Boston is now Sparta not Athens

Pedro and friend after ALCS 2004
Originally uploaded by Spappy.joneS

Morning Edition, December 5, 2007 · Isn't it the most amazing thing, what's happened to Boston?

In sports, the Athens of America has become Sparta.

What a transformation. We used to look at sporting Boston as sort of a quaint, fey, idiosyncratic place — not quite American. Shoot, Boston didn't even much care for football. The Redskins left town for Washington, and nobody missed them. When the Patriots arrived a quarter-century later, they were barely tolerated as something of a distraction from the autumn foliage.

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