#BostonStrong

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When the Red Sox won the World Series last year, it felt like a catharsis for a city (and region) after the horrible events that marred the 2013 Boston Marathon. When we look back on the 2013 World Champions, with their rallying cry of "Boston Strong," they will be inexorably tied to the tragic events of April 15th.

Any Red Sox fan would gladly trade that victory back to have Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard, Lu Lingzi, and Sean Collier back with us... but as that wasn't an option, having an entire team, city, and country rallying together was incredibly moving to behold.

With this year's race underway, the city of Boston is once again showing its strength and resilience. We've seen thousands of tributes to the city over the last week, but none of them can come close to meaning what the simple running of this race means.

The Boston Marathon is the oldest annual marathon in the world, and the most prestigious. People from all over the globe come to measure themselves against history, Heartbreak Hill, and one another. They run for many different motivations, but this year is different - for runners, spectators, and displaced Bostonians the world over.

As Boston Globe writer Chad Finn put it last April, "Boston isn't a city, it's a family." Today, that family will run, cheer, and finally cry tears of joy rather than loss.

Boston's True Heroes

There was a moment at this Saturday's World Series parade when the crowd spontaneously began to cheer, more than half an hour before the first duckboat appeared.

At first I thought it was simply an outburst of excitement. After all, there were people who had been waiting for more than five hours by 10am, so the anticipation was palpable.

But then I caught a glimpse of this guy, through the crowd:

©Kayla Chadwick 2013

You could argue that a crowd as amped up as these Red Sox fans would cheer for anything, but I disagree. The crowd was going wild for Boston's finest, their men and women in blue.

Boston has always had a love-hate relationship with its police force. We complain about them to our fellow Bostonians, but will unleash our accented wrath on any interloper who dares to badmouth the BPD.

This past Patriot's Day, we witnessed the incredible bravery and selflessness of the Boston Police and Fire Departments. After the terrible events of that April 15th, three of Boston's finest were immortalized on one of the most emotionally charged Sports Illustrated covers in my memory.

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Those same three officers, Javier Pagan, Rachel McGuire, and Kevin McGill, are featured on this week's cover, with Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz.

Boston is no stranger to hyperbole when describing its athletes: we call them bosses, legends, heroes. But that fateful day this April, we were jarringly reminded of who the real heroes are.

Sure, the Red Sox inspired and united the city in one of its darkest hours - but the true heroes of the Boston Marathon Bombing (police officers, firefighters, runners, and bystanders) inspired the Red Sox. 

The Red Sox put a grieving city on their backs, and went on an absolute rampage through Major League Baseball - refusing to let up until the World Series trophy was in Boston where it belonged.

It seemed fitting that Red Sox fans cheered their police officers even before their favorite team. Without the Boston Police Department, sporting events in Beantown would feel a lot less secure.

Love that Dirty Water

I got up early this morning to depart on a trip to see friends in Washington, DC, and New York City. I sprung for a cab to South Station, because I had no idea what the newly "heightened security" would do to the commuting time on the T - though I was fairly certain that I would have been stopped and my two meticulously packed bags searched and disheveled.

I left my apartment just a little bit before 9am, and was struck by how empty the streets seemed for a weekday morning, though certainly part of that is due to school vacation week and the corresponding lack of school buses. When I walked up the stairs at South Station and saw two members of the transit police accompanied by two National Guard members in fatigues carrying semi-automatic weapons, I gasped.

It did not make me feel safer. You can say that the good guy with the gun is the only answer to the bad guy with the gun all you want, but when the proverbial bad guy has explosives, all the good guys with guns in the world won't make me feel better.

There were marathoners and their families in line with me, all looking tired but smiling. They were wearing their 2013 Boston Marathon jackets, and naturally the people around them asked questions about yesterday's events. One man had finished in three hours and fifteen minutes, and admitted to being disappointed with his time, given the "perfect maraton weather" that we experienced yesterday.

The conversation had a lighthearted, joking quality - sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. Passengers who had been watching along the route chimed in about their confusion and eventual shocked and dismayed enlightenment. One woman had been across the street from the second blast in a restaurant, and emphasized the disbelief she felt, but commented jocularly about her ability to bond with other patrons during the stressful time.

The talk turned back to the marathon, to Patriot's Day, and to what this tragedy will mean for the future of the event and the city. Naturally, people turned to the runners in line to ask them for their thoughts: "Will you run the Boston Marathon again?"

The man who was disappointed with his 3.15 finish turned around, the smile he had been sharing with his son (also a finisher) vanished as a look of utmost seriousness took over his face, "Next year," he promised.

That was about when the bus arrived. I climbed on, set my iTunes library to shuffle, and listened with disbelief and wonder as Dirty Water came through my headphones and accompanied my departure from the city.

The feeling that song gave me was just like the feeling that I get when I hear it at Fenway Park after a Red Sox win. It's a feeling of optimism, of joy, of determination. Boston might never be the same after yesterday's events, but Bostonians are notoriously tough. We'll get though this together.

