65 replies to this topic

[newhampshaman]

Hi folks. I'm a long time reader, but have just recently decided to register. I thought I would start off with my own thread.

I've been thinking a lot about how being a Sox fan has changed recently. After more than eight decades of being defined by our failures, we succeeded. What are we defined by now and how has success changed the essence of being a Red Sox fan?

I remember watching the '86 series, but I wasn't quite old enough to really understand the game. There were some rough times that I do remember being completely invested in. I remember Pedro coming out of the bullpen and mowing down Cleveland with magical force of will. I remember phantom tags and questionable calls. I remember Rocket signing with the ENEMY.

2003 was my generation's introduction to what my father had been trying to describe to me for years. It seemed like a destiny was on our side, and victory was at hand. Then Aaron Boone simultaneously crushed a kuckler and my soul. It was almost like a rite of passage. I called my dad, and even as he chuckled ruefully at me for believing, I could hear the knot in his throat.

I learned my lesson too well. I gave up in 2004. I was asleep when the Dave Duo prevented the humilation of a sweep. I watched the next two game out of a sense of duty. I thought Schilling was sacrificing his career when he decided that a staple gun might hold together his ankle and our season. When the ENEMY fell, I sobbed openly more in shock than in joy.

After the Series I felt more confusion than anything else. I watched the games at my parent's house. Alone with my old man. The next year I began to notice something; fans of a lessor stature than I, and sweat pants with girly lettering on the butt. Fans who could not tell me who the starting rotation was, let alone distinguish between runs and points. Fans who claimed a lifelong devotion to my team. My brother tells me that the unofficial uniform of UNH girls involves a UNH sweatshirt, a pink Sox hat, and Ugg boots.

I think in fact it happened before 2004. I seem to recall Senator Kerry mentioning a Manny Ortez during his presidential run.

I know that I'm rambling. My questions are as follows;

Is it wrong to look down on fans who have not suffered, especially when knowing that other generations of Sox fan have suffered far worse than mine?

Is the reputation of Sox fans being the best informed still valid?

And to some of you more senior fans, has this ever happened before?

Who the hell would wear a pink baseball cap? Honestly. Guys back me up on this, Is there anything more attractive than a girl in a fitted blue Boston hat?

[sergeante]

Hmmm...

I grew up in Los Angeles.

In 1975 I lived through the nightmare that was the National League West vs. The Big Red Machine (and discovered the Red Sox that fall, but that's another story).

In 1977 I watched Reggie Jackson singlehandedly pound my Dodgers into dogmeat on just three pitches.

In 1981 it was Fernandomania and a Series win, but that didn't change how I felt about the Dodgers. They were my guys and would still have been my guys had they blown it that year too.

Am I comparing Sox troubles to those of the Dodgers? Not in a million years. I told you that story to give context to what I'm about to say -- to make a point that I'm a baseball fan, not a casual one, and not a bandwagonner. Having said that...

I don't mind the pink caps. I even bought a pink LA cap for my personal Katie Casey. (And yes, she looks very attractive in it.) It's just a style. Does it make you more of a fan that you have a 1967 style cap? Or a 1975 one? Or a 1986 one? Or a 2004 one? Or a pink one? Or a kelly green one? No. What makes you a fan is how you genuinely feel about the team.

Do you have to have suffered to be a "true" fan? It certainly earns you more snob points in certain circles. But what really makes you a fan is whether you turn out for the team, and that you're there in good times and bad. We all have to start somewhere, right? Whether you can trace your bona fides back to 1946 (an acquaintance of mine), 1975 (myself), 1986 (yourself), or just last year (a lot of kids we both should hope will be Red Sox fans 50 years from now), it doesn't matter -- as long as you stick.

Finally, do fans have to be knowledgeable? All fans should be, if for no other reason than it increases their enjoyment of the game. If the people around you at the park or the people you meet don't know what they should, don't look down your nose at them -- be a good citizen and help them learn the game and the team. Anything else isn't being a fan, it's being a jerk.

Edited by sergeante, 07 March 2007 - 01:18 PM.

[Quintananana]

I think in fact it happened before 2004. I seem to recall Senator Kerry mentioning a Manny Ortez during his presidential run.

I know that I'm rambling. My questions are as follows;

Is it wrong to look down on fans who have not suffered, especially when knowing that other generations of Sox fan have suffered far worse than mine?

Is the reputation of Sox fans being the best informed still valid?

And to some of you more senior fans, has this ever happened before?

Who the hell would wear a pink baseball cap? Honestly. Guys back me up on this, Is there anything more attractive than a girl in a fitted blue Boston hat?

Just a couple things. I didn't grow up in Boston, but I come from three generations of Boston natives which basically ended when my dad joined the Navy and ended up in Seattle. But I never understood that I even had a choice as to what team I was a fan of. I don't ever remember making a decision to be a Sox fan. It was something that I was taught from the earliest time I can remember. I might have been a little older than you at the 86 series. I was 9 years old and had been taught the rules yearly since at least a couple years before that. That was a glorious time when I knew every starting position player on every team, and every starting pitcher on every team. Partly because FA hadn't taken over the game yet. Players spent whole careers with one team. But the thing I remember most about the Sox in 86 was although I had heard the Bucky "F*ing" Dent stories, etc. enough times to have them memorized, I didn't understand why my dad was so pissed at Buckner. I kept telling him, "Dad, we got the Rocket now!" We lost this year, but just wait til next year. I watched every playoff game since then with my dad and after 2003, when we lost the ALCS after Boone's shot, I hung my head in disbelief. My dad told me the same thing... Just wait til next year. I think that was a sign. The next year, as my dad and I were watching the games, somehow neither of us felt that down 3-0 we were out of it. We sat up together the night we came back to win that 4th game (which by the way, how can any Sox fan say they are a Sox "Fan" after they gave up on that game before it was over?) and when we won the Series, my dad and I just sat there watching TV, speechless for what felt like forever. Then my wife and mom finally spoke up and asked us how happy we were, and when I looked at my dad, I could see tears in his eyes and he wasn't ready to talk. So I spoke up and just explained that I really didn't know how to feel. I was obviously happy, but it's weird cuz i felt kind of relieved. Relieved that it finally happened when it seemed like it never actually would. When my dad finally spoke, all he said was... "I wish my dad had been alive to see that".

Cheesy story right, and Im sure we all have similar ones, but that's how a Sox fan is born. My son is a year and a half, he's already got 2 Sox jerseys and a hat so we can go to the games together this year. My wife says I should get him a Mariners jersey and hat too, in case he is a M's fan. I told her, "He's a Red Sox fan. That's not a choice, it's something you're born into".

As far as your question regarding the Sox fans being the best informed, it's hard to say. There are very few large fan bases that are as knowledgable as the Sox. The only ones that quickly jump to mind are those of the MFYs, Mets, Cubs, Cards, and Phillies. The MFYs is similar to ours because although their fanbase is very knowledgable, they have tons of fans around the country who may bring the group knowledge down. No easy answer, but definately something to think about.

