We’ve seen this once before, a completely Red Sox-crazed country, with all of New England doing backflips to pay homage to the city and team that brought it joy.
Wait, this guy is our closer!?! God help us, he’s just impossible not to love, isn’t he?
Well, strap yourself in folks, here we go again:
- The highlight of the recent Sox madness, appropriately enough, was the Rolling Rally through the city. The fans and signs were all pretty terrific, complete with the K-Men and mobile Papelbon, and Jonathan Papelbon certainly didn’t disappoint, dancing three separate times along the route, including a kilted jig at City Hall Plaza where he roped in bullpen mates Hideki Okajima and Mike Timlin. Oh, and he got to dance to his entry song, “Shipping off to Boston” live from the Dropkick Murphys. Not a bad way to go, eh?
- In terms of preposterous trends in naming, the Franklin Park Zoo clearly has set the trend. After 2004, there was a rush on the name “Boston” for everything from hamsters to children. Well, a baby giraffe born during Game 1 of the Series at Zoo New England has been named Sox. Yes, Sox. No correct spelling needed folks. Thanks to Red Sox Monster for catching this one early, but it’s a pretty terrific trend. So, if you meet some poor alcoholic named Sox 35 years from now outside of Copley at 2:30 on a Wednesday morning, you’ll know how it happened.
- Among a host of ridiculous videos posted, Eric Wilbur may have found the best one on his NESN and Globe-connected Boston Sports Blog, a Mario Bros. themed and customized clip, fully pixellated, that shows the Rockies’ run through the playoffs, right up until they get squashed by good ol’ King Kooba, who’s a fully decked out Red Sox fan. Terrific stuff.
Everyone, meet Sox. Sox, meet everyone. And yes his name really is Sox.
- Of course, we’re also in for a panoply of Sox appearances on late night shows, too. Jonathan Papelbon, likely to be the biggest hoot of the bunch, is on tonight’s “Late Show with David Letterman”. We’d be shocked if he’s not jigging at some point. Shockingly, not only is Manny Ramirez talking to the media in the playoffs, he’s going to talk to America on a late night show, getting full interview treatment on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno on Friday. No word on whether he realizes that appearance will require a flight to LA. An, just to round things out, the ever-affable David Ortiz will represent Big Papi style on Conan O’Brien’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”. The pure weirdness of Papelbon and Letterman in the same room makes for almost surefire hilarity, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Big Papi and O’Brien actually end up being funnier. The comedic potential of all these appearances, of course, is pretty much uncharted. Lots of good TV watching in the nights to come.
Naturally, we’re sure there’ll be much more attention, craziness and Sox-based debauchery in the coming days, and we’ll keep you updated on it all.
We were recently part of a blog roundtable hosted by Red Sox Monster and MassLive’s inimitable Dan Lamothe, so we thought we’d share our answers in preview of tonight’s Sox-Angels lid lifter. For those interested in the full roundtable answers, which also included bloggers from Red Sox Stat Guy, Sox & Dawgs and The Joy of Sox, here’s the spot for all your answers. Definitely a good anticipatory read.
And while we may not have hit the mark as squarely on some questions as our friends in the blogosphere, here’s our distilled question-by-question answers for your perusal. Interested to see what everyone thinks.
Isn’t it amazing how there are almost no questions about Mike Lowell heading into the playoffs? That’s how ridiculously reliable Dr. Double has been. It’s uncanny.
1) OK, let’s start with some basics. Since they clinched home field advantage in the playoffs, the Red Sox had the choice on what kind of schedule they wanted to play. They opted for “B,” which could extend the series to eight days, rather than seven. Good or bad for the Sox, considering the state of affairs for the two pitching staffs?
This seems like an obvious boost for the Sox, since it allows them to use both Josh “Don’t F@%$ with me” Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka twice. Now, a week ago, that previous sentence probably would have included using Beckett and Curt Schilling twice, but Terry Francona’s already decided to stick his neck out there before the playoffs even begin, opting for two potential Dice-K starts rather than two of the man who has enough nicknames to form a band himself: Mr. Ankle and his “Pay Me” Chorus! Still, while that might seem like a shaky move, Sox fans have to remember that Matsuzaka-san’s big-game dominance in the World Baseball Classic and throughout his Japanese career were two of the biggest reasons they were willing to shell out the GDP of a Central American nation to sign him. So what the hell, let’s roll with the Dice-Man.
