As Red Sox rebuild, fans can build character, novelist says

The Boston Red Sox won four World Series between 2004 and 2018. But now, that feels like an alternate universe.

This coming Thursday the Sox open the season in Seattle, and optimism might seem misguided. The team finished in last place in the American League East last year … and the year before.

But with this disappointment, just as with other challenges in life, we can turn to literature and a good imagination to help process the experience.

Novelist and Red Sox fan Leslie Epstein directed Boston University's creative writing program for decades. Speaking with WBUR's Weekend Edition, he said great writing teaches us that rooting for a losing team can — possibly — build character.