Green Monsters of the Mind

Image courtesy of Eric Canha-Imagn Images

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A. Bartlett Giamatti’s poem “Green Fields of the Mind” describes my feelings for the end of this season better than I ever could—it’s designed to break your heart. The prose of the former commissioner is one that most baseball fans know: “The game starts in the spring, when everything else begins again and blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings and as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”

Giamatti wrote the poem to describe the end of the 1977 season, one in which the Boston Red Sox had to beat Baltimore in order for the season to continue into the postseason.

And if they win, Giamatti wrote, “(S)chool would never start, rain would never come, and the sun would warm the back of your neck forever.”

Fast-forward nearly a half-century and Giamatti’s words of continue to ring true. The 2026 Red Sox were at points dire and at others almost indescribable. The end, however, was as abrupt as it was nearly 50 years ago.

“Today, a (Wednesday) of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped and summer was gone.”

When the Red Sox season ends, I’m usually bummed for a little bit of time. I don’t follow hockey or basketball as much and even so, those sports don’t play almost every day like baseball does. You can set your watch to it; more often than not during the summer, the Red Sox are playing at 7:05 at night.

But at a point, usually after New Year’s, you start thinking about it again. Spring training is close. Who are the Sox signing? Who have they signed? Who is coming back and is everyone healthy?

As Giamatti writes, everything else begins again.

But this year, something is lurking that could have baseball fans facing the fall alone for a while: the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the owners and the players. It runs out on December 1, as the cold of winter really starts to descend on the Northeast, and both sides seem to be dug in—which means the Wild Card Series loss to the Yankees might be the last time we see the Red Sox for a while.

And that really bums me out and leaves me with an empty feeling. And with the uncertainty of what’s to come, it’s going to be a sad offseason, however long it ends up.

“…and just when you need it the most, it stops.”

When will we see the Red Sox step on the field again? Nobody knows, and that’s the emptiest feeling of all.