The holiday season is too often a stressful season, nerves sent to the edge by decisions on presents and parties and food and hangovers. It’s no time for baseball to tauten the tension even more by making fans anxious about which free agent will go where, what trade may or may not be made. Which makes Sox fandom perfect, as we as a group watch others sweat out the Hot Stove League and join followers of the Pirates and A’s and Rockies, sitting calmly in the bleachers of the Malfunctioning Microwave Association.
I’m just back in Chicago from Los Angeles, where axons were being axed as Dodgers fans fretted over whether their team would end up signing Shohei Ohtani.