Hometown Team

It seems like as good a time as ever to talk about a big part of my
life: Boston sports teams. Despite being 8000 miles away, I still have
an affinity for the Red Sox. You might think I have better things to
do than vicariously follow a sports team, but you would be mistaken.
And this seems like a particularly auspicious time to write about
them, as you may well know better than me.

Unfortunately I have not found a place to watch games on TV, and
though the satellite feed may well exist, most of the start times are
at around 3:00am for me. And, I really haven't even been able to
follow them that closely on the internet, just the occasional
boston.com article. However, despite this lack of traditional bo-sox
related media outlets, I have had some great sox related experiences
though I realize not everyone will relate. Currently there is a couple
adopting a child from Newburyport, and when the husband (Brett) was on
the phone with his mother the other night and I asked about the game,
I realized that they might not be the biggest fans.

One of my most prized moments is when I can occasionally catch a
highlight or two on the BBC or Aljazeera. While they spend the
majority of their Sport time on soccer (By the way, the stations are
broadcast out of Dubai, but I have been asked an inordinate amount of
times which English Premier League team I support), cricket,
car/motorcycle racing and the like, if I am really lucky there will be
a quick re-cap of a playoff game or two. But the best part is
listening to the Saudi sportscaster in a British accent say, "Dustin
Pedroia batted two runs and Boston won the match." The Nation.

Just on Thursday I had a Coming to America-esque experience at a
starbucks colored coffee shop. I was in the bathroom and I heard this
Ethiopian looking guy speaking perfect English to his little brother.
When I went to wash my hands I saw that he was wearing a Red Sox hat,
so I said something like "go sox", and we proceeded to have a ten
minute conversation about Mike Lowell's hip and the bullpen before
Papelbon etc. It turned out that he was born in Ethiopia but he grew
up in Boston and was here visiting family. We walked out of the
bathroom both happy to have had some to the hometown team.

Go Sox