An End of an Era

Last Saturday, I traveled the long, lonely road up to a T-Station outside of Boston and commuted into Fenway Station. Where I commenced a shortish walk (along the Fenway Trail, a walking path that did not exist the last time I departed from Fenway Station) to Fenway Park. Passing along the way a series of sculptures of numbers, commemorating all of the Red Sox players who have had their numbers retired by the Boston Red Sox - each with a little explanation of the player and their time with the Bosox. I was there to participate in a long tradition, the annual SOSH Bash, a tradition that began in 2003. Organized by one of the great women of Red Sox fandom, Cheri Giffin (aka BoSoxLady), who has organized every Red Sox Bash during this time. But this one was different. It was the final one she would be organizing. It was, as the title says, the end of an era.

SOSH - an acronym for the Sons of Sam Horn (which itself is a portmanteau of Son of Sam and former Red Sox great Sam Horn) - was (and is) a website/message board dedicated mostly to discussion surrounding the Boston Red Sox and the Red Sox organization (but also to other Boston area sports and to completely "off-topic" conversations). It was a message board that I was extremely active on in the 2000s - where I was first made a moderator of the Minor League forum and later was given greater powers as a Dope - a full administrator of the site. The site itself latter gave birth to two websites for longer form pieces, one on the NFL and also one on the Boston Red Sox organization itself (also named Sons of Sam Horn) - of which I contributed many, many pieces on a daily basis. It was a community which I considered myself a member in full standing until, I don't know, maybe 2018? Somehow, the passion of any long-term project tends to fade over time and in large part, I was burnt out.

The Bash itself started in 2003, the year of great hope until Grady Little's poor decisions led to the Red Sox losing to the hated New York Yankees in the playoffs. Which landed Little on the designated for assignment list with Terry Francona coming on board and Curt Schilling coming in via trade from Arizona (with - perhaps - an assist from SOSH where Schilling had come onto for "informal discussions" before agreeing to the trade). 2004 was my first Bash - an early May game with Curt Schilling (or as the board was calling him G38) on the mound. Schilling would pitch a complete game for the Sox in the 7-1 win - but the unlikely hero of that game was Pokey Reese, who hit an inside-the-park home run to give the Sox the lead at 2-1... and then in his next at-bat would give the Sox their final margin with a 2-run HR into the monster seats to culminate a 5-run inning. The 2004 Boston Red Sox would be the team to finally break their long World Series drought, avenging their loss to the Yankees in a ALCS (despite being down 3 games to 1) before sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

Every year after, I would make the pilgrimage up to Boston for every bash. A tradition usually included a pre-game bonanza the day prior to the actual bash, and a pre-game get together at a local watering hole (with food for all) before the actual bash. The bash, unlike most games I went to in my various trips to Fenway, was an event. An event where the game was a pretense for a meeting up of various - friends, acquaintances, colleagues (pick your favorite word) - where the game (at least at the moment) did not actually matter. It was a time to converse with people you knew from online discourse - and get to know them for more than just their baseball knowledge. Every year, I went to Boston to participate. Thrice, I went to Baltimore to participate in an off-site Bosox bash at Camden Yards - because the community was large and watching the Red Sox on the road was also fun. The final time I went to Baltimore, I took my wife as my guest, and she met many of the luminaries I spoke so well about. However, she never took up my offer to go to the main Bash at Fenway. She wanted that to be my time. Furthermore, she never tried to get me not to go. So, I continued to go until - I don't actually know. Perhaps 2017 or 2018. It just became harder to wrangle the time off to do this adventure. And, maybe, I was just becoming more of a homebody.

After my wife passed away in 2024, I decided that if I could make it happen, I would go to the Bash the next year. Which I did. It was great to see old friends and go back to Fenway after so many years. As I said in a Facebook post after that game - the Red Sox lost, I got soaking wet, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. It was a way to attempt to reconnect with a world that had gotten away from me. Of course, it was also bittersweet. Fenway holds a lot of memories for me - but none more present to me than proposing to my wife during her first Red Sox - Yankees game in 2011. A game where the Sox won to increase their lead over the Yankees for the AL East crown to 1.5 games. (We shall now ignore the fact that the Red Sox won only 7 games in September and missed the playoffs on the final game of the season). And, listening to Sweet Caroline - which is when I proposed to Dawn - put a lump in my throat like none other. For, it was just over a year after Dawn had passed.

This year, of course, was no-less bittersweet. Happening on almost the same exact day as in 2025 (and, to be fair, 2004) - on the same day the Kentucky Derby was held no less - and not only just after the 2-year anniversary of Dawn's passing, but only a few weeks after the loss of my father-in-law. It was yet another rainy day. It was yet another Red Sox loss. Furthermore, it was the last Bash. Or, at least the last one that will be organized by the self-proclaimed Bash Bitch. 

Of course, this is all to give Cheri her props for continuing on with the tradition of SOSH Bashes for as long as she has. For, it is not only the organizing of the event and getting the tickets. It is also fronting the costs of the tickets and then getting people to pay up to come to the event. An epic amount of work - work that has been harder as time has gone on as the community that made the event special has gotten disentangled from the actual message board from where it has started. Thus made the hoarding of the proverbial rats that much harder to actually do. 

Whether anyone else has the wherewithal to organize the event in the future remains to be seen. But if this is indeed the end - I will cherish the memories. The memories of the games. The memories of the bar hopping. The memories of the softball games in Lynnfield. And, most importantly, of the conversations and the friends made alone the way. The yearly meet-up of a diverse group of fanatics who were Royal Rooters of the Red Sox but were (are) also some of the best people I have had the pleasure to have been able to call mis amigos. I am glad to have been able to spend some time this year with Cheri, Cathy, Kate, Deb, Steve, Dan, Matt and the immortal T-Ric. And some others whose names are not coming immediately to mind. And, to those who were not there this year, your contributions to the bash (and to my life) are not forgotten. All the memories continue to play in my head, usually with Skrub leading the way with his tambourine.