Boston gets a little help from their friends
Sporting world shows strong bonds as competing teams demonstrate support for embattled city
BOSTON — So long, Boston. I arrived on Sunday to cover a hockey game that got derailed, then stuck around to marvel as one of America’s great cities picked up the pieces from a bombing attack at the 117th Boston Marathon.
My affinity with this city runs deep. In the summer of 1967, I was an impressionable child when Carl Yastrzemski carried the Boston Red Sox to their “Impossible Dream” pennant and World Series. Yaz was no less heroic for the fact the Sox lost that series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Now, the fan in me died a long time ago, a necessary hazard of the sports writing trade, but I have always kept an eye on the Sox and was delighted for the residents of Sox Nation when they finally celebrated a championship in 2004. My love affair with the city lingers.
What’s not to love about a wonderful walking city, a sports town flying the banners of the Sox, Bruins, Celtics and Patriots? With each of these teams there is enough history of success, and excess, to stir passions for and against.
Which is why one of the most touching developments since the bomb attack was the support from rival sporting camps.
I’ve lived through enough YankeesSox wars ( where were you when Pedro shoved Zimmer to the ground?) to know how deep the fissure runs between New York and Boston.
So, that took some doing, to post the Sox and Yanks emblems together at Yankee Stadium Tuesday night, with the words “United We Stand” between the logos. And that wasn’t the end of it. During the ball game between the Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks, New York tipped its cap to Beantown by playing Sweet Caroline, the Neil Diamond ballad traditionally played during the seventh- inning stretch at Fenway Park.
Yeah, but Yankees fans “really weren’t into it,” someone tweeted. Of course not, compassion has its limits. The point is that Boston was there for New York in 2001 and New York is there for Boston today. We are all “united” against madness.
The games people play promote the healing. Tell me you didn’t get goosebumps from the playground images of the past 24 hours: The 617 Boston Strong jersey hanging in the Red Sox dugout in Cleveland ( 617 is the Boston area code), or the “Pray For Boston” written in marker on the skates of Keith Aucoin of the New York Islanders. Aucoin is from Waltham, Mass.
Canadians are helping out, including the dozens of runners I met this week, vowing to return and make the 2014 Boston Marathon special, commemorative, safe.
Before I left on Wednesday, I called Andrew Scholte, my new favourite chemist.
Scholte is a Vancouver native, but has lived in Boston for seven years. He did his PhD studies in Alberta ( doesn’t everyone?) and earned a national fellowship from the Canadian government. He chose to work in drug research for a Boston- based company.
He has ties to the Canadian consulate here and that connection has led him to be a bit of a champion for expats in the Boston area.
Scholte heads a social club, a Boston- Canadian meet- up group that includes runners and — what else? — hockey fans. During the Vancouver Olympics, Scholte’s group packed some 300- strong into the Greatest Bar near TD Garden to watch the hockey gold medal final between Canada and the U. S. Scholte also happens to be a marathoner. He has run Boston five times and was part of the pack halted at the 25.5- mile mark when the bombs went off. Instantly, small acts of kindness were taking place, he says.
As they stood there, waiting an hour or so to find out the race would not be completed, the runners grew chilled in a cool breeze. Spectators and neighbours brought them blankets, jackets, water, Gatorade. Scholte had his phone with him, so he had learned via Twitter why the race was stopped.
Tuesday evening, a local running group to which Scholte belongs raised $ 4,000 through a charity run in support of marathon victims. There is talk of Boston College organizing a mass walk covering the final five miles of the Marathon course, symbolically completing a trek that some 4,000 runners were unable to due to the tragedy. The college hopes to do it soon, but right now may be too soon.
When it happens, if it happens, consider it a peaceful step by the fellowship that is the runners’ world.
“I think we will rebound,” Scholte said, referring to both the greater community and running community. “We’ll pull together and work through this.”
Echoing the words of the Boston Athletic Association’s executive director, Scholte has no doubt the 2014 marathon will take place, honouring the fallen and celebrating the human spirit.
Meanwhile, there is work to be done, scars to heal. In a small way, sports will play a part in getting life back to something approaching normal.
Take care until we meet again, Boston.
In a Senators- Bruins playoff series, perhaps?