As far as the fans who have not suffered the heart breaks that most of us have gone through, I just say, Stick with your team. They will break hearts again, and that'll be their rite of passage. They're basically rookies right now, and we were all rookies at one time. I know what you mean though, because when we came back against the MFYs, I saw people coming out of the woodworks claiming to be Sox fans. Yet they knew nothing about the team. I figure, those bandwagon fans will be gone in a couple years anyways when they have a new bandwagon to jump on. Just got to wait them out.

fans of a lessor stature than I... Hmmm... Do I care? No not really. My wife has a pink Red Sox hat. You know why? She's not a Sox fan, but she's not a Mariners fan either, so when we go to games, and Im in my Sox attire, she wears her pink Red sox hat... not to support the team, but to support me. That's love. Girls can wear whatever they want, IMO. If the guys at the games start wearing pink Sox hats, then I'll worry.

[Longpants]

After the Series I felt more confusion than anything else. I watched the games at my parent's house. Alone with my old man. The next year I began to notice something; fans of a lessor stature than I, and sweat pants with girly lettering on the butt. Fans who could not tell me who the starting rotation was, let alone distinguish between runs and points. Fans who claimed a lifelong devotion to my team. My brother tells me that the unofficial uniform of UNH girls involves a UNH sweatshirt, a pink Sox hat, and Ugg boots.

[...]

Who the hell would wear a pink baseball cap? Honestly. Guys back me up on this, Is there anything more attractive than a girl in a fitted blue Boston hat?

I've heard the anti-fans of a lessor stature than I diatribe kind of a lot, and what I think a lot of people forget (or maybe don't even realize at all) is that
"pink" is the new "white." In 1986, during the ALCS, I remember seeing "white hats" for the first time - the street vendors outside Fenway were selling them. (It might be worthwhile to interject that before that, the only option OTHER than a blue Boston hat were the white painters hats, but these, I think, were different.) The new white hats had a really crappy Sox logo essentially glued onto them (and BOY was I disappointed when mine fell off). Anyhow, over the next few years after that white hats became somewhat de riguer. Girls, guys, whatever - everybody wore them. Today, fans of a lessor stature than I (and perhaps all non-blue color variants) are somehow associated with the "fashion fan" - band wagoners, who are perhaps not entitled to call themselves "real" fans.

After the Great Tragedy of 1986, some of the older heads I knew used to say that wearing a white hat was a symbol of being a "new" or band wagon Red Sox fan. This criticism didn't stop white hats from became incredibly popular, particularly among people of my generation who were getting into baseball in the early 1980s. Honestly, it seems to me that the very people who have antagonistic things to say about "fans of a lessor stature than I" are the very people who a) were antagonistic to white hats in the 1980s, or B) wore "white hats" in the late 1980s (and who perhaps still do...I know when I go home, I still see them).

I just see being anti-fans of a lessor stature than I at best as being something unreasonably elitist and at worst (if the criticism is coming from what I would call a "white hat") just totally hypocritical.

So, yeah. The color of one's hat make absolutely NO difference.

[marsrover21]

I wear a Green Hat. Will you hold that against me?

I also have a Seibu Lions hat, so yeah. I guess I'm a bandwaggoner.

[troparra]

I'll tell you what I hate about the bandwagon, they fill up Fenway such that a regular person can't get a ticket to any game for a reasonable price, unless you want to pay $125 from a broker for a Right Field Box seat, which are the worst seats in any venue for any event in the history of mankind. The worst seats at the Roman Colosseum are better better than the Right Field Box.
I now live in Michigan, and I started to enjoy how the Tigers were totally uninteresting. You could get prime tickets for $20. On a weekend. For any opponent. That ended, sort of, last year.

[marsrover21]

Nice thing about living in the bay area: Coliseum never sells out. Well, not for the A's anyway. Can't wait to see the Sox in the new stadium over here. Too bad we're playing the Giants in Fenway this year. Would have been my first trip to SBC.

[Quintananana]

As far as the ticket prices go, I guess I understand your point. But hey, you can't have some kind of membership to being a fan, and only the true fans are allowed to buy tickets. That's just the way it works. It does suck. But Im not in Boston so I don't have to deal with it. I live in Seattle, and if you've never been to a game out here, you should make the trip some time. Kingdome was garbage, but Safeco Field is beautiful. I must admit, I love going to games there. If you can get past all the yuppies ariving mid-way through the game with laptops and cappucinos, you really will love it. For 25-30 bucks you can sit on the first or third base line. Im in the Navy and my ship has season tickets that they let us buy off of them for 20 bucks each in the second row right next to first base. So as far as ticket prices go, Its not such a problem out here. But I do see your point.

As far as the hat color thing goes, Ive been reading some of these posts and it really isnt a big deal. I have the blue hat of course, but I also have a white one with a red B, a red hat with a blue B, an all green one, an all red one, an all black one, and a couple more versions of each. All together I think I have around 10 Red Sox hats. Am I a bandwagon fan because no matter what Im wearing, I like to show my Sox pride, and still possibly match what Im wearing a little bit??

And now I'm looking for that Seibu Lions hat... LOL!!

Edited by Quintananana, 07 March 2007 - 01:42 PM.

[Sinistas]

I don't wear hats much since the Great Headshave Expedition, but I've owned the all-black (white outline) caps for years. I don't have anything against the fans of a lessor stature than I Brigade ™, since a good portion of them are quite attractive.

If you come across a female in said fans of a lessor stature than I, and she's not up to snuff on her Sox knowledge, educate her. THEY MUST BE ASSIMILATED. *ahem* what, now?

Edited by Sinistas, 07 March 2007 - 02:46 PM.

[funkdocta]

Sinistas....I am of a similar age group as you, I believe...and I also am quite the lurker....I think you would be interested to know that I own several "variations" of the *B* including the white and camo hats....along with the good old blue.....I am also enough of a sox fan to be able to honestly say that when I was younger, I dressed up as Mike Greenwell for Halloween...(#39 for those of you who care)......so I don't see a fault with the various hats....but the fans of a lessor stature than I do carry a negative image, I must agree.....no matter how good they look....it wasn't more than a year ago that my girlfriend looked at me after seeing the "City of Champions" DVD and said: "Roger Clemens pitched for the Red Sox?" She too, owns a fans of a lessor stature than I....I did want to punch myself in the head.....a lot.....

[troparra]

As far as the ticket prices go, I guess I understand your point. But hey, you can't have some kind of membership to being a fan, and only the true fans are allowed to buy tickets. That's just the way it works. It does suck.

It sucks the tickets are so hard to get and expensive, but on the other hand, KC Royals tickets are very cheap and easy to get. You get what you pay for.
Regarding fans of a lessor stature than I, my daughter, age 3, has a pink Red Sox hat. She also has a pink Sox shirt. She loves pink, what can I say?

[John Clarkson Lemon]

In 1986, during the ALCS, I remember seeing "white hats" for the first time - the street vendors outside Fenway were selling them.

