I grew up during the dark times of the Yanks (1980's) and felt a bit miffed when everyone and there mother was all of a sudden a yankee fan after 1996. That being said, it is kind of expected to happen when a team wins a championship, everyone loves a winner.
Quit whining. I was a fan of the Giants in their long dry period between 1972 and 1987, when they were division contenders only twice (1978, 1982). During those years, single-game attendance fell as low as 748, and NO, I am NOT making that up. Every off-season, the talk wouldn't be about what the Giants would do next season, it would be about whether there would be a next season -- at least in San Francisco. In 1976, the Giants almost moved to Toronto, when a total stranger (Bud Herseth, a cattle rancher from Arizona) threw a few million Bob Lurie's way to keep the team in San Francisco. In 1992, Lurie sold the team to a Tampa Bay group for over $100 million, pending other MLB owners' approval. It was denied mostly due to CBS crying foul about the exchange of the #5 TV market for #13, and the team was sold to a local group instead for less than the Tampa group's offer. Even when the Giants became perennial contenders, you could still get great seats at Candlestick/3 Com Park, because the somewhat deserved reputation of the place as a cold, foggy, windy, charmless concrete monstrosity kept fans away. So the fans that showed up are ones that wanted to be there, and come September, when the playoff drives went into high gear, all the people who hadn't been buying tickets all year wanted to be there. So the front-runners splurged on the choice seats behind the plate and along the baselines, leaving foul-weather fans like myself further from the action. Front-runners don't know how and when to cheer, so it's harder to get the same level of noise out of 30,000 grandstand newbies than you would have out of 12,000 loyalists. Now the Giants play in a sparkling (but cramped) jewel of a ballpark, and annual attendance has yet to drop below 3 million. The G-men outdraw the Dodgers now, something nobody thought possible, and yes, there are meek, hand-sitting fans everywhere you look who don't make noise until the message board tells them. But I live with the front-runners because I don't want to go back to the old days, when I had plenty of space, made plenty of noise, and the team sucked. Talk about reversals of fortune -- that sounds like 49er games now.
Quit whining. Good comment. The type of fans the columnist refers to sounds very familar to me. I can understand a bit of his irritation. I was a Sox fan back when Luis Aparicio was at SS. Now I am totally amazed how many Sox hats I see here in Florida. I am sure they'll be gathering dust in a few years. At least the Sox are still playing. My Montreal native wife now just hates going to games. When we do my daughter and I break out our best funeral clothes.
everett: Its sort of like indi rocker types who praise a band only up until the point that the band gets recognized, at which time said hipster denounces the band as a "sell-out." Amen, bro. I have never understood that mentality. So many times I've heard it. "Train in Vain" by The Clash hit the charts, and the whine began, "Ehhh, they sold out." Ditto "Enter Sandman" (Metallica),"Longview" (Green Day), and the list goes on. As if in a time when a no-talent like Ashlee Simpson sells millions of CDs, those musicians exist to make you feel special because they are your little secret, and should in live in a van in obscurity throughout their careers to protect your delicate ego. Kiss off!
And so now, somewhat sadly, the Red Sox have gone global. What an asshole. This has gotta be one of the dumbest articles I have ever read. The guy is obviously confused with what he wants. Just because someone isnt as diehard as he is, its good for the team to have those type of fans too. Thats what makes money. people who wear those "obnoxious pink hats" and go to the games is what keeps the team afloat.
As much as I hate to admit it redsoxg I couldnt have said it better myself
"Thats what makes money. people who wear those "obnoxious pink hats" and go to the games is what keeps the team afloat." Exactly. Sad isn't it?
Great comparison with the indie rock band. When I read this on the Herald site this morning, all I could think about was my freshman year at Northeastern University (1991), and every dorm room seemed to be blaring Nirvana. Seemingly, each occupant claiming they discovered them and bitching about their growing popularity. I was a white suburbanite who showed up with PE and NWA cd's and all along my comment was that (insert gigantic record company here) did, not you. Articles like this expose Boston as a bitter city, even in success they will find something to complain about. WFRAZERJr, is that Wilfred Brimley? I believe he said: "I didn't go to high school. I think that after you learn to read and write and do your numbers and flush the toilet behind yourself, you don't need no more schoolin'. You need to get out in the water and swim."
No one goes to the Sox games anymore. It's too crowded.
No one goes to the Sox games anymore. It's too crowded. LOL Whod've thunk it. A-holes at Fenway! (Sorry, just a cocky remark from a Yankee fan).
During those years, single-game attendance fell as low as 748, and NO, I am NOT making that up. LN, thanks for the link to that. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't read it for myself. And no wonder you sucked -- you had Steve Ontifuckingveros starting at third. Yes, that is Wilford Brimley, patron saint of crotchety old men. I believe his prayer begins and ends, "Have a bowl of oatmeal and STFU."
yerfatma: While I might agree with the overall theme, it seems a bit ironic that Massarotti and a lot of other media people used those same bandwagon fans to sell books to after the World Series championship. That was my though exactly. Weren't these the self-same guys who smothered the reading public with the (IMO dumbass) label "Red Sox Nation" -- and now Massarotti has a case of the ass because johnny-come-latelies apply the label to themselves with no apparent sense of their own ridiculousness? You created the monster, buddy, and we all have to live with it -- the least you can do is endure your shame in silence. I think we've got raging consensus on just how annoying trendlemmings can be, and if watching the Red Sox (or any MLB team that's won a championship or two recently) is your heart's desire, you're probably SOL. If, on the other hand, you don't just love Team X but the sport itself, there are a lot of other avenues. Frankly, as much as I love the Yankees, I just don't know when I'm going to go through the expense and aggravation of a live game...but I can drive fifteen minutes and see a good college-league game for five bucks.
Whod've thunk it. A-holes at Fenway! (Sorry, just a cocky remark from a Yankee fan). Many of them are wearing NYY caps.
I have all sorts of friends who thought it was so cool to be a real fan of the cursed Red Sox through all of the hard times, and so close but no cigar, "no fair weather fan here", yada, yada, yada When in actuality failure is what made them fans in the first place. Red Sox fans, (not unlike Chicago Cubs Fans) enjoy the masochistic nature of the association. Bill Simmons has written plenty on this, but really, that's bull. Those aren't real fans. My father was a fan because his grandfather was. I became a fan because my father was. There was no mention of the curse, I was never a miserable fan, nothing has changed for me, except, sure, it was great watching them win the ws. Watching them today is as wonderful as it was before they were 'winners'.
They show up like every day is Christmas, and you know what that means: You just lost your seat at church. You have shown up week after week, year after year, and now you have to stand behind the last pew because of some lady with an obnoxious pink hat. I don't know how they do things in Boston, but I'm more used to seeing holiday churchgoers wear obnoxious pink accessories at Easter.
