It happened only by accident but to me it seemed somewhat symbolic. The day after the Sox clinched the series I stopped at the Kowloon to attend a book signing which had been promoted on sports radio all week. The guest was Arnold "Red" Auerbach and for a number of years I have been promising myself to somehow get to meet him before it was to late. After all he is 87 and even Red can't live forever.
I wanted to see Red and shake his hand and just say one word. Thanks! Thanks for the indelible memories I have as a kid of the Boston Celtics and the memorable achievements of that team. The Red Sox have just won one world series and it is a historic mark but for the moment let's go back in time and examine Red's record. The Celtics won the first title in 1957 and then went on an unprecedented streak of 8 championship wins in a row from 1959 through 1966. They lost in 67 but then came back to reclaim the title in 68 and 69. This period of time luckily for me happened to coincide with my boyhood and right up through high school. I got on board as a 9 year old and was transfixed by the Celtics and in complete awe of the red head. I believed everything he said and those things stick with me today. He said such things as "be unselfish and pass the ball", "defense and rebounding win games". "Team work , dedication and loyalty are admirable qualities in a human being."
Red had other ideals and he put them into play. The Celtics were the first team to draft a black player, Chuck Cooper, field an all black starting five and to appoint a black man, Bill Russell as head coach. It is important to remember these were certainly racially charged times in the city of Boston when these things were done. That didn't matter to Auerbach because he was about excellence and merit and that's what drove his decisions.
It was because of Red Auerbach that I was introduced to anti-Semitism. On the play ground this day we happened to be talking sports and my idols name came up in conversation. One kid said he didn't like Red cause he was a Jew and Christians didn't like Jews. I was 10 or 11 at the time and knew neither any black people or Jews or for the most part any minorities at all. One thing I knew for sure was this guy was my idol and it didn't matter what he was. For the moment I was dumbstruck but recovered enough to say " I ain't a Christian, I'm a Catholic and I like Red Auerbach just fine!
As the years went by I became more aware of this particular ugliness in world history. As a teenager I developed an interest in world war two and spent a whole summer reading on the atrocities of the Nazi regime. To this day I am confounded and astonished that such an event could happen.
As I grew older I began to have more interaction with Jews. I was not surprised to find that they were not unlike all the other people I met along the way. In fact when my sister married a Jew. I found our new family members to be just like us. They were close knit, they liked a lot of food, they liked to party and they were warm and fun and welcomed us all. In business it has been the same experience. Customers I gained years ago are still with me and are now are loyal friends.
Which brings me again to the Red Sox. Even more than the Celtics, the Red Sox are a part of my essence. Two years ago along comes a Jewish kid brought up in Brookline, Theo Epstein who has the same passion for them that every other person I know has. He takes the reigns of general manager and we all know he gets it. He knows what we want, what has driven every SOX fan for the last 8.6 decades and damn, doesn't he deliver! I asked one my Jewish co-workers if he could bring a guest to temple. My thinking was if young Theo Epstein could bring us a championship then it would be fitting to treat it as a religious experience!
All of this leads me to the following political conclusion. The Jews are a smart, fun, resourceful, loyal people, who have done nothing but enrich the people and things around them. Just like every other American they have a connection to a cultural homeland whose well being they care about. In this case a little piece of the middle east carved out by enormous trials and tribulations. That little piece of land must be protected and peace brought to it and whoever is elected on Tuesday must maintain a strong an unbending commitment to do so.