OF course, if the Sox were playing the Angels, the schedule would mean two shots for both C.C. Sabathia and the operatic Fausto Carmona, which would be a VERY bad thing (good luck New York! Not!). But with the Angels, it means Jon Lackey at Fenway, where he’s been ROCKED (0-2, 8.38 ERA at the Fens) and Kelvim “Don’t Call me Kelvin” Escobar. That’s a much more palatable double dip, wouldn’t you say.
Then there’s the bullpen factor. While Hideki Okajima looked great against Minnesota over the weekend, there are bound to be some lingering concerns about the health of his arm. Having an extra day of rest between the first three games on helps things from a set-up angle.
2) The Red Sox went 6-4 against the Angels this season, but that includes a three-game sweep in April, when the Angels were struggling with injuries. How afraid should Red Sox fans be of the Angels? Would they have been better off drawing Cleveland in the first round?
The answer to the second part of this question, quite frankly, is a resounding NO! The Indians are straight up terrifying, and while the Halos can cause a lot of headaches on the basepaths, they’re incredibly over reliant on three guys for their power numbers: 1) Vlad Guerrero, who may have hurt his hand in the season’s final series, 2) Gary Matthews Jr., who DEFINITELY hurt his knee in the final series, and 3) old Boston favorite Orlando Cabrera, who has been dinged up a good portion of the season. If Boston’s pitchers can keep the O-Cab and gnats like Chone Figgins off the basepaths, there shouldn’t be too much to worry about. Certainly, the pitching seems like a distinct Boston advantage (again, see above), which wouldn’t be the case against the Tribe. We’ll see if that shakes out later, but let’s note get ahead of ourselves. Or the Red Sox.
3) Josh Beckett has been reliable throughout the season. For a second, though, let’s say he loses Game 1. Does anything change for the Sox?
Nope. If Joshie gets rocked, then Joshie gets rocked. One would hope he can find a way to avoid the kind of meltdown he had against Minny at the Fens the other day, but you never know. Down 0-1, Game 2 obviously becomes a virtual must win, but isn’t that when you want Dice-K on the mound? And any questions about his ability to come through in big games should be somewhat quelled by his performance in his last three regular season starts, which ranged from admirable to downright dominant. Ask Minnesota.
4) The Angels clinched the American League West on Sept. 23, then rested their regulars a fair amount of the time thereafter. It’s an age-old question, but advantage or disadvantage?
Neither, because while it might have helped, when Mike Sciosca played his starters they kept getting hurt! It’s remarkable. While it would have seemed like a nice refreshing bounce going into the playoffs, now LA has a handful of questions about Jr. Matthews, Vlad the Impaler, etc. (see above). So much for the rest, huh?
5) Tell us something that’s not common knowledge about this matchup. Anything the common fan has not noticed, do you think?
There’s so much talk about how the Angels run right at teams, about how they’re terror on the basebaths, you fill in your own baseball cliche here, basically. But as much as the Halos could present problems, some of that is mitigated by Tim Wakefield being left off the roster, which helps both in keeping them from running on him and also keeping Varitek as the arm behind the plate. Conversely, the Sox could be in an interesting position to turn the “run-happy” table on LA of Anaheim of Orange County of California of you get the idea. If Tito stacks the bottom of the lineup with two of Coco Crisp, Julio Lugo and Jacoby Ellsbury, you can bet those guys will be galloping trying to create runs. Ellsbury in particular could have a huge impact on the series. It’ll be fascinating to see how Tito works him into lineups and, failing that, into games as a super-sub. As good as J.D. Drew has been the last couple weeks, Ellsbury has been a revelation at the plate and on the base paths. It’s almost impossible to imagine he’s not going to get serious run, whether he’s filling in for Drew or Crisp. We do know he won’t be filling in for Manny, barring an injury. In fact, let’s not even imagine that possibility. Just forget I just wrote that. I’ll go singe the hair off my left forearm as pennance, so don’t worry, we’re all good.
