The funny thing about this and I probably wouldn't have even brought this up originally, but my son was at MGM Friday night (after all this) celebrating a birthday with some friends. They were sitting in a bar and didn't realize it, but was he sitting next to Chaim Bloom. He was tempted to introduce himself but said that Bloom didn't look like he was having much fun. The next morning I read this article and could see why.
@Sille Skrub Made me a liar!!!
This is going to be a little convoluted and may be a product of Sunday morning posting which is where I tend to get in trouble, and I preface this to say that I probably wouldn't have been joingin on the booing but...
Most of the incentive of the front office to put a winning team on the field is to make money. Sox fans (aka are the customer and have reputation (deserved or not) of being a passionate fan base. If things aren't going well in the fans' eyes, of course booing is going to happen. We've booed Williams, Pedro. We might have even booed Wally the Green Monster. It's immediate feedback for the powers that be. Booing. It happens.
In this case, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're ungrateful or that we're entitled. It means that we don't see a clear path forward to having a team that contends. I generally look forward to watching a Sox game, but 2022 was a tough year. It's difficult to get up for watching a Sox/Yankee game knowing that any chance of winning relies upon a fluke and not because the Sox have the better team. They clearly didn't have a better team in most series last year which is why they simply were not competitive for most of the year. Let's be realistic, success breeds expectation. Despite that the 2021 team was one series sweep against the Nationals from missing the 2021 playoffs, the post-season success raised the bar on what most considered to be a bridge year. That the "bridge year" resulted in being two games away from a WS appearance suggested that the Sox were showing greater progress in their timeline than anticipated... so of course expectations were higher in 2022. Instead... we got what we got. It's not entitlement, just feedback that they need to do better than a last place finish.
Like I said earlier, I don't really see a clear path forward and certainly don't see where this team is appreciably better than last year's edition. I suspect that a lot of those booing on Friday probably don't see it either. But if these guys are going to charge $6 for a pretzel, it doesn't stretch credibility that the customer would voice it's displeasure if the product on the field is lacking.