. The Sox fell behind the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS 3-0, but came back to win the series. We didn't want to take any chances…
Neither did Tito. He brought in his closer, Jonathan Papelbon, asking him to get five outs. Pap delivered in the eighth, getting two outs to end the inning.
It may have been early in Colorado, but it was getting late in New York (there's a two-hour difference), and I had to keep Dylan from nodding off. I didn't want him to miss the game.
The Sox went 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth, leaving it all up to Papelbon…
Pap got Yorvit Torreabela to ground out and Jamey Carroll to line out to left. Then he flat-out overpowered Seth Smith and got him swinging for the final out. World Series Champs again!
In the end, the parking was free, the snacks were plentiful, and there was a clean bathroom.
Listening to game four on a car radio with my son, in a plumbing van, on a mountain top, outside a 24-hour convenience store, sweeping the Rockies, and winning the World Series while parked in Yankee Territory—FUCKING PRICELESS!