As for the Angels, one HUGE dark horse to watch for is Casey Kotchman. We really can’t figure out why for the life of us, but the guy just gets Boston pitching. He hit a remarkable .343 against the Sox this year, with a handful of those hits making a difference out in Anaheim. Yes Sox fans, this is your official cue to go start digging up personal dirt to scream at him at the plate tomorrow afternoon.
6) So, who will win? What separates these two teams in the end?
Pitching separates the two teams in the end, just as it always does in the playoffs. Naturally, the Sox will have to get to the Angels’ starters, because the LA pen is pretty damn solid, what with Justin Speier and Scott Shields setting up K-Rod. It mirrors the Sox pen (the GOOD version) remarkably well, all the way down to Shields having an off year (see Eric Gagne) and Speier making up for it (see Okaji-san).
Still, with Matthews and Guerrero’s gimpiness, and with Lackey’s regular season tribulations as Fenway hanging like an albatross across Game 1, it’s hard to image the Sox go to Anaheim down 0-2, and really that’s the one way the Angels would seem like prohibitive favorites to pull out the series.
That means I’m picking the Sox, in either 3 or 4. I don’t see this puppy going full like those epic Oakland and Cleveland Divisional slates of the late ’90s. With a gun to my head I’d say 4 games as a buffer for a mediocre start from either Dice-K or “Buy my house in Medfield!”, but I would not be shocked by a sweep. Here’s hoping, right?
We bring this to light because we certainly didn’t know until this AP piece about this afternoon’s playoff rally at City Hall Plaza.
OK, so this picture is from 2004, but can you imagine how distracting and deflating it might be if it happens again, well, right now at City Hall Plaza?
The answer, of course, is The Standells, who recorded the piece in 1966, not knowing that it would be played after each Red Sox win in perpetuity. We’re willing to make an educated guess, however, that they’re hoping it’ll be played another, oh, 6-11 times this year.
Still, the question is prompted by The Standells’ appearance at this afternoon’s rally, and it’s role in the larger development of the AL Divisional Series. Sure, The Standells may be a fine band, and we know that The Dropkick Murphys, also scheduled to perform, are excellent. Just listen to Jonathan Papelbon’s theme of choice as he warms up on the mound.
The larger question is whether they should be playing a pep rally for a divisional crown. Sure, a team always wants to win the division, and perhaps should even expect to. But it’s hard to justify a grandiose celebration when there’s still so much baseball to be played.
The Red Sox stated goal every year is to win the World Series. They’re a large market team, one of the few that have no budgetary constraints to justify not putting an excellent team on the field year after year. They have deep pocket owners and a front office which seems to have a strong sense of vision, both for present and future, behind wunderkind World Series architect Theo Epstein. So why should the city be surprised that they win the AL East, even if it is the first time in 12 years it’s happened?
The answer, of course, is that it shouldn’t. And perhaps Boston isn’t surprised, but is rather just jubilant about the team’s success. On top of that, we’re willing to sign up for any situation in which Papelbon might be around alcohol or a microphone and do or say something crazy. He’s reaching that point in character-dom.
But the whole rally does seem a bit forced, doesn’t it? Particularly on a day when the Patriots are facing off at a supposed AFC contender in Cincinnati for an event that legitimately matter. A lot.
You remember this scene, right? We’re hoping for another one, and may get one, so long as today’s little celebration isn’t more distraction than motivation.
Not that we’re condemning the Boston front office or even questioning its judgment in going along with the pre-playoff rally plan. OK, maybe we are questioning its judgment, but we’re not going to condemn it. Yet.
If the Sox go out and look distracted or deflated in games 1 and 2 at Fenway? Then we will definitely condemn it. Harshly. Just wanted to throw it out there.
Interesting ruminations apropos of nothing heading into tonight’s deceptively huge Curt Schilling start (here’s the preview of tonight’s game against the Angels from Baseball-Reference) …
Look, we know. We used the photo a couple of days ago. But we’ll never get to see Pena in a Sox uni again, and this is definitely the best shot of that gorgeous left arm, so live with it.
As much as the Wily Mo Pena trade robs the Red Sox of one of the best nicknames on the team - The Coyote (seriously, will someone in Washington please buy the poor man another “L” for his name?) - it also takes a chunk out of another underrated strength of the organization: body art.
