Fans in Boston swept up in Red Sox hysteria

BOSTON -- After the Boston Red Sox lost Game 7 of last year's AL Championship Series to the New York Yankees, David Walsh took a vow: No more Red Sox games. No more sports pages. No more team gear. No more heartbreak.

But now, after his beloved team staged a remarkable comeback in this year's series against the rival Yankees, the 30-year-old standup comic from Boston wore a gray sweatshirt with a small, inch-high Red Sox "B" at the nape of his neck -- the first piece of Red Sox gear he has donned since last year's humiliating defeat.

Buoyant Red Sox fans new and old -- and reborn -- had a swagger and a spring in their steps Thursday after the team's historic comeback.

Surging Red Sox fever has swept up visitors to Boston, impressed even the team's bitter rivals, and brought back into the fold fans like Walsh who had all but given up on their heartrending home team.

Bit by bit, Walsh's hope returned this season, but he recalled his feelings with the bitterness of a lover spurned -- "as though I'd been seeing this lady for a really long time, and she betrayed me in the end.

"It was such a difficult period. All that hope -- I don't believe in curses or anything -- but all that hope was just taken away," he said. "If you still have hope, you can still look toward some kind of future, and I believed at (the end of last season) there was none concerning the Red Sox."

It's a familiar feeling among Red Sox fans who haven't seen their beloved team in a World Series in nearly two decades. Most of them weren't around when the team last won a World Series in 1918.

Some remain steadfast in their devotion, while others display a pessimistic attitude. Even the Sox players have a slightly defensive tone with the T-shirts they have been wearing lately: "Why not us?"

Dave Rogers, a 31-year-old electrician and DJ who grew up in Boston, flew back from his new home in London -- just in time to be at Fenway Park to witness Boston's crushing 19-8 Game 3 loss to New York. It was, he said, his darkest moment as a fan.

There are many such moments for Sox fans over the years. Since 1918, the Sox have been back to the World Series four times -- losing all four in epic fashion.

All too often, the Yankees proved to be their foils.

For Rogers, all of that disappeared Wednesday night -- and he found himself the next morning rushing out to buy a new Red Sox championship T-shirt.