12/22/24
June 02, 2006
Hey fake fans: Make like Damon and leave: Red Sox Youth is now a privileged lot that sits behind home plate and talks on cell phones, and you cannot help but wonder if any of them ever played the game at all. And when you ask them if they did, they proudly show their blisters from the PlayStation hand control.
I read that piece, and so help me my only thought was, this guy writes like he's a loser, who has always been a loser, and he'll always be a loser, and he's held that simple fact as a self-evident truth, and no World Series victory or exodus of trendsuckers from his hallowed Fenway seat is ever going to change that. He's whining about these people like he was expecting the long-awaited success of the Sox to not draw the trendsuckers out of the woodwork. If they didn't come, I suspect he'd whine about that too. He does have the option of not giving the metaphorical bully his lunch money. Go to the games, or don't. Be a fan, or don't. Let the dilettantes get to you, or don't. Your choice, Massarotti.
posted by chicobangs at 01:19 PM on June 02, 2006
Well said, Chico. Those types of fans show up everywhere when a team is successful. My biggest problem is how the Red Sox (fans, others, not necessarily the players) tend to think they're above all that. Also, get off the Damon thing. The Red Sox (fans, others, not necessarily the players) also think their team is above having a player leave for another team. It happens to all clubs, get over it.
posted by dyams at 01:35 PM on June 02, 2006
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. Tony doesn't have to worry about getting tickets to the games for himself. It was also amusing to read Tony write that "the masochists" were claiming that interest in the Red Sox would cool off after they finally won a title. Actually it was many of Tony's colleagues in the media that were writing and saying that.I'd love to agree with the piece linked in the FPP and get on anyone who didn't start watching before 1980 or so, but I loathe the idea of being in the same boat as Tony Mazz. His voice . . . is exactly what you would expect given this kind of screed.
posted by yerfatma at 01:40 PM on June 02, 2006
The Red Sox (fans, others, not necessarily the players) also think their team is above having a player leave for another team. It happens to all clubs, get over it. Truly, it's not THAT. It's because he, himself, won't shut the fuck up about it.
posted by jerseygirl at 01:52 PM on June 02, 2006
Our author. Now get off my lawn!
posted by wfrazerjr at 02:04 PM on June 02, 2006
The Red Sox are trendier than a Louis Vuitton handbag these days, more than three years removed from their last baseball-free October. I have a Left Coast bias, so Maybe things are different out here, but the thing I have noticed is that the BoSox are way less trendy than they were before they won their North American Series. 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. 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." Massorotti is really pissed about the fact that his team gave up most of their real cultural mystique when they won the Series, and now they are no different than other high profile Upper East Coast sports team with a classic tradition.
posted by everett at 02:15 PM on June 02, 2006
Too funny. The author is complete asshole. How can you be so elitist about a MLB team? It's not some indie rock band with insider-only cache. It's a top payroll juggernaut of a franchise. It's like someone getting mad that the general public keeps walking into their local McDonald's and not treating it with the hallowed respect it deserves. What a pussy.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 02:16 PM on June 02, 2006
Its sort of like indi rocker types who praise a band only up until the point that the band gets recognized It's exactly like that and it's human nature to feel like that (whether it's bands, vacation spots, whatever), so Mazz basically took a long weekend on the front page of the sports section. Can't imagine why The Herald isn't doing better.
posted by yerfatma at 02:18 PM on June 02, 2006
I think it's just a Sox thing. Been to a White Sox game lately?
posted by timdawg at 02:45 PM on June 02, 2006
You don't have to pass a test to get in, you only need to have a ticket. You don't have to like who your sitting next to. Everyone has different reasons for being at a particular game. In the end its just entertainment!
posted by INOALOSER at 02:50 PM on June 02, 2006
That stuff happens everywhere. I have been a Cincinnati Bengal fan all of my life. The 1980's were fun, the 1990's were the most painful for a sports fan. Bengal fans were hard to find, even in Cincinnati. Now all of a sudden everyone in the surrounding area is a fan. Those types of fans are referred to as PLASTIC
posted by lightman at 04:14 PM on June 02, 2006
not the same for football. used to be a 5 years wait just to get on the waiting list for 49er season tickets. now there is a waiting list on eBay to get rid of them.
posted by irunfromclones at 04:20 PM on June 02, 2006
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.
posted by HATER 187 at 04:20 PM on June 02, 2006
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.
posted by L.N. Smithee at 04:45 PM on June 02, 2006
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.
posted by ?! at 05:05 PM on June 02, 2006
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!
posted by L.N. Smithee at 05:22 PM on June 02, 2006
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.
posted by redsoxrgay at 06:00 PM on June 02, 2006
As much as I hate to admit it redsoxg I couldnt have said it better myself
posted by skins fan at 06:14 PM on June 02, 2006
"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?
posted by ?! at 07:23 PM on June 02, 2006
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."
posted by usfbull at 10:28 PM on June 02, 2006
No one goes to the Sox games anymore. It's too crowded.
posted by chicobangs at 01:30 AM on June 03, 2006
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).
posted by dyams at 07:10 AM on June 03, 2006
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."
posted by wfrazerjr at 08:45 AM on June 03, 2006
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.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:52 PM on June 03, 2006
Whod've thunk it. A-holes at Fenway! (Sorry, just a cocky remark from a Yankee fan). Many of them are wearing NYY caps.
posted by swerve at 05:24 PM on June 03, 2006
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'.
posted by justgary at 01:27 AM on June 04, 2006
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.
posted by alumshubby at 03:41 PM on June 04, 2006
Well said those Sox fans. If there's one thing I really can't adide it's a glory hunter.