2003-10-3 4:39 p.m.

An Ode to the Red Sox Fan

I like Red Sox fans.

No, really! Despite the fact that their team is playing against mine in the first round of playoffs (and getting the tar beaten out of them, incidentally), I have a little soft spot for the Sox and their fans.

First off, Boston is a great city. I've considered moving there more than once, and if it weren't for their climatic and culinary shortcomings (cold winters, fresh produce hard to come by in winter, the utter lack of spice in much of the food), I'd probably have lived there by now.

Second is their utter devotion in the face of futility. There are probably only a handful of Red Sox fans alive who even remember their last World Series victory. I'm sure the Boston Globe must trot them out for an article or two every April and September, or maybe there's a society of survivors that meets every year, kind of like the survivors of the 1906 quake do. And yet their fans who weren't alive to remember that series soldier on, year after year, loving their team in the face of almost certain defeat.

Thirdly, most of them are fun. They'll show up at the game yelling and screaming and cheering, but they're generally good-natured about giving and taking abuse. And if they get too rowdy, outshouting them with a few chants of "1918" is always great fun and will usually shut them up.

The final and largest point in their favor is their abiding and righteous hatred for the Yankees. The Yankees deserve every ounce of hatred that comes their way, and knowing that Red Sox fans are out there 24/7 hurling it warms the cockles of my heart. Yankees fans actually believe that most other baseball fans love their team, even though the Yanks see other teams as either roadblocks to their destiny or farm teams to be sucked dry of talent. And the less said about the syncophantic sportscaster Tim McCarver or about George Steinbrenner, killer of all joy and light in the baseball universe, the better. If it weren't for Red Sox fans, who would sell the rest of us our Yankees Suck t-shirts, I ask you? And for that alone, they would deserve our appreciation.

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