Most of my hats growing up were foam and mesh. They almost never, ever, ever, ever were of the fitted MLB approved variety. The logo never quite looked right, and the background color was always just a little off (or white if the front part was foam). I don't recall foam and mesh hats ever being cool prior to about 1998. When I was a kid, the only adults I knew who wore baseball caps with a team logo on them were guys on baseball cards. Only kids wore MLB caps - and Magnum PI. I would say the whole "real" cap phenomenon is indicative of the new fandom anyway.

[Quintananana]

When I was a kid, the only adults I knew who wore baseball caps with a team logo on them were guys on baseball cards.

I'm not sure if I just grew up in a different place than you, but I'm only 5 years younger than you and when I was a kid going to games, my dad wasn't the only one wearing a Red Sox hat. He always had a Sox hat from about as far back as I can remember. And it may not have been the official MLB fitted hats that everyone wears now, but it wasn't that long ago when those were actually pretty rare. Now they're everywhere. But my dad's hats weren't those piece of Sh*t trucker hats either. He had regular, adjustable blue hats with the red B. They were usually so worn and sweated in that they made Trot's hats look like new, but he definately wasnt the only adult that had a baseball hat with a team logo on it.

[troparra]

I've heard the anti-fans of a lessor stature than I diatribe kind of a lot, and what I think a lot of people forget (or maybe don't even realize at all) is that
"pink" is the new "white." In 1986, during the ALCS, I remember seeing "white hats" for the first time - the street vendors outside Fenway were selling them. (It might be worthwhile to interject that before that, the only option OTHER than a blue Boston hat were the white painters hats, but these, I think, were different.)

The painters hats were awesome. A friend of my father had one that had "Loo-ie", "Big Jim", "Dewey", "Yaz", "Boomer", "Bigfoot" and similar names written all over it. Outstanding.
Is it merely because nobody in the world wears painters hats anymore that they don't make these?

[sergeante]

When I was a kid, the only adults I knew who wore baseball caps with a team logo on them were guys on baseball cards. Only kids wore MLB caps - and Magnum PI. I would say the whole "real" cap phenomenon is indicative of the new fandom anyway.

Not as new as you might think. George Caron wore a very authentic looking Brooklyn cap to Hiroshima.

[BoodasBud]

Hey, doesn't more bandwagoners mean more national TV coverage? If so, hop on the wagon newbies!

Back in the day I used to think the people buying the 1975 official hat (red body/navy brim) were bandwagoners, but I got over it.

I don't wear them, but if pink is somebody's thing I got no problem with them wearing fans of a lessor stature than I.

[adam42381]

I have to say that I'm torn on the hat situation. I have at least 10 different varieties of the Twins Enterprise "Franchise" Red Sox fitted hats. I'm 25 years old and have been a fan since I was about 4 years old (though I don't remember the '86 Series as my parents are Braves fans). My uncle bought me a Sox helmet for my birthday and I was hooked from that point. I was the odd kid out growing up in NC where everybody loved the Braves. I was the only kid wearing Sox caps and the like. People looked at me like I was crazy when I was the odd 10 year old with a Roger Clemens t-shirt on...

Now, everybody and their brother is wearing Sox gear. It all started in 2004 and it's still going. This can be viewed as a good thing but I believe that many do it for the fashion statement. Red Sox gear is cool. I don't know how many times I've been approached by transplanted New Englanders who see my hat and ask if I'm actually a fan or just like the hat. How sad is that?! I feel I have to explain myself now and try to convince people that I'm actually a Sox fan...

I guess we can see it as more revenue for the club, which helps get better players. I can't knock that. It just frustrates me when my brother now claims to be a Sox fan when he jumped on the bandwagon back in the fall of 2003. He never cared anything about the Sox up until that point but now he acts like he's diehard. I'm torn because I like talking shop with him about the Sox and he knows what's going on; I just get irritated by the bandwagonning behind it.

And, no, there's nothing hotter than a girl with a fitted blue Red Sox cap and a white home jersey...

[gusaroni]

Bandwagoners and fans of a lessor stature than I put $51.1 million dollars in the pockets of the Seibu Lions for Daisuke, so they can't be all bad, right? I'll admit that I can't stand the fact that I have to compete for tickets with people that don't understand why they would ever intentionally walk someone, but that's just me being a baby. (Aside - Quote from a fan at Fenway during a game against the Angels, "They're going to walk Manny on purpose? What are they thinking? That never works!")

It's a sad statement on the business of baseball, but the alternative is a team that has tickets avaialable for every home game, but has no chance of beating the MFY's.

My daughter is 3 months old, and all of her Sox paraphenalia is pink (which is fine), but only because she hasn't been to a game yet. She'll be in regulation attire by mid season if I have anything to say about it.

[John Clarkson Lemon]

I'm not sure if I just grew up in a different place than you, but I'm only 5 years younger than you and when I was a kid going to games, my dad wasn't the only one wearing a Red Sox hat. He always had a Sox hat from about as far back as I can remember. And it may not have been the official MLB fitted hats that everyone wears now, but it wasn't that long ago when those were actually pretty rare. Now they're everywhere. But my dad's hats weren't those piece of Sh*t trucker hats either. He had regular, adjustable blue hats with the red B. They were usually so worn and sweated in that they made Trot's hats look like new, but he definately wasnt the only adult that had a baseball hat with a team logo on it.

You're right - I'm overstating things a bit. But I swear that every adjustable hat on earth in 1979 or so had mesh. Or maybe just the only ones that made it up to New Hampshire.

That said, I do recall my first Sox game in '79. A night game vs. the Indians. Torrez on the mound. HRs by Dewey, Rice, and Lynn. But what I really remember is getting the Sox helmet with the ice cream. Now that I think about it... I recall more plastic helmets with that crappy adjustable band inside than fancy MLB hats. But, again, maybe it's because we had to buy our ballcaps at the hardware store. Ah, the good old days when times were bad.

[gusaroni]

You're right - I'm overstating things a bit. But I swear that every adjustable hat on earth in 1979 or so had mesh. Or maybe just the only ones that made it up to New Hampshire.

That said, I do recall my first Sox game in '79. A night game vs. the Indians. Torrez on the mound. HRs by Dewey, Rice, and Lynn. But what I really remember is getting the Sox helmet with the ice cream. Now that I think about it... I recall more plastic helmets with that crappy adjustable band inside than fancy MLB hats. But, again, maybe it's because we had to buy our ballcaps at the hardware store. Ah, the good old days when times were bad.

Me too. All of my hats in the 70's were mesh...maybe we just couldn't afford the good ones? The plastic helmets were free on helmet day. Remember when they had to give us a gift just for going to a game? Can you imagine the scene now if they put one of those little bats in everyone's hand for a game against the Yanks?

[Quintananana]

I do remember the little helmets with the ice cream in them and I also remember those batting helmets that guys wore to games. They didnt go over the ears... looking kinda like John Olerud. LOL!! I remember the days when it seems like you ALWAYS got something free from the games. Whether it was a bat, a ball, a hat... something. And I do remember my dad having a Yaz painters hat. Those did have a pretty good run, but Im in no hurry for them to come back into style.

