The Diatribe * net

Friday night—nearly 10 months after the October magic of 2004—I watched NESN’s Faith Rewarded dvd for the first time.  Three reasons led to my decision to pop the dvd in the ol’ player:  1) The Sox (fronted by Charles Bronson Arroyo) were getting their arses handed to them by the Twins, 2) The Yankees (led by a no name called Aaron Small) were walking all over the Blue Jays, and 3) Friday night is my favorite night to watch baseball.  Needless to say, things were not going my way that night.  So, rather than start the weekend off on a sour note I decided to BIRG.

BIRG is an acronym for Bask in the Reflected Glory.  It is a term I learned in a social psychology class I took during freshman year.  Dr. Harkins planted this little gem on me one day and I’ve never forgotten it.  The premise is simple:  We feel better about ourselves when we share in the success of others.  The best example is being a fan of a sports team.  It’s not a bad thing.  It’s just a term social psychologists use to explain away our behavior.  For some reason, I really like this term.  It has a great ring to it, kind of like the Italian word schifozo.  But I digress.

All in all the dvd captures the great moments and hands them to the viewer on a silver platter.  The fact of the matter is, you can’t go wrong with this material.  But, for me, it lacks the real drama of the situation.  In fact, I think HBO did a better job tacking on a (happy) ending to their Curse of the Bambino special.  Maybe it’s because Joe Buck’s is the voice that is engrained in my head for each and every play, and the NESN dvd doesn’t use the FOX commentary too often.  Bill Simmons recently praised the special edition dvd that MLB put out of the entire ALCS and World Series.  That is a must own.  I will most definitely shell out the cash for that collector’s piece.  But for now, the Faith Rewarded will have to suffice.  It satisfied my need to BIRG, and Friday night, that’s all I really needed.