You didn't need a driver's license for driving an automobile in Sweden until 1918.
The Boston Red Sox had last one the World Series in 1918, prior to their amazing 2004 and subsequent 2007 World Series Championships. New York fans would incessantly chant, "Nineteen-eighteen!" It got really bad when you would watch a Red Sox game in Tampa Bay, or go to a one in Baltimore, when some of their fans would have 1918 signs. Until last year, Tampa Bay had never even made the playoffs. The Orioles have been pathetic for over a decade. In fact, the last game of the regular season was in Baltimore in 2004 and I was there. I was wearing my "Boston 2004 World Series Champions" shirt that I had bought on 25 July 2004, the day of the Varitek-A-Fraud brawl, as well as the debut of
*“Tessie” by the
Dropkick Murphys prior to the start of the game, when the Red Sox came back late in the ninth and beat Mariano Rivera and started an amazing run to make the playoffs and go on to vanquish the Yankees after being down three games to none in the ALCS. I bought the shirt outside Fenway from some college kids who made them in order to jinx the curse. I talked with them a bit, being jazzed up by the amazing game that day, and bought a shirt. Those same kids were in Baltimore, along with 20,000+ Red Sox fans, to see the Sox off to the playoffs. They saw me wearing the shirt and remembered me and we had a great laugh. A bunch of Baltimore fans had 1918 signs and were ragging us all game, but we didn't care. We could feel something special with that team! Long story short, after the Red Sox went down three games to none, I turned my hat inside out for the ultimate rally cap and wore it like that everywhere I went! Miracle wins in Games 4 and 5 and I never turned the hat back right-side out. I ended up at Games 1 and 2 at Fenway Park for the World Series and had my picture taken during Game 2 in which I am wearing the hat inside out and showing off my "Boston 2004 World Series Champions" jinx the curse shirt. Remember, they hadn’t won yet!!! Everybody kept asking me about the hat and shirt. Once I explained the situation, each and every person told me not to change the hat back or take off the shirt. I never did change the hat back, as I retired it after they won the World Series. It sits in a shrine with other relics from that season.
* “Tessie” was an old tune from the early 1900’s when the Red Sox won five World Series titles and was dusted off, revamped, and recorded by the
Dropkick Murphys to raise funds for the Jimmy Fund. They first played it at Fenway that fateful day, and went on to play it at the World Series as well. Now they play it after every Red Sox win at Fenway.
