The Ultimate Love Letter to Boston

I've seen FEVER PITCH three times now since it came out in 2005, the year after the Red Sox won their first World Championship in 86 years. As a Bostonian, it is the one movie that I feel is absolutely and quintessentially Boston. There would have to be a movie made about clam chowder to come closer to the Bostonian's real lived experience. Every time I see it, I am more certain in my belief that it is the ultimate love letter to Boston. While many movies have captured the feel of Boston - think THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE or MYSTIC RIVER or GOOD WILL HUNTING - everyone knows that Boston follows its beloved baseball team more passionately than just about anything else: the Farrelly brothers captured a piece of our soul in their depiction of Ben Wreitman's love affair with the Red Sox.

From the opening narration when Al Waterman - he of Waterman Sponge fame - tells about the first time Ben's Uncle Carl took him to Fenway, we know we are in for a special treat. I can remember, in vivid technicolors, my first trip to Fenway with my late grandfather, Joe Murray. Pop was an executive at the American Tobacco Company and, as part of his sales territory, would sometimes hand out cigarette samples out on Landsdowne Street outside of Fenway (my own son was conceived during the 2004 World Series and born nine months later in a spike of "Red Sox babies" reported at local hospitals). In the film, the loyalty goes beyond the team to the almost mystical attachment to the ballpark itself and the ethos of the team. "Careful kid," Waterman tells Ben (Jimmy Fallon) at that first game, "they'll break your heart."

When Ben meets Lindsey Weeks (Drew Barrymore), it's clear that his obsession with the Sox is not something immediately understandable to those outside of "the Tribe"... She falls in love with him in wintertime, but when summer rolls around...well, he's a different animal. He lives and breathes Sox, agonizes over the team's every move, whips himself into a frenzy when they're playing the Yankees. "Ben," Lindsey says at about this point in the season, "I didn't realize how big the Red Sox thing was for you..."

Well, they are that big a deal. And, when Ben mans up enough to sell his season tickets to keep his relationship alive, it suddenly dawns on Lindsey how much he loves her (ah, happy endings!).

The Sox are in 2nd place now -- two games behind the dreaded Yanks. Since 2004, the new generation of Sox fans coming up only knows a championship team. For those of us whose formative years were spent following a Greek tragedy called the Boston Red Sox, we will always have FEVER PITCH, the ultimate love letter to the team and its fans.