[Hee-Seop's Fable]

I do remember the little helmets with the ice cream in them and I also remember those batting helmets that guys wore to games. They didnt go over the ears... looking kinda like John Olerud. LOL!! I remember the days when it seems like you ALWAYS got something free from the games. Whether it was a bat, a ball, a hat... something. And I do remember my dad having a Yaz painters hat. Those did have a pretty good run, but Im in no hurry for them to come back into style.

Yup, got a pile of the former and a copy of the latter stowed away for safe keeping, as well as a pair of mini-wood bats from games in the lat '70's and early '80's (great for smacking golf balls really far into the woods). Funny how this thread brings back memories of the promo's that were popular when each of us got reeled into Sox-dom. The present day stuff is indeed great for revenues that translate into Matsz, Lugo, and Drew (aside- can anyone else here not stand listening to Callahan bash Drew? Could his jealousy be any more transparent? Did he want a fading Nixon back there so the Sox could save $11M/yr? What the hell is his problem with signing the best 5 tool player of the offseason to a three year deal with a 2 year health dependent option!? All possible, of course, because of the fans of a lessor stature than I crowd revenue).

I suppose I can't begrudge the fans of a lessor stature than I crowd, but I'm proud to say my sister wears a blue one, and certainly don't have any respect for anyone that calls themselves a fan and can't name ten players on the team or have something intelligent to say about them. Seems to me one's stature as a fan all depends on how, not when one became a fan. If someone knows the team, was properly christened into the experience with the pilgrimage to Fenway and the requisite angst, and respects those that came before them, that's really what counts.

[Doctor X]

Well . . . always a fan--Fan Boy. Remember DISTINCTLY walking home from school as a WEE spud listening to a tiny radio . . . beating the YANKEES . . . making it home to watch . . . Bucky [CENSORED--Ed.] Dent.

I remember wondering why, after all of the excitement that summer, one single game meant it was all over.

Watched them rise and fall . . . new heros . . . will Boggs hit .400? ROCKET MAN!

86 . . . enough said. I remember the Tank McNamara cartoon of a future archaeological dig of the ruins of Boston--broken bats everywhere. That hurt. Patriots losing? Who knew there was a POST-season for the Patriots. Shit! We beat MIAMI and Dan "Greatest QB Ever" Marino.

86 hurt NOT because of "Buckner"--no it hurt before that. It REALLY hurt when we blew the lead the NEXT game.

Rise and fall.

1999 . . . fall.

2003 . . . I am at work following the game--we are like a MILLION runs ahead!!! HA!!! I LAUGH at Yankees fans!!

I come home. Again, I am a FAN-Boy. ERA is this thing that happened because we gave women the vote . . . which led to Vietnam and AIDS. But I was aware of this thing call "pitch count." I could not help it as announcers declare that Pedro is "done." You see him get changed and make his way to the airport.

Then.

. . .


. . .

I was pissed.

I mean we were all pissed.

If I was vaguely familiar with "pitch counts" I was an expert by the time the FO bound He Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken to a mule and sent into the Forbidden Zone. This happened about five minutes after I saw Yankees dance. . . .

"Can Boston survive?"

Doom.

Patriots win . . . a nail biter. The first one was not a "fluke." Yippee! I remember the friend who told me "at LEAST the Sox will win a World Series before the Patriots ever win a Super Bowl!" years back.

Come on, now there is HOPE! The team that got ridiculed when I was Wee. Did not make the playoffs the next year! Hope!

Then next year . . . always next year . . . HBO shows the Curse of the Bambino--no happy ending. Waves to BoSox Lady. . . .

Laurie Cabot abandons them. A-Rod signs with BOSTON and . . . no . . . not . . . really.

But we have NoMAAAA . . . no . . . not really.

I watch the standings. I watch the stands . . .

We have a Yankees Killer. "Why Not Us?"

I was on a professional thing out on the Wrong Coast. My colleague is a good man clueless about sports. Wife is a Sox fan. I am there teaching the week of the ALCS . . . PAIN. He keeps asking me, "How's San Francisco doing?"

"Well." I would answer.

Then I would hit him.

ALCS: PAIN

Our Secret Weapon Yankee Killer . . . ankle injured!!

PAIN!

We all know . . . most of us felt DOOMED. I wrote on a thread on a skeptical page, "we'll be LUCKY to lose in seven games!!" Reading the NYY/SoSH archives now it is funny to see a few Sox fans optimistic and some NYY fans worried.

BAH! We are Doomed. DOOMED! [!--Ed.]

So I drive to teach during game 4 . . . doomed! . . . in the parking lot . . . doomed . . . no radio in the room.

I have to listen. "Just win ONE game!" A sweep . . . after an assraping at home? What a nightmare! A NIGHTMARE. After 2003? After everything else in--did you know we had not won since 1918? Did you know we traded Babe Ruth? Ever hear about Bucky Dent? That is the radio!!

Pain.

But I have to listen. Students are coming early . . . I am in my car. 9th inning. It is over, but I must listen. Just one game.

Millaaaah gets a walk. Fine.

Roberts in to run. Okay . . . he could steal . . . but . . . no he will get picked off.

STEAL.

But . . . come on!

Cruelty.

SAFE!!

Okay . . . a pop up . . . it will be over . . . NO! TIE!!!

Now I am f-d.

I sit in, literally, a fetal position in my car. My head is in my hands as I listen . . . listen . . . listen.

Class starts. My friend comes out. "I know this is important. If I have a question I will ask. The students understand." A few--Yankee Haters--ask for updates "Go Sox! Yankees suck."

And I sit.

And I sit.

AAAAHHHH!!

So you now know how the next game goes!

Sit.

He teaches

I sit.

AAAAHHHH!!!!

We watch the next game. I am a Fan Boy. I am hopeless. But my friend . . . he is not from America, but I think the 60s . . . 70s . . . 80s were unkind to him . . . actually he enjoyed them. So he asks things like, "how many innings."

This is Yankees stadium. You know the calls. They are not going to be reversed. Seriously. This is baseball.

This is the Toilet.

?



WE . . . Get . . . we . . . get . . . the umpire . . . he is circling his finger!!

Now . . . A-Fraud. WHAT?!! Even my friend stands up: "Can he DO that?!! He can't do THAT?!!"

Screwed. Blown. [CENSORED--Ed.] This blown call with be a part of CHB's 20th Commemorative Edition of Curse of the Bambino. . . .

When I am old . . . I will see on the hologram . . . the current Commissioner officially apologize for that call.

Either "Two generations have lived and died without a WS" or the move the team to Harford and they win three straight.

. . .

. . .

REVERSED!!! He is OUT!!!

You all know the rest. No class the last game. We celebrate. We REALLY celebrate!!

My friend stops asking me about the Giants.

