LIFE GOES ON – CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Recently I’ve heard a particular question quite often: “Can you believe it?!”

This question happens to be the catch-phrase of longtime Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione. In the tradition-rich game of baseball, it’s an important tradition that each baseball announcer must have a catch phrase. Joe settled on his phrase many years ago when his first choice (“Holy sh**!!”) did not go over so well with the FCC. Surveys show, however, that Joe’s first choice was still better than the catch-phrase of John Sterling: “Thuuuh-uh-uh-uuuuuuuuh Yankees WIN!!!”

During a typical broadcast, Joe utters his catch-phrase about 18,000 times—but only at crucial moments, such as, “Pedroia is scheduled to lead off the fifth inning, can you believe it?!” and, “We’ll be back right after these messages from our sponsor, can you believe it?!”

Most of the time when Joe exclaims his catch-phrase question, I have to admit that I do in fact believe it. I mean, I noticed that Pedroia was on deck when the fourth inning ended, so yeah, it really didn’t require a major leap of faith to accept that he would lead off the fifth.

But there was one time when I wasn’t quite so sure if I really did believe it. It was the occasion when Joe said, “Ground ball. Stabbed by Foulke. He underhands to first, and the Boston Red Sox are the world champions for the first time in 86 years! Can you believe it?!!”

Even five-and-a-half years later, sometimes I’ll pause in the middle of a completely unrelated conversation and think to myself, “Wow, after all those decades they finally did it, didn’t they?” When I get that blank stare, my wife will ask, “What are you thinking about?” Embarrassed, I’ll say, “Um, I was thinking that it’s time to get the oil changed, can you believe it?” and she’ll say, “No.”

Anyway, Joe on the radio is not the only person who asks this question, or some form of it. In just the past few weeks I’ve heard people say…

“I can’t believe it gets dark so early!!” (Really? Did you think you were spending the month of December in Australia? This is Connecticut, you know. If you really want to be amazed, spend winter in Alaska.)

“Can you believe how cold it is?!” (Well, actually, yes I can. Eleven degrees is not terribly unusual for January—Al Gore and his disciples notwithstanding.)

“Can you believe how hard it’s snowing outside?!” (It would be more unbelievable, I suppose, if it were snowing inside. But since it’s not, and since I’ve seen it snow this hard, oh, about 100 times in my life, I do number myself among the faithful brethren.)

“Oh my God! Little Johnny looks JUST like his parents! Can you believe it?!” (Um, I think it’s called genetics. It might be more startling if little Johnny looked like, say, a giraffe or a geranium. Looking like Marge and Big John is kind of normal.)

“I can’t believe how arrogant and self-serving those politicians in Washington are!” (Hmm, let me guess: you just woke up from a 30-year coma, right?)

“Oh my, can you believe how gorgeous that sunset is?!” (Well, it sure is beautiful. But since I’ve seen beautiful sunsets about ten times more often than I’ve seen how hard it snows, a crisis of faith in the existence of pretty sunsets is just not a problem.)

“Can you believe that humor columnist wrote about baseball AGAIN? And in January?!!” (O ye of little faith. Spring training is just around the corner. Can you believe it?!)