Hope after the Boston Marathon

This morning, I sat down to watch the Red Sox play the Rays in the only morning game in baseball. I was excited at the walk-off win, and resolved to blog about it later.

That feels like a lifetime ago. I don't have much to say about the tragic events of today, except that it's heartening that so many people rushed to help. Marathon finishers continued running to Mass General to give blood. People opening their homes to stranded runners. People giving so much blood that the Red Cross has announced that they've got all they need and more (they encourage people to make an appointment to give in the next week so that there will be donors when supply has somewhat tapered off).

Patriot's Day will never be the same. But Boston is resilient. It's already difficult to get a spot in the Boston Marathon, and I'm confident that next year's race will be more popular than ever. This horrible tragedy will not break us. Boston is a city largely defined by its sports - indeed, there was significant twitter chatter encouraging the Bruins to call off their evening game (they did). Today, one of our most famous and historic athletic events was brutally defiled, but the participants and spectators banded together.

Tomorrow the citizens of Boston will wake up, put on a brave face, and try to pick up their lives where they were before the holiday, but it won't be the same. Our illusions of safety, however flimsy, have evaporated - but if there's one heartening thing to take away from today's events, it is that though one evil person or group tried to splinter the city and it's people into a million pieces, thousands of us have come together in acts of kindness and hope.

Five-minute Musings (Live from Buenos Aires!)

The Red Sox won again yesterday afternoon, and slowly but surely seem to be emerging from their funk.  Though the team is just 6-11, 4.5 games behind the firs-place Yankees, they seem to be coming to life.  So since I'm sitting in class on a day when the entire country of Argentina is on holiday (again, BEST STUDENT EVER), I'll leave you with five semi-related points:

1. Clay Buchholz notched his first win of the season.  Sadly, I forgot to put him in my fantasy league starting roster for yesterday, so I didn't profit from his fortune.  I was unable to catch the beginning of the game, so by the time I tuned in Clay was out, but from what I hear he was pretty good until the sixth inning, when he loaded the bases with one out, which leads us to...

2. Daniel Bard: The Stopper.  Saves are a wildly overrated statistic.  Without Bard's brilliance in the sixth and seventh innings yesterday, Jonathan Papelbon would not have had the chance to give us all heart palpitations getting the save.  Bard came in with the go-ahead run at the plate and one out - a much more high-pressure situation than the one Jonathan Papelbon dealt with (bases empty, 3-run lead, no outs).  Bard is clearly capable of being poised under pressure, and I'm glad he's on our side.

3. Jed Lowrie is a champion.  The 27-year-old is demanding that terry Francona find a way to put him into the lineup every day, with his .462 batting average, 3 homers, and 11 RBIs in just 13 games. The beauty of Lowrie is that he can play all four infield positions (though only 19 innings in his career at first base), and so Tito can utilize him at a variety of positions to get his potent bat in the lineup.  Clearly, this crazy hot streak can't continue, but if Lowrie continues to produce better than Scutaro, something's gotta give, so stay tuned for that.

4. Despite struggles, the Red Sox CAN be successful against lefties.  Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez is a southpaw, and yet the Sox managed to score four runs off of him.  Notable lefthanded hitter David Ortiz was sitting, though part of that was the shuffling required to get red-hot Lowrie into the game (Youkilis DHed, Lowrie played at third).  However, lefties Carl Crawford, JD Drew, Adrian Gonzalez, and Jacoby Ellsbury were in the lineup, and they managed three hits and two RBIs between them. However...

5. ...Looking ahead, the Sox have a lot of right-handed opponents.  The Angels have four right-handed starters on the docket for this weekend, according to the match-ups just posted on Boston.com's extra bases Blog, and the Sox have Josh Beckett, John Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and John Lackey ready to go.  With the wealth of good left-handed batters on the Sox' roster, this weekend could be a slugfest - hopefully our pitchers can build off the success they had during the last turn through the rotation.

I see good things ahead for the Red Sox.  Sadly, I won't be watching much, as I'm still an hour ahead of Eastern Standard time, so today's and tomorrow's games won't end until after 2am for me... Hopefully Saturday and Sunday will find me watching some baseball.

Obligatory Patriots Day Post

Boston Marathon, morning baseball, and playoff basketball/hockey... this day has to be one of the best sports days ever.  If the Bruins and Celtics can pull out wins tonight (both are within the realm of possibility as I write this), this will be the perfect day, beyond the fact that I missed the end of the Red Sox game because I decided that since college costs more than $50K a year, I should actually attend my 1:15 class.  When I left the Sox were holding onto a 3-1 lead, Masterson had just left, and the last thing I watched before I ran out the door was Manny Delcarmen induce that double play to escape the sixth inning.

I kept up with the score via my phone (you can text "red sox score" to GOOGLE [466453] and they instantaneously send you the score), and by the time I reached the classroom, the score was 6-1.  By the time the lecture was underway, it was already 12-1.  I will admit to feeling some resentment towards my professor for making me miss the exciting part of the game... though he mentioned at the beginning of class that he wanted to be watching, too.

That's all I have for today, at least until the hockey and basketball games are over... I love being a Boston Fan.