I was happy for many reasons. I was happy Johnny Pesky finally got a ring. See, while he would not remember me, I met him a few times and he gave me tickets to Fenway a few times when I was still Wee Spud. Even got me an autographed ball--Carl Yaz! Hee . . . hee . . . Don Zimmer! Anyways, I offered to pay for it but he asked me to donate the money to the Jimmy Fund.

Nice guy. Some kid who he I sure forgot within a year . . . no one important, but he took the time. He needed a ring. Particularly after getting off my Fan Boy ass to read some history a few years back, and I learned about the questionable "holding the ball" incident. Right or wrong, it bothered him. He deserved his ring.

I could go on. I will not. I have loved the team as a Fan Boy and have tried to learn more of the game over the years. One of the reasons I infest HERE.

"Fair weather fans?" They are like MFY's fans in LA--who never came from NY. Just backing a "winner." I agree with Bill Simons--you are born into your team. Accept it.

I did.

It was painful.

It was worth it. Could there be any better win? I mean, would a sweep of the MFY be as "sweet?" No, I think. People would say, "it was not their year" and make excuses.

No. I agree with Dennis Leary--"Monumental Collapse!!"

Look it up in the dictionary.

--J.D.

[Edited for scribal deletions.--Ed.]

Edited by Doctor X, 07 March 2007 - 06:36 PM.

[sergeante]

If someone knows the team, was properly christened into the experience with the pilgrimage to Fenway and the requisite angst, and respects those that came before them, that's really what counts.

Excuse me? Since when has going to Fenway become a litmus test for Red Sox fandom? That would make all of the talk about "Red Sox Nation" pretty much horsefeathers, wouldn't it? Did you really mean to say that?

Full disclosure: My first trip to Fenway will be this May 1st. I would certainly like to have gone many years ago, but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles. It doesn't mean I haven't been following the Red Sox since 1975, which, strangely enough, was the first full season I was more than marginally aware of baseball. And yes, I can name ten guys on the team right now -- and I'll bet I can name a further ten guys you've either never heard of or seen play, even on TV.

So please, let's get down off our high horse, alright?

Edited by sergeante, 07 March 2007 - 06:57 PM.

[Hee-Seop's Fable]

Excuse me? Since when has going to Fenway become a litmus test for Red Sox fandom? That would make all of the talk about "Red Sox Nation" pretty much horsefeathers, wouldn't it? Did you really mean to say that?

Full disclosure: My first trip to Fenway will be this May 1st. I would certainly like to have gone many years ago, but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles. It doesn't mean I haven't been following the Red Sox since 1975, which, strangely enough, was the first full season I was more than marginally aware of baseball. And yes, I can name ten guys on the team right now -- and I'll bet I can name a further ten guys you've either never heard of or seen play, even on TV.

So please, let's get down off our high horse, alright?

Well, we are of the same generation of Sox fans - try me on those ten names

No need to be so defensive, especially given how lucky you are to make your first visit with so much more understanding of the Sox than most have when they go the first time. Soak it up for all it's worth!

I hope it's a stellar Spring evening for you; please be sure to get there early enough to make your way up the tunnel and get a deliberate, slow approach to your first live view of the field, before the place fills up, while the players are getting ready for the game and the buzz is just beginning. I'll bet you can write back on May 2nd and tell us you have a deeper appreciation for how blessed players and fans are alike, that we call Boston our home town team, and that we have a home ball park that has hosted what amounts to eight or ten generations of players and fans introduced to the meaning of baseball in Boston - That you are better off visiting this ballpark rather than one of those miserable 60's/70's cookie cutters, and that difference is part of what distinguishes the Red Sox, and allows the present to make a more indellible imprint.

I'll bet you will not be able to say your experience as a Red Sox fan has not changed for having seen a game as it should be seen. Big stadium seats and high def.TV may be great, but a game at Fenway seeing the team you've cared about for that long is not an experience many baseball fans have the priviledge of enjoying. Call it elitist, but it's one of the key things that makes us luckier that other baseball fans in Toronto, Florida, Oakland, Atlanta, LA, Minnesota, or any number of other successful baseball towns that don't have either a real or an old park to host their team. By the same token, seeing the Celtics or Bruins is just not the same anymore. All hype, little substance, and no character to the venue to imbue the franchise with the power of history.

I never was one of the "Save Fenway" bandwagon, but it does comprise a big part of what the Red Sox mean to me - that Ted, Johnny Pesky, Carl, Rico, Boomer, Freddie, Jim Ed, Mo, and Papi all came to bat and played in the same spot - that's a legacy that's important to me, and that allows me to put up with the fans of a lessor stature than I and that schtick. Maybe having gone to pay tribute in person isn't the key thing to you, but having been fortunate enough to have seen big games there myself, and knowing how memorable they were to me, that is part of my self respect as a fan, and empathizing with others that have strong memories of their visits is part of my respect for other fans as well. I think you'll be proud to put that experience in your quiver too.

[Tony the Pony]

My questions are as follows:
Is it wrong to look down on fans who have not suffered, especially when knowing that other generations of Sox fan have suffered far worse than mine?

Yes.

Is the reputation of Sox fans being the best informed still valid?

Yes. Do you necessarily find them at Fenway? No.

(To be fair, it also depends on where you sit)

Who the hell would wear a pink baseball cap? Honestly. Guys back me up on this, Is there anything more attractive than a girl in a fitted blue Boston hat?

I agree. The pink is a joke. Actually, I wouldn't take my wife to a game if she decided to wear it. Applies to pink Patriots gear as well, of course. I fully understand it's my quite narrow-minded opinion on a totally irrelevant issue, but it is my prerogative to not give my tickets to people wearing pink gear if I can't make it to the game. ;-) I mean, what are the team's colours?! IMO there's not enough reason to pimp out those colours and create a sort of merchandising whore - let alone become it's customer and walk around in it.

Then again, there are other things that drive me more crazy during games. All that cell phone chatter, for example. Or the "Sit Down" remarks when you stand for the last out in the ninth. That horrible mascot dancing around blocking my view (HE should sit down). Songs blaring for players' at bats... Etc, etc. Why?

In my opinion, Red Sox games at Fenway are still more of a pure baseball experience than anywhere else in the majors (Wrigley for example has a great stadium, but most of the time the atmosphere is more like Tia's or Tavern on the Water on a Thursay night) - but I do think it has declined a bit over the years. Then again, revenue has quadruppled...

[Barbara]

A fashion thread! I can get into this.

Seriously the pink doesn't bother me at all. (I don't wear any cap as I get serious hat hair.) And like someone said, all the little girls love it.

I figure should bad times roll again, those seats will be available and those of us who live and breathe the Sox will be able, once again, to stroll in before the game and get a decent seat. Like the good ol' days!

[RedSox04]

Like everybody here, I have a How I became a Sox fan story. I was 7 1/2 yrs old during the 1980 season. The first game I ever saw on TV was a game where the Brewers (remember when that team could mash?!) squashed us 19 - 8, but I saw the Sox hit 4 homers in an inning that game, and that stuck with me. I attended my first game on Aug 31st wanting to see Yaz, who did not play because he crashed into the wall the day before. The Sox won 5-4 and Billy Martin (A's manager) was ejected from the game. I was excited when we pulled to within 6.5 games of NY on Labor Day and dismayed a month later when we finished 19 games out.