That’s right, Wily Mo has some seriously cool tattoos. They’re unique yet not overpowering, distinct yet deceptively within the confines of everyday American acceptability. His entire left arm is like the unholy love child of Mike Tyson’s Maori face and A.J. Burnett’s arms. In short, they’re not your everyday tribal tats.
So, with Wily’s considerable tattooed presence now property of the Nationals, who will take the forefront in Boston’s tattoo parlor? Here’s the short list, in order of significance:
1) Curt Schilling: The once and former ace is a serious video game aficionado, and he backs it up on his body … literally. The pitcher had the logo of his 38studios (formerly Green Monster Games) - an alien looking monster called Munch - drawn on his left shoulder over the offseason at Skinartstudio in Cambridge. The three-color design is a good four inches, and while you can’t see it under his jersey, Schill has been happy to mug the design by rolling up his sleeves in training sessions. Final tattoo score? 6 of 10.
2) David Ortiz: Papi’s huge bicep inking of his deceased mother, Angela Rosa Arias, is truly a work of art. Significant detail, classic green pigment and understated classiness (if you can say that about a tattoo). While garishness is usually a significant factor in determining the value of work on the skin, we’re willing to give this one the go ahead regardless. Final tattoo score? 8 out of 10.
Sure, he’s a Boston hero, but the Big Schill couldn’t crack the top spot on the tattoo countdown.
3) Brandon Moss: A darkhorse in this race, because he only played in three games for the big league Sox, among other reasons. Still, it’s hard to overlook the impressive design on Moss’s left bicep. Nobody seems quite sure what it is, but it has five segmented ovals along the bottom of his jersey sleeve, showing just enough ink to prove he’s a badass. An understated work worthy of high praise. Final tattoo score? 7 out of 10.
4) Manny Ramirez: ManRam’s had some work done, but he seems to hide it rather religiously. The long sleeves, or wrist and arm bands, or high gloves … nearly every inch of his body is perpetually covered, so the arm ink hardly ever gets noticed. The mere lack of exposure for Manny’s designs drops him down the list, despite a personality that makes you think he could head back in for more any day now. Final tattoo score: 5 out of 10.
OK, so we know there’s more on the chiseled young arms of other Sox players out there, but those were our four most notable. And our winner is? Big Papi, now the king of tats as well as clutch. Congrats David, go celebrate with Tiffany.
This week’s sign that the apocalypse is upon us? Jose Offerman is still playing baseball.
Well, that was the sign before Wednesday. That’s when Offerman went AWOL, attacked a pitcher and catcher and was trekked off in a Bridgeport, Conn. police car. Freaky stuff.
Here’s the lowdown, from Connecticut Post Bluefish beat writer Rich Elliot:
The game was delayed for 17 minutes in the top of the second inning following the attack by Offerman. Offerman homered on the first pitch of the game by Beech. An inning later, he was hit on the left calf by an 0-and-1 cut fastball from Beech.
Offerman immediately charged the mound with his bat in his right hand. He struck Beech on the fingertips of both hands and hit catcher John Nathans on the back of the head on his backswing. Both benches immediately emptied.
Offerman, Beech and Bluefish manager Tommy John were ejected. Beech and Nathans were taken to Bridgeport Hospital to be examined. Bridgeport police took Offerman into custody.
Crazy, right? Here’s the closest thing anyone can get to video from the incident … an interview with Bluefish manager Tommy John. Yes, that Tommy John, of elbow surgery fame.
Tommy John and Jose Offerman in the same clip? That’s just eerie.
Of course, this isn’t the first blog to take note of the incident and roll our eyes in pure gall (make that roll our eyes twice, once at Offerman playing, a second time that he went Robin Ventura with a bat!). We grabbed notice of the incident from Boston.com’s Extra Bases blog and MassLive’s Red Sox Monster. Dan Lamothe, the inimitably obsessive man behind Red Sox Monster, points out that Deadspin, With Leather, The Big Lead, and Pop Jocks all led with the mayhem.
