It’s important to enjoy the championship ride
It was somewhere in the midst of the Red Sox’ 2018 World Series run that my great colleague Peter Abraham turned my way, laughed, and shook his head.
“Hell of a start you’ve had at the Globe,” he said, grinning as the Los Angeles sun guided our rental car from a Pasadena hotel to Dodger Stadium. “The Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Masters, playoffs, and now, the World Series.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I was hired in December 2017 as a general columnist after 20-plus years covering New York-area teams, landing into a Boston sports market at its peak. The Patriots were readying for yet another Super Bowl run, the Celtics and Bruins were heading toward the postseason, and of course, the Red Sox were soon to take the city on an unexpected joyride to a fourth World Series championship in 14 years. Sandwich it all around one professional first for me, covering the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and another professional favorite, a trip to Augusta to walk the most beautiful golf course in the country, and the memory of my first yearplus at the Globe is one of amazing story after amazing story.
No, my friend Pete wasn’t wrong. And, even luckier for me, Boston wasn’t finished.
Because not long after the Red Sox finished off the Dodgers with a Game 5 win at Chavez Ravine, the Patriots were back in the playoffs, ultimately erasing the disappointment of the February 2018 loss to the Eagles by returning a year later to beat the Rams for the franchise’s sixth Super Bowl win. They were heady days, putting Boston at the center of the sports universe, simultaneous title-holders in the NFL and MLB and title contenders in the NBA and NHL. New England drew the envy (or ire) of every sports city in the nation.
Feels like yesterday, or a lifetime ago.
As the Red Sox struggle into spring training and the Patriots undergo a rebuild, sports comes ’round again to remind us of so many of life’s lessons. If the games revolve primarily around the winners and losers, the champions and busts, the journeys along the way teach so much more — from the value of teamwork to hard work, the magic that happens at the intersection of preparation and opportunity, the joyous triumph of underdogs or top dogs alike.
And in this case, about how quickly it all goes by, and how important it is to enjoy each ride as it happens because you never know when it will be over.
Just look at those Red Sox and Patriots now. Spring training has opened with the Sox already cast as also-rans, tightened purse strings and dormant deal-making reducing the once-mighty champions to infield dust. Don’t just ask us, their own players past and present have called out the lack of spending, a bad look when fan favorites such as Dustin Pedroia and Rafael Devers are fanning the frustration with management. No matter how many times Sam Kennedy insists otherwise, this is a team not serious about competing.
Yet that’s nothing compared to the wholesale changes in Foxborough, where the end of the Bill Belichick era and the start of the Jerod Mayo tenure are as seismic a shift as this sports market has experienced. Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory is barely cold, but the NFL schedule churns on unabated. As the annual scouting combine gets underway this coming week, interest in New England is higher than ever. Given the Patriots’ possession of the No. 3 overall draft pick and the hope it will deliver the next franchise quarterback, memories of Tom Brady are pushed further into the distance, behind Cam Newton, or Brian Hoyer, or Mac Jones, or Bailey Zappe, or whomever comes next.
Meanwhile, the local championship hopes shift squarely to the Celtics and Bruins, the former favorites to win it all, the latter back in contention after last season’s Presidents’ Trophy-to-firstround-playoff flameout. In my time at the Globe, the two franchises have been consistent contenders but unable to clear the championship hurdle. Will their time come?
It wasn’t long after I started that Boston had a chance to make history as the first city to hold four major sports titles simultaneously.
Alas, the Celtics, next up after the Patriots beat the Rams, lost to the
Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals in April. Two months later, the Bruins’ playoff joyride ended in Stanley Cup heartbreak, a Game 7 loss to the Blues made worse by coming on TD Garden ice.
This could be the year for either team, and for the Celtics, who’ve been to four Eastern Conference finals and one NBA Finals since 2018, nothing short of the franchise’s 18th title is acceptable.
Wasn’t so long ago that titles around here felt inevitable.
What a stretch I landed into. I covered only the final few years of Brady’s career, but they included one heroic Super Bowl performance in a loss, one rather pedestrian one in the most recent Patriots Super Bowl win, one sad playoff exit, and one inevitable departure to greener Tampa Bay pastures. Across that span, from the aerial duel with the Eagles to the defensive trenches against the Rams, I watched so much greatness, such as the gallant AFC divisional playoff win over the Chargers, when Rob Gronkowski’s one catch paled in comparison to his heroic work as a blocker.
I watched a World Series anchored by MVP Mookie Betts, rescued by a Chris Sale dugout outburst, mesmerized by a Nate Eovaldi relief appearance, fueled by a Steve Pearce Hollywood story, and crowned by a David Price redemption arc. I’d seen the Bruins win a Game 7 first-round playoff game against the Maple Leafs by scoring four third-period goals, seen Jayson Tatum flash the stardom that carries the Celtics to this day. I would watch Patrick Reed grumble his way to one Masters title and a year later, stand in the loudest crowd of my life as Tiger Woods won his fifth.
Sports. It never stops delivering, but it never stops moving forward. Wherever the Boston teams go from here, they more than delivered for me. Feels like yesterday, or a lifetime ago. Enjoy it while it happens.