I grew up idolizing the old man - Yaz, and remember his last games well. I had my heart broken in 1986; when the Sox were one out away, up two, with nobody on, my father told me that the Sox would choke. I had had enough of his negativity - I didn't understand that he saw the Yankees dominate the Sox during the '50's, and he had suffered through 1978. I told him off at this point, a 13 year old being fresh to his father.

Wouldn't you know the Sox would break my heart? As soon as Stanley came in the game, I knew we were in trouble, and after the wild pitch, my father turned off the TV and said, "Are you happy now?" We sat with the TV off in silence for 5 minutes, and he said I want you to see what this team does, and when he turned the TV on, we saw the replay of Buckner's error, and I was scarred.

I always carried the dream of winning and somehow humiliating the Yankees in the process. I couldn't stand to watch the 2003 ALCS. I was a newlywed, and my wife, a non-sports fan, couldn't understand why I felt this way. When the Sox were up 4 - 2, I told her we'd lose 5 - 4. When Papi hit one out to make it 5 - 2, I told her it only meant we would lose 6 - 5. Unfortunately, my sinking feeling was correct. Thank you, Grady Gump.

I didn't believe in the stupid curse, and I felt if we kept getting into the play-offs often enough, the law of averages would eventually even everything out. I just didn't know that would start to happen in 2004 with us down 3 games to 0. 2004 changed everything, because no matter what happens in the future, I lived to see my dream come true, and the reality was better than the dream! How often does that happen?! Crazily enough, when the Sox were up 2 games to 0 against the Cardinals, my father told me the Sox were going to win. Even he knew things were changing.

That's my story and that's where I come in. I say all this because I try not to judge other fans' loyalties or stories. I "suffered" for 24 seasons. My father suffered longer, and some fans waited for 85 years for a Championship, and many others never lived to see that glorious day get realized.

Anybody who is 25 or under does not remember 1986, and will not go a long time in their life, wondering if the Sox can ever win. So they won't have to "suffer" like us veteran fans. But you know what? That's a good thing. I hope all these new members of Red Sox nation know the feeling of a Championship on a fairly often enough basis.

The "fans of a lessor stature than I" crown and the "band wagon" jumpers are fans who were simply drawn in by the '04 season, and my guess is that over time the Sox will continue to produce good teams and these fans will find themselves attached to the Sox just like us veterans and old-timers have become.
Besides filling up the ballpark increases the teams' coffers, and allows us to spend to ensure we almost always have a quality team. That sounds good to me. Red Sox fans should unite; not divide!

Thanks for reading.

[Doctor X]

"New fans" merit ridicule if they take off the hats and stop being fans during bad periods. True fans ride the bandwagon even when it is sinking in mud.

[Kevin Jewkilis]

In my opinion, Red Sox games at Fenway are still more of a pure baseball experience than anywhere else in the majors (Wrigley for example has a great stadium, but most of the time the atmosphere is more like Tia's or Tavern on the Water on a Thursay night) - but I do think it has declined a bit over the years. Then again, revenue has quadruppled...

I was fortunate enough that my dad took me to my first game when I was 5. I have to say, though, a couple seasons ago, there was a family of four with two young kids sitting a row in front of me, and it must have cost them over $300 for everything, and his kids didn't even watch the game! My dad could afford to take me and my siblings when we were growing up, but now it's a big deal for a lot of families (assuming you can even get tickets).


As far as bandwagon fans go, I know this makes me a bad person, but:

I have a friend who started rooting for the Sox when she moved to New England at the end of the '99 season. She called me the night they won the world series, and talked about how we'd been waiting for this for so long. "Yeah, you've been waiting five years!" I responded.

But I know it isn't her fault that she was born outside of New England, or that her grandparents didn't even live in the US, so that she wasn't thinking of her late grandmother that night the way I was. Her heart is in the right place, and that's what matters in the end.

Besides, are we seriously saying that we want there to be fewer fans? I recently adopted Fulham FC when Dempsey went over there. I still don't have all the names down, and have never been close to Craven Cottage, but I'd be pretty mad if someone said I wasn't allowed to be a fan. (Of course, you can't accuse me of being a bandwagoner, as they've pretty much sucked since I started following them...)

[Longpants]

Now, everybody and their brother is wearing Sox gear. It all started in 2004 and it's still going.

See, here's the thing. I think it started in 1986. And in 1975. Etc. "Seasonal" Sox gear is not new.

Here's the thing, though. I went to game one of the ALCS in 1986. I was 12 and my dad had part of a season ticket, and I'd been going to games for a couple of years at that point, sitting in the same seats. (I believe he had to call in favors to get an early playoff game at the time.) Before the 1986 ALCS, people didn't go to Sox games at that time like they do now. (This was backed up by my mother and grandmother; my g/m went in 1967, my g/f was friends with Joe Dobson and Ellis Kinder. I trusted their claims when I described what the ALCS was like.) I remember going to that game and thinking how unusually crowded it was. There were two things that really affected me, though. One was the number of people wearing fur coats. My mother taught me that fur coats were inhumane and when I was 12, I had never really seen one, nevermind the sheer number I saw that night; it was a little shocking. The other thing that I remember was that the vendors walking around were selling hot cocoa. Although I'd been going to games kind of regularly at that point (one every couple of weeks, maybe), I'd never even considered the possibility of having hot cocoa at a game. It was weird, and, I thought, an affront to what baseball was all about.

After that game, I specifically remember the difference in ho the Sox were being merchandised. Don't fool yourself. It happens every October...as long as you're winning.

And, no, there's nothing hotter than a girl with a fitted blue Red Sox cap and a white home jersey...

There's nothing hotter than a girl who can talk Red Sox. I really don't care what she's wearing.

Also, I can't let this comment go in good conscience:

I come home. Again, I am a FAN-Boy. ERA is this thing that happened because we gave women the vote . . . which led to Vietnam and AIDS.

Doctor X, have I somehow misread your post? If you could clarify, that'd be great.

[Sprowl]

If someone knows the team, was properly christened into the experience with the pilgrimage to Fenway and the requisite angst, and respects those that came before them, that's really what counts.

Requisite angst! Mine came from 1972, 1975, 1986 and 2003. 2004 washed it all away. Even if I am rarely in a position to make the Fenway pilgrimage these days, I still pray five times daily. And angst at Fenway is at least a tragedy we can mourn together. It is even more painful all alone at 3:30 am in the summer of 1972, listening to a tinny transistor radio when the Angels beat the Sox on a sacrifice fly in the 16th inning.

"New fans" merit ridicule if they take off the hats and stop being fans during bad periods. True fans ride the bandwagon even when it is sinking in mud.

Sometimes the axles are buried so deep you have to get off. I took a sabbatical during the Scott Cooper years.

[ilivefaster]

Sometimes the axles are buried so deep you have to get off. I took a sabbatical during the Scott Cooper years.