But Lamothe himself may have the line of the night, when he goes through the Ducks lineup and notes - to all our horror - that one of Offerman’s teammates was none other than Carl Everett. Yes, the Dinosaur man himself. No longer tethered to Seattle, we see. So, let’s do the Long Island roster track record for a moment, shall we? Jose Offerman, Carl Everett, John Rocker? Nice to see that they’re investing in compassionate professionals out on the Island, isn’t it?
Believe what you will about superstitions and jinxes, but this can not be good for Red Sox fans anywhere.
Nooooo! Why didn’t someone just stab Terry Francona with a cocktail fork?
Last week I was in New York, walking around with a Red Sox hat while trying not to get jumped. You know, your basic day in the Big Apple. As I walked into a Starbucks, I noticed a new J. Crew catalog.
I didn’t have to look very deep to be horrified.
Right there - smack - on the cover of the August catalog where two young prepsters, geared up to move into a college dormitory (looks like BU kids) straight out of their vintage Land Rover jeep with mountains of books (we all did that, right? Mountains of books? Everyone liberal arts major needs theoretical physics texts from the 18th century!).
That’s not particularly important. I’m not overly defensive of BU. Terriers can fight their own battles. Here’s what freaked me out: Both of the models - one man, one woman - were wearing Red Sox hats.
What’s in a hat? Bad karma, for one.
This can not be good.
When a team has a dominant lead, what it doesn’t need is any bad hoodoo. And how can flaunting a team’s surging popularity - perhaps piqued by a surging divisional lead - help karma?
It can’t. Is there any wonder that the once humongous AL East lead is now, gulp, only five games? Five games! The Sox are within two bad series of a divisional tie! Are you kidding me? Why does this always happen?
One of the reasons it always happens may be because of the type of arrogance perpetuated on the cover of this month’s J. Crew catalog. Let’s just hope Banana Republic doesn’t catch on and have an eclectic hipster in a Sox hat next month.
There’s just no explaining it, is there? I’m giving up. Maybe the writers will delve into it, but I’m just willing to write off Safeco as an official house of horrors at this point. Let’s get a referendum started, shall we? In the meantime, here’s today’s best pieces:
Big Papi had a big night, but it wasn’t enough.
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
Lester’s grit a show of pride - It’s really a shame that Sean McAdam doesn’t write more often, isn’t it? When he does, he tends to churn out gems like this piece about the effect Jon Lester has had on his family, and even fans and onlookers.
Drew on bench after son’s surgery - See, McAdam can be great! This is another terrific heart-string piece, even though it’s mainly a notebook. Tremendous stuff.
BOSTON HERALD
Time to make their move - Herald columnist Tony Massaroti may have hit the nail on the head with this piece: the Sox need to make hay in August and put the division significantly out of reach. If they don’t, well, they’ll only have themselves to blame for a collapse.
Sox try to help Lester - Ever wonder how rolling deadlines affect newspapers in print editions? Just check out this Rob Bradford story … which was the last one the Herald could use for complete syndication. The West coast is just a killer sometimes.
BOSTON GLOBE
‘Wally’ roughs up shocked Lucchino - We don’t know where the inimitable Gordon Edes found this one, but it’s a truly fantastic oddball story, and truly can’t be missed. We’d say more, but it would clearly spoil the thunder from the punchline. We’ll stop now before mixing any more metaphors.
Pedroia is now hitting his stride - Edes side feature is all about mighty-mite Dustin Pedroia, and how he may have a big impact down the stretch.
Just when you thought the Daisuke Matsuzaka circus was calming down a little bit, the whole world reminds you that, well, there’s more to the world of baseball than America.
Dice-K’s loving the Pan-Pacific spotlight, even when it involves bizarre mascots.
That’s right Red Sox Nation, your Japanese contingent still sees Dice-K as a universal savior, to the point that they’re entrusting him to knock down attacking villains. Or at least annoying, attacking game show mascots. As first brought to you by our friend - and uber-YouTube scourer Dan Lamothe over at the Springfield Republican’s Red Sox Monster - feast your eyes on this:
You’ve GOT to be kidding me.
First, the facts: Evidently the mascot is named Carrasco. And if you freeze-frame his introduction, he’s wearing a shirt that pledges his allegiance to the Manutes Eagles, We couldn’t find any team matching that name, but try and read the black t-shirt for yourself. If you can get anything more out of it, you have better eyes than us.
