Thursday, October 16, 2003

The Agony of Defeat

This is for my friends in Boston who suggested I do a sports post.

One of the great parts of my job is working with people from around the world. I was working with a graduate student, Luis Antunes, from Portugal when we found out that Portugal would play the US in the 2002 World Cup. We had various rounds of taunting back and forth with me fully knowing the US didn't stand a chance in that match. When the US did win, Luis tells me the whole country went into a deep depression. By contrast, for the most part people in the US didn't care.

I can now understand Portugal's pain as the city of Chicago has gone into a similar kind of quiet depression over the Cubs failure to advance to the world series. Impressive what sports can do to the psyche of a city or a country.

Memo to my friends in Boston: Hope things go well for the Sox so your city doesn't end up feeling tomorrow like Chicago does today.

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