Sounds like my brother-in-law, born 20-min. outside of Baltimore, and therefore a diehard O's fan. Probably the only guy in New England with an Orioles jacket, hat, and license plate. (D*mn him for having the green plate!) He always makes the joke, "Well, May's around the corner, that's about time baseball season's over, and I start reading about football." Poor guy. 10 years of losing seasons has got to be tough.


Anyway, onto my story. I feel like I'm too young to really feel the way I do toward bandwagoners, being 22, so being only 2 yrs. old when the New England summer ended in heartbreak in October, but I can't stand it. I think it started when I first moved to MA at 5, and seeing my first game at Fenway, a Sox/O's game. Having lived in Baltimore prior to moving "home", (My mom is from central Mass, and my dad was born and raised in western Mass) I started off the game cheering on some guy named Cal. By the end of the game, I was just excited that everyone else was excited about the Sox, and it started my love with the team. Later on, I remember coming downstairs every weekend and watching the day games with my parents, and the first thing to catch me was the huge, green, massive wall in left field. Especially with the Gator standing in front of it, it seemed even bigger than I could possibly imagine. The next thing was watching Mo Vaughn slide into first base when he got tripped up hustling down the basepath on an infield slap. As he rolled around in the dirt, his helmet flying off, and half his head coming up covered in infield, he became my favorite player, just for trying so hard, even though he was so big. Later, I came to learn that the big fat guy turned out to be a pretty "okay" player... haha.

Then, all of a sudden, baseball disappeared. My dad told me it was because they were all a bunch of spoiled SOB's who felt like they weren't getting enough. I was hurt, because I loved those weekends more than most anything. I was so hurt by it, I forgot all about the rich guys playing my favorite game.

Fast forward to Pedro Martinez. My dad was gone; heart failure does that to a guy. My mom has always loved the Sox, but only enough to watch when others watched. My brother-in-law, the diehard O's fan, HATED that the Sox had Pedro. He showed me why one day in 1999. Wow. What a pitcher, he was incredible. Then, obviously, the All-Star Game, and Ted Williams and Petey and Nomar having a blast. Amazing times for a kid going through "home crap." The next thing I knew, Pedro was coming out of the 'pen in the playoffs, but then it was over again.

I watched with a decent amount of interest again, until the end of 2002, where I was sucked into it all over again in my first semester of college. My new friends were all about the Sox, which, in turn, rekindled my love of the team, and reminds me of the good times with my dad, while we're all sitting around and laughing about "We Like Mike" or Wade Boggs and his love of chicken dinners, or "Hey, remember that time Wade willed himself invisible to protect himself from an intruder in his house?!" Then, we made fun of Burkett's moustache... for two seasons. Then, we celebrated our lead going into the 8th. Then, we lamented our early celebration. Then, we really lamented. And then, 2003 was over.

The rest, though, has been gravy.

[troparra]

Requisite angst! Mine came from 1972, 1975, 1986 and 2003. 2004 washed it all away........
Sometimes the axles are buried so deep you have to get off. I took a sabbatical during the Scott Cooper years.

You forgot to mention angst from the Jimy Williams years. DLew, Troy O'Leary, Jose Offerman, Darren Bragg... Even Trot and Varitek were awful back then. They couldn't buy a big hit. The way Jimy buried Wakefield in the bullpen, despite the fact he won 17 games in '98. The fact he had Nomar, Pedro and Manny in their primes. All the 1-0 and 2-1 games Pedro lost. Ugh. Why Jimy hung around so much is a mystery to me. It was Duke's biggest failure. It's enough for anyone to take off their fans of a lessor stature than I.

[Rudi Fingers]

Maybe we should rename "The Sandbox" to "The Bandwagon" or even "The fans of a lessor stature than I". Seriously.


Who are we humble lurkers - newbies on the SoSH posting scene - to consider ourselves above the newest Sox fans, even if we have been passionate fans since the era of the red hats with the blue bills - or even before? We are just as guilty as jumping on the bandwagon as they are!

[sergeante]

Well, we are of the same generation of Sox fans - try me on those ten names

Not necessary -- see my next comment.

No need to be so defensive, especially given how lucky you are to make your first visit with so much more understanding of the Sox than most have when they go the first time. Soak it up for all it's worth!

I know I shouldn't be so hypersensitive, but the bit about going to Fenway and having to suffer came across like what a certain kind of "fan" would say. You have my full and sincere apology.

Maybe you haven't had this experience, but it happens all the time to Red Sox fans that aren't from New England, and who can only adopt the team and hope to be adopted by the hometown fans as part of The Nation. Along comes some transplanted Bostonian or Rhode Islander who you've never met in your life and who doesn't know you from Adam, and as soon as the subject turns to baseball it's all about how you can't be a real fan because you weren't born within 100 miles of Fenway, you've never even been to the park, and you don't know what it means to suffer. Well, I'm sorry I don't live up to such people's standards, but where were they when a lot of people just like me were ten year olds in front of their TVs asking themselves the questions: "Why Bernie Carbo? Why now?" Most of them weren't even born yet, that's where. Those that were alive and aware of Red Sox baseball almost certainly weren't when my friend Sheldon's hopes for the '46 squad were dashed by Enos Slaughter. The nerve of some people to think they're entitled to be the fan police just because they have Nomah's autograph and saw Grady vote for Pedro.

Okay, I'm over it. I know that's not you. If you're still reading, thanks for letting me vent.

I hope it's a stellar Spring evening for you...

About the only thing I really worry about is a rainout. We can only be in Boston that one night. Besides, the whole trip is more of a treat for my Katie Casey than it is some kind of pilgrimage for me (though it's a littel bit of that too). I'd hate to get her so close and have her miss out because it was too wet to play ball.

[Lake]

I like the idea of having different colored Red Sox hats. That way, I can show support for my team no matter what colors I'm wearing that day. For instance, I like nothing better than throwing on my navy and green Red Sox hat and drinking at the social after a rugby game (my team colors are navy and green, natch). Or when I play softball on my black and gray team, I wear my all black with white outline Red Sox cap. It's about looking good while you're supporting your team.

Anyway, I'd much rather see people wearing odd-colored Red Sox hats than wearing an authentic Yankee hat, and isn't that what really matters here?

[ilivefaster]

Anyway, I'd much rather see people wearing odd-colored Red Sox hats than wearing an authentic Yankee hat, and isn't that what really matters here?

Me and my (navy, white, and red) 5950 (the one w/ the Boston skyline and the red B in the corner) agree completely with this, so long as they aren't Sox hats in Lakers colors. UGH. If those ever come out, I'll kill. I still refuse to like Jack Nicholson in anything since he wore the Lakers-colored Yanks cap in the Toilet.

Honestly though, I like the "fashion caps" way better in the official colors of the team than some random colorset... unless it's the green and white B caps, because those are cool for Celtics games, too.

[joewoodfan]

But I know it isn't her fault that she was born outside of New England

Ouch.

