It’s playoff time again and that means a whole lot of TV watching this month and glowers at Susie every time she schedules an evening activity that happens to conflict with one of the better match-ups.
As an American League fan (the NL is so very 20th century), I’m forced into checking out the Yankees and Red Sox for the next 10 days. I’m a devout A’s fan, so this particular series drives me nuts for any number of reasons — to the point of alienating my friends.
Dennis is a displaced Red Sox fan, now in California for nearly 10 years. All through the season he’s sent me pro-Red Sox articles describing how great it is to be part of the Red Sox nation. Feh, I say.
From Dennis:
One of my ESPN bosses pulled the “This is the year” routine with me on the phone this morning, then asked what would happen to me (and every Red Sox fan) if we won the World Series. You know, the whole “Wouldn’t you lose your identity?” thing. I’ve gotten this from time to time over the years, and I always thought it was so ludicrous that it didn’t even warrant its own column. But since people keep bringing it up, I’ll explain it to you once and for all:
Red Sox fans don’t define themselves by the fact that the team hasn’t won the World Series since World War I. We’re defined by the fact that the team hasn’t won the World Series since World War I. There’s a
difference. We hate hearing about the (rhymes with “schmurse”), we bristle at every “19*8″ reference … we just want to reach a point where nobody brings this stuff up anymore. It amazes me how many people don’t understand that. All we ever wanted was to be “Just
Another Team That Won the World Series Recently.”Nine wins to go. And that’s that.
You see, this is just it. I am so darn tired of hearing about it, too. Maybe that’s not Boston fans’ fault, but they aren’t exactly trying to dissuade it. I challenge you to find me a team with more outspoken and neurotic fans of a single franchise in the US. Why do I never hear about Cardinal team traditions, White Sox, Indians, the Giants even? These fans have ‘suffered’ (often self-induced suffering) every bit as much over the last 35-70 years, 2-3 generations worth. At least the Red Sox challenged during a hefty percentage of those years.
It’s not the definition I’m tired of. It’s the defining.
I mean, I just searched on Amazon and came up with well over 50 books about the Red Sox before I gave up looking. A hefty percentage of them have 1975 or 1967 or 1978 in the subtitle. Whose fault is that?
As a resident/native area borne of immigrants from all over the US, I’m all too aware that most times an east coast team comes to town that I will be shouted down in my home arena. I don’t like it, but I’ve learned to live with it. My peeps are Easterners, too, and I know my Dad still gets excited about the Mets. I get it. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. And, I gotta say, and my brethren on AthleticsNation loudly agree, Red Sox fans are the absolute worst guests entertained at the Oakland Coliseum.
I hate the way they played out last year’s ALDS. (I hate the way my team played it, too, but for different reasons.) I have NEVER seen anything so rude as what the players pulled in Game 3, and the way the fans played right along. Only USC’s fans even come close in my experience. (That may make me sheltered, but then you’ve never seen 92,000 uber-rich Trojans fans sieg-heiling in unison as their inner-city running backs run up the score.)
Oohhhh, my blood boils. Cal hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1959. I know sports humility.
So I have hard time getting real empathetic. Not this decade.
By the by, the absolute NICEST fans I ever encountered were Nebraska Cornhuskers when they came en masse to Berkeley. A LOT of them coming a LONG way.
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I enjoyed reading everything Shawn, with the exception of the tirade against the Red Sox Nation. After living in Boston the past year and a half and having been a Red Sox fan all of my life, I can tell you that the tension in the air here is palpable and every last citizen of this city is not thinking much about working today but looking uneasily at the weather reports and out the window at the rain that could delay the series a day. Most Boston fans want this to be over too. I was so heartbroken last year that I walk around with a nervous energy that begs for us to finally win the World Series, or in the very least beat the Yankees to get there..
I agree that some Red Sox fans can be rambunctious but they are loyal to the core and going to see a game at Fenway Park is one of the most exciting places to see America’s Favorite Pastime played. When I lived in San Francisco I enjoyed the A’s over the Giants. Not because I preferred Oakland to San Francisco but because the A’s games were a little more similar to the games of the East Coast that I grew up with. I can’t tell you how much I missed the energy that the fans bring to the team here. The hot dog smell almost makes me give up vegetarianism and I don’t know how you survive without doing the wave. And yes, we have had our fair share of idiot drunk fans but lest we forget that one rotten apple shouldn’t spoil the whole bunch..
Don’t be bitter about your teams not making it this year. I realize that the A’s have a bit of a “curse” on them as well. But don’t cheer for the Yankees, they don’t need the help and they are too arrogant to appreciate it anyway. We need some good thoughts toward our underdog here.. Who’s Your Daddy? I mean come on. Yankees 2 Red Sox 0 – hopefully not for long.
Tell Dennis I said hi and am representing well back here. Go Sox!
“Who’s Your Daddy?” is at least spontaneous from the crowd — and fire on the gasoline that Pedro himself poured on the ground.
As opposed to five Red Sox players standing on the top step of the dugout with LILLL-LLLLYYYY taped to their jackets, egging the crowd on. That was the least sportsmanlike I’ve ever seen a team do. (As opposed to an individual player… seen lots worse from individuals…) It will be a long time before I get that image of the Red Sox out of my head.
Doing the wave is incredibly lame. It happens plenty in Oakland unfortunately, but never at Pacbell.