I’m wearing a Red Sox bracelet and I care too much about whether they win. I was in New York City yesterday and I realized that not everyone is as focused on this stuff as us maniacs in Boston and beyond. We grin sheepishly at one another, some of us anyway, at how much it matters to us.

Only a game, purely a game. There are so many more important things to worry and think about.

But what a relief, to think for a little while about a bunch of guys playing the same game that little boys and girls play, and the regular women and men on the ballfield down the street from me are playing.

And oh those individual stories. Smooth-cheeked rookies doing well! Old timers showing that experience can trump those torn muscles and aching bones! Tell me more.

Red Sox Nation is parochial but not stricly local, I know. So to all of my sisters and brothers who know what the heck I’m talking about, from sea to shining sea and around the world, I say, sheepishly and proudly, and wearing my bracelet (did I tell you I bought a pair of earrings, too?) GO SOX!