Colleen Shaddox
As many Red Sox fans dust off their voodoo dolls for tonight’s Yankees-Tigers game, hoping that the elimination of the Bronx Bombers from the playoffs will ever-so-slightly ease the pain of Boston’s disastrous end-of-the-season collapse, others have found more constructive ways of dealing with the emotional whiplash that comes with Red Sox Nation membership. For Hamden’s Colleen Shaddox, it was writing a short story titled Consummation: 2004, which is included in Suicidally Beautiful: A Collection of Sport Stories, slated for release by Main Street Rag in January.
Consummation: 2004 tells the story of Jerry O’Boyle, a cursed Red Sox fan who first fell in love the night Bucky Dent “hit the damn home run” and who “dies thinking of Bucky Dent,” Shaddox said.
“And I probably will, too,” she said, remembering the horrific occasion in October 1978 that marked the bottom of another disastrous end-of-the-season collapse.
“I actually wrote the original version of the story before 2004,” Shaddox said. “When we won the [World] Series, I had to rewrite it, which was a happy task.”
Shaddox’s main character, O’Boyle, not only dies “thinking of Bucky Dent,” but dies in September 2004, before getting to see his beloved Red Sox win their first World Series since 1918.
In 2007, Boston fans were treated to another World Series victory, though what many remember more vividly are home runs by villainous Yankees like Dent and Aaron Boone, who crushed Red Sox Nation with an unlikely, extra-innings game-ending blast in the seventh game of the 2003 American League Division Championship Series.
As does any Red Sox fan, Shaddox dislikes the Yankees intensely, though she does find certain aspects of the rivalry therapeutic.
“My serotonin levels jump considerably every time (Derek) Jeter strikes out,” she said.
Shaddox’s story serves as a permanent reminder that no matter what season it is, pinstripes, to Red Sox fans, look an awful lot like prison bars.
Suicidally Beautiful: A Collection of Sport Stories in due to be released in January. Until December 20, orders placed through the Main Street Rag online store will be available at a discounted price.