[Tony the Pony]

I like the idea of having different colored Red Sox hats. That way, I can show support for my team no matter what colors I'm wearing that day.

I don't get that.

Might very well be my European football background and all, but for me there's something called team colours.

What do I care about how the team's colours match to what I'm wearing any given day? Who am I, somebody on Queer Eye..? I can somewhat understand the green on March 17 (although it is quite the cheesy mkt move) but I can't really see the red jerseys either. Let alone gear in all shades of the rainbow.

Again, you can't really fault a highly commercial enterprise as the Boston Red Sox for trying, but buying and wearing it I just can't phantom

Too bad the name 'Purist' is already taken here ;-)

[TPetey]

I bought my 19-year old son a black-on-black Sox cap a couple of years ago while he was going through his "trenchcoat phase". Now, even though he no longer wears the uniform of the Teenage Angst Corps, it's still his favorite headgear.

As far as I'm concerned, it's the "B" on the front that matters. Everything else is just cloth, and I don't care what color it is.

Another note about "bandwagon fans": Aren't most of us jumpers? For most of us, wasn't there some initial event, some great season, or some fascination with a particular player that initially drew us into the fold? The differentiator -- the thing that marks us as real fans -- is that we didn't jump off again when the initial glow faded.

So, to all the fans of a lessor stature than I wearers: Welcome! Mingle some and get to know us!

As long as you stay, as far as I'm concerned, you've been one of us all along.
If you take off the cap and leave, you never were.



Edit: grammar correction

Edited by TPetey, 10 March 2007 - 01:35 AM.

[bowdog]

OK,

Third time trying to write on this thread.

I expect everyone to be a red sox fan. Maybe they just don't know it yet.
And every year, you become a little bit more of a fan.

[Quintananana]

As far as I'm concerned, it's the "B" on the front that matters. Everything else is just cloth, and I don't care what color it is.

I admit, Im one of those who has almost any color Sox hat that was made. Literally I own over a dozen sox hats... all different colors or combinations. But you have to be careful... My sister-in-law tried to give me a present for my day last year. The thought was definately there. She got me a powder blue Sox hat. No, I didnt dislike it because it was powder blue. That would have been pretty cool. But I was a little thrown off by the fact that it wasn't a Sox hat at all... it was a UCLA hat. Thanks sis.

[nvalvo]

Nice thing about living in the bay area: Coliseum never sells out. Well, not for the A's anyway. Can't wait to see the Sox in the new stadium over here. Too bad we're playing the Giants in Fenway this year. Would have been my first trip to SBC.

I could've written this exact post. The seats you can get for ten bucks (day of!) in the Coliseum are just marvelous, and for thirty or so you can get a really great seat — again, day of game. Some midweek games (except against the Sox and Yanks and, I believe, White Sox) you can get a TWO DOLLAR ticket. That's right: Two dollars to see a perennial contender in the American League. I've seen Barry pitch three or four times (saw him lose to Beckett when the sox were in town... MDC K'd Thomas on a sick curve with two out and two on); saw Bellhorn hit a homerun off Duscherer while wearing pinstripes (a strange experience); saw a few other games. It's a great stadium for families and the neutral fan. It's cheap enough and fun to bring friends who aren't even necessarily baseball fans, grab burritos on the way to the BART (they let you bring in food!), get tickets, buy a beer, sit down and begin explaining who Billy Beane is and why he is significant and why I keep yelling "Yoooooouuuk!" every so often.

I also haven't been to AT&T Park (cough cough) in my three-year tenure in San Francisco, because it costs more and I know the AL players better than the NL-ers. I do love that it's downtown though; I plan to catch a few games this year; I'd like to see the Phillies maybe. Feels like Fenway, as opposed to going to the Coliseum out by the airport and the railroad tracks — and soon, in fucking Fremont. In the name of all that's holy, that is a terrible idea: it will be the Foxboro of the Bay area. This is the Bay Area; I don't want to have to drive anywhere.

I will be seeing the Red Sox in Fenway this year, which will be a wonderful thing. My dad has good tickets.

Back on topic: I was a childhood sox fan; I was four in 1986 and remember watching it, if not the details of the games. I remember the Loma Prieta series more distinctly in 1989. I was a big Oil Can Boyd fan; I also liked the Gator. In high school I followed less closely, but I would listen to Joe and Jerry sometimes when Pedro was pitching or whatever, often while doing my homework. When I moved away from Massachuseets to go to college, my relationship to the team changed. I was busy and consequently wasn't as attentive (there are players from 2001 or so who came and went without my noticing), but I would keep an eye on the standings, and follow players I liked (Pedro, Manny, Nomar, Tek). I really got into the team again in 2003, and moved to California in 2004. I watched the playoffs in a Boston-themed sports bar on Polk street (there are three such establishments in SF, and a few NY-oriented ones) with a friend from high school. Now, I'm in graduate school and I keep tabs on the team religiously, largely through SoSH.

I don't think I'm a bandwagon fan as such. I don't think it was the team's success as much that got me involved as much as following the sox is a way that I mediate or channel my relation to New England as a home that I'm far away from.

[Kevin Jewkilis]

What's inside the head matters a lot more than the color of the hat on top of it.

fans of a lessor stature than I at Fenway don't bother me. People who stand and cheer for shallow fly balls do. That guy in the row behind me who spent the last six innings of a game saying that Francona should be fired for removing a starter who was injured (gee, if something makes no sense to us in the stands, maybe it's because we don't have as much information as they do in the dugout) bothers me a lot. The people in the really amazing seats who don't care about baseball or the Red Sox at all, but are using the corporate tickets to impress a client bother me.

Let's not let synechdoche and prejudice get in the way of giving people a fair chance. Just because she's wearing a fans of a lessor stature than I doesn't mean she isn't a real fan. (When she says, "Wait, Johnny Damon plays for the Yankees? But he was so dreamy!" then all bets are off.)



(Time to move the snobbery up a notch.)

My brother and I were at Murphy's major league debut last season. When he got his first major league hit, the reaction was very impressive -- almost everybody in the park was on their feet, cheering. We were talking about how knowledgable Red Sox fans are, recognizing the importance of the personal milestone.

5 innings later, Adam Lind (a September call-up DHing for the Blue Jays) got his first major league hit. While there was some applause, and a few people standing, the vast majority of the crowd was unaware. That was very disappointing, and made us question what we'd said just innings before.

Of course, it was a make-you-question-everything kind of day -- A.J. Burnett pitched a 3 hit, 1 run complete game. (Granted, Loretta and Youkilis were batting third and fourth, but still.)

[Blessyouboys84]

The crowd gets excited for no reason and always question our manager. It's frustrating.

That never happens in Boston?

[PrimusSucks626]

There's nothing hotter than a girl who can talk Red Sox. I really don't care what she's wearing.

There's nothing hotter than a girl who can talk Red Sox who's wearing nothing at all.

As for the fans of a lessor stature than I Wearers, let 'em wear the fans of a lessor stature than I. I don't concern myself with whether or not a person is a true fan, just with what's happening on the field.