Sad day for Red Sox nation

Today was a sad day for Red Sox fans. Their beloved team had lost yesterday night the final game against Tampa Bay and the American League Champion title goes this year to the Rays.

I'm still not used to the extent to which people here root for their team, whether it's Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins or Celtics. Yes, we do have team sport in Europe, too and yes, people root for their local soccer team. Still, it's different.

Here in Massachusetts, most people seem to own something Red Sox and/ or Patriots related and they even wear their jerseys or t-shirts to their workplace and to college. During play-off-season almost all of my students, whether young or middle-aged, male or female, displayed proudly their Red Sox loyalty. (Now, after the defeat, I'm curious how many students will wear Red Sox stuff tomorrow in class.)

But to get the real feel for true Red Sox fans, one need to be among them when the team plays; either at Fenway, the Sox's ballpark or in one of the sport bars around Fenway. My husband and I went Saturday night for the first time to such a bar. The team played game 6 of the play-off series against the Rays in Florida and the Rays were leading 3:2.

First, we were surprised about the long lines at the entrance of most sport bars. For us, it was way too cold to wait for an hour outside in line, hoping that enough people would leave so that we could get in. Close to giving up, we finally found a bar a bit further away from Fenway. No lines, inside however already crowded. The game had already started and loud cheers greeted us. Beckett had just struck someone out.

Watching a game among 200 hundred excited, loudly cheering and beer drinking fans is totally different than watching it at home. For me - here comes the true psychologist- observing the crowd was more interesting than the game. Some seemed to be oblivious to their surroundings, and others used the occasion to meet other people (favorably someone of the opposite gender).It was a fun experience for us and we had a good evening.