If the past week’s events haven’t convinced you that America is very much a society of the the haves and have-nots, perhaps the sob story of an old coot angry that he didn’t get a World Series ring will do the trick. From the New York Times’ Murray Chass:
If the Red Sox think they had it bad for 86 years under the Curse of the Bambino, they better beware of the Carroll Curse.
“I am so against them now I don’t watch them,” Charles Carroll said. “I hope they lose. I put a Carroll curse on them. If they think the Babe Ruth curse was bad, wait till they see this one.” Then he added: “They were good to me. What happened I don’t know.”
A former Boston police detective and security supervisor for the Red Sox, 71-year-old Charles Carroll is clearly conflicted. And it’s all because of a ring, a World Series ring. Carroll feels the Red Sox had led him to believe he would get a ring, then didn’t give it to him.
After winning last year’s World Series following a drought of 86 years, the Red Sox gave out more than 500 rings, but none went to Carroll. Describing his feelings about the team’s decision, he used words like “infuriated” and “very upset” and “devastated.”
“They took me to the World Series and sent me a letter and said a lot of people would be getting rings, and I thought I’d be one of them,” Carroll said. “But I’m devastated I didn’t get the ring. I don’t want it to be sour grapes about the thing. It’s just that everything went so well, and the final step would have been to give me a ring. I had it earmarked for my grandson.
“I got a letter in July saying they were going to give me a personalized 2004 World Series watch along with everyone else in the organization,” Carroll related, “but I really wanted a ring. I felt I deserved a ring. The so-called ambassadors who were there for a year and the grounds crew all got it. And I didn’t. “
As noted above, Carroll was flown to St. Louis for Boston’s clincher last October and was awarded an inscribed watch. Unlike Johnny Damon or Pesky, there’s no entry in the Baseball Encylopedia listing his ever having played for the Red Sox. Chass has been doing-his-thing since before I could walk and he usually does it quite well. But this one can safely be filed under “who gives a shit?”
the old dick didn’t even play pro ball, get a frickin’ nice watch (ok, i’m assuming it’s nice) and is STILL bitching? what about the old saying, “don’t looka gift horse in the mouth.” umm…that IS how the saying goes, right?
i’ve watched a ton of red sox games over the course of my life and have been there through thick and thin. i’ve paid money, hard earned cash money, to watch john wasdin pitch. i think i’ve paid my dues. like chuck carroll it was never said but surely implied that i would one day get a world series ring. like chuck carroll i’m devasted and infuriated. and like chuck carroll my sense of entitlement knows no modesty, i put the curse of kt (or as i like to call it ‘the kurse of kt’, did you see what i did there? with the k? pretty clever [oops, KLEVER] huh?) on the bosox.
thank you, KT. I have now come to believe that everyone who has devoted a large portion of their life to living vicariously through the exploits of others deserves the fanciest piece of jewelery available.
The least Hinely could do is send the sad old moron a half-ton skid of the DAGGER that had Tar on the cover.
TH
The kicker is that after Larry Luccino visits Moscow Vladimir Putin will have a series ring but this man, who has dedicated his retirement to not stopping Karim Garcia or Gary Sheffield from randomly assaulting staff or fans, will only have the prayers of the Red Sox evangelicals to comfort him through those long dark nights in Saugus. Maybe he can come to an arrangement with the Met’s Doug Mientkiewicz about buying apart-share in Boston’s baseball the Shea slugger stole.
yo hoops………i DID offer the guy that half ton skid and he turned me down. imagine that……he’s holding out for copies of the old issue with bitch magnet on the cover……