I always liked George Bailey. He is the principal character in my favorite Christmas movie — “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Why, you ask? After all, George is a goofy guy who can’t seem to escape life’s awkward moments without getting his foot caught in the door.
But he is an optimist. Even at his most depressed and defeated, and when he wants to end it all, his better nature (guardian angel in this case) saves him.
Sometimes, classic works draw parallels to true events, but not always in ways that you’d think. What is George Bailey, after all, but a personification of our own Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox always seemed to get to the promised land only to have the rug pulled out from under them, just like George Bailey would continually be thwarted by Mean Old Mr. Potter, the miserly curmudgeon of Bedford Falls.
Potter is the personification of the New York Yankees, a talented team whose nobodies (Bucky Dent, Aaron Boone) always beat the Red Sox. Potter would end up laughing all the way to the bank. George would simmer.
Finally, just when all seemed hopeless, George found his inner reserve (in the form of guardian angel Clarence) and beat the miser, or, in this case, came back from three games down in the 2004 ALCS and went on to win the World Series.
Movie morals are often painted with broad brushes, meaning that you can find deeper messages hidden in these works. Rudolph has a red nose that beeps and glows. It freaks out most of the denizens of the North Pole. Even jolly old St. Nick.
Then, after the untimely death of Bumble, Santa sees that red nose, which glows and can cut through a nasty storm, could be helpful. He looks past the nose and asks Rudolph to guide his sleigh.
There’s an easy moral here: It’s wrong to judge people solely on the grounds that they’re different. Ask yourself how different Major League record books would look had the likes of Satchell Paige and Josh Gibson been allowed to play.
As for Bumble? Bumbles bounce. Just wanted to say the line.
There are a few rich owners in sports I’d love to see haunted by a series of ghosts only to wake up wiser and, fortunately, still alive. Lately, though, John Henry fits the bill marvelously as our modern-day Scrooge. And that’s mainly because he became a miser after being burned badly by some unfriendly contracts (Chris Sale anyone)? Now, he’s about as cheap as any skinflint owner there is.
Then there’s the Grinch, who began stealing Christmas in 1957, the year Dr. Seuss created him. He’s a despicable, churlish man who hates Christmas so much he vows to put an end to it. He almost succeeds too, except Cindy Lou Who from Whoville gets hold of him. (Do you suppose any of these people rock out to The Who?) Ultimately, the town of Whoville thwarted him.
We had a coach here for 20 years who fits the description, and his name is Bill Belichick. He was nothing if not surly and unpleasant as often as he could get away with it. But unlike the Grinch, Belichick remains unreformed.
Other than the Yankees, no team has harassed Boston sports as much as the Montreal Canadiens. They are Scut Farkus to the Bruins’ Ralphie in “A Christmas Story.” When Ralphie finally has enough, and pummels Scut, it reminds me of when Boston’s Stan Jonathan took on Montreal’s Pierre Bouchard in 1978.
We can’t do one of these without ol’ Saint Nick himself, can we? Santa’s a hard one to pull off. He’s a big, jolly old man who’s larger than life. He dominates every room, every conversation, and every situation. He radiates good cheer. And he comes through for all the little boys and girls in his realm, right?
Let’s see what he can do here. Would our Santa answer the prayers of fans everywhere? Would he gladly become the face of his team (to the point where he’s probably richer from endorsements than he ever was as a player)? Would fans from opposing cities cite him as their favorite player? Could pleas of grand slams and clutch hits have reasonable expectations of being answered? Is he sufficiently jolly?
We had the perfect candidate right here in Boston for a long time, didn’t we? He was none other than David Ortiz. Big Papi.
Feel free to come up with other examples as you wish. I’d be interested in reading them.
In the meantime, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2026.
