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As usual, The Sports Guy does it again: a great column about how Boston fans have had it good for some time now. The key areas that make me wonder if we were separated at birth:

"In the past 30 years, I watched the following players and coaches in their primes (or something that was reasonably close to their primes): Bird, Orr, Pedro, Clemens, Esposito, Havlicek, Cowens, Neely, Bourque, McHale, Tippett, Parish, DJ, Fisk, Nomar, Manny, Bledsoe, Lewis, Brady, Parcells and Belichick.



I watched seven championship teams. Seven. Including two Super Bowl titles in the past three years. I also watched countless other teams that came damned close (including the '75 and '86 Sox, '76 Pats, '85 and '87 Celts, '78 and 79 B's, '96 Pats and last year's Sox team).



Four fantastic things happened over this time, at least for me:



1. Watching the '86 Celts on a day-to-day basis. The best team ever. I haven't seen hoops played quite like that before or since."




Skipping #2...



"3. Watching that first Super Bowl victory in New Orleans -- the day the impossible happened. I still remember going into halftime up 14-3, the Superdome buzzing, that unparalled feeling where every fan realizes that something memorable could happen, that you should just be happy to be in the building ... and right as we're all realizing this, U2 comes out and sings "Beautiful Day." Never before has a song matched a sports moment like that. At least not for me.



4. This isn't a distinct moment, but it matters to me and many others growing up in Boston in the '70s: When I was a kid, I got to read columns from Leigh Montville and Ray Fitzgerald in the Globe every day. Peter Gammons covered the Sox. Will McDonough covered the Pats. Bob Ryan covered hoops. This is what we grew up with -- five guys who knew what they were doing. And if that doesn't make sports a little more special for everyone involved, I don't know what does."




'Nuff said.

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