But that’s about all we have as facts. If there are any loyal, fluently Japanese Sox Nest readers out there that would be willing to translate the whole transcript (Hideki Okajima fans? Anyone?), that would be great. Otherwise, uhh, we’re really not sure about anything else.
That, of course, leads to the postulating of a lot of questions. Like these:
1) What the hell is that thing? We’re going with the un-healthy love child of a catfish and a baseball, with a lot of purple artificial food coloring. Thoughts?
2) Whoever is inside that suit is crazy agile. Did you see the dugout dancing? Ridiculous. Somehow we find it hard to believe that a single Matsuzaka chop could fell him. And couldn’t he have gotten out of the way? It’s almost as if foreign game shows - any game shows, for that matter - were contrived novelty pieces. That couldn’t be, could it?
3) There is absolutely no way that Wally would have just acquiesced to the Catballfish like that. Wouldn’t have happened. And wouldn’t a giant, furry green monster have a prohibitive size advantage over a catfish-baseball? Something seems lost in translation here.
4) Say what you will about the guy and his consistency on the mound, but Dice-K is a full-out character. Watch his reaction to this entire stunt … he’s loving it. It just shows how unflappable this guy has been. You can’t faze him. Even with a cantankerous catfish-baseball.
Yeah, we don’t get it either.
And maybe that’s the only lesson to truly be taken out of this video: part of the reason why the Sox were willing to shell out $103 million and invest five years of the starting rotation in this guy is because he’s cool as a cucumber, under absolutely any conditions. It’s amazing. In fact, put him in the dugout next to Julian Tavarez and Jason Varitek - the players he’s seemed closest to so far - and you get the feeling you could get that reaction out of him any day. Perhaps even while he was pitching. While that might have seemed troubling before he’d pitched on this side of the left-coast pond, now it has to feel like a comfort.
So, we’ve learned that Red Sox fans should look at Matsuzaka with comfort, knowing he’s not going to clam up for a big game. Oh, and we’ve also learned that Japanese TV executives are absolutely insane.
Editor’s note: OK, so Sacha Baron Coen has been an absolute ass, and his agents have blown off a few (cough, cough 42) phone calls to get him to actually do this segment for us here at SoxNest. So, instead I’ve found another local stand-in to study the art of being Ali G, then interview Sox players as Ali himself. Or at least steal the answers that Sox players provide to NESN’s Hazel Mae in the weekly Ultimate Red Sox show. So, here comes a train wreck, starting with a guy so small he’s definitely going to be run over, Dustin Pedroia:
Ali: Big fan of Dustinn Pedhoya.
Ali-G: Bedebynow! Check dis, I is ere in butiful Fenway Pahk, kickin it wit my main man, Dustinn Pedhoya. He be de second base bloke for the Rhed Sox. Wicked. It’s a funny name you got innit it?
DP: Thanks
Ali: What wuz your parents tinking? Did they do it in a place called Dustin?
DP: I’m from California, so I don’t know.
Ali: If me and me Julie had a son, we’d have to name him West London shoppin’ mall. Or KFC at de West London Shoppin’ Mall. I really like dat chikun. What do you like to grub?
DP: I can cook. Spaghetti.
Ali: Spaghetti? Dat’s pasta innit it? Why would you eat sometin’ like dat? Dere’s so much 40’s and chikun here. And dere’s so much bassball. I don’t get dis baseball stuff, so wat else do you do?
DP: I watch a lot of TV series. You know, Prison Break, 24, Lost. I get ‘em on DVD and then watch them all in like three or four days. Really exciting life, I know.
Ali: Do you use dem to get jiggy wit your bitch’s babylons?
Ali sez it’s impotant to hunderstand sex … and know how to ghet it like Dustinn.
DP: My wife and I watch a lot of movies, too.
Ali: She must be like posh to smack on since you be de fit ball playa. But she’s small because you’re like dat mini me bloke.
DP: Wow. Well, my favorite actress is Catherine Zeta Jones.
Ali: Innit she de one who Michael Douglass is in? Why would you be on a geezer like dat? Me boyz say dat bitch be brick layin in a diaper wit her minge in dere.
DP: What was that?
Ali: Has you ever been in a ruk ere?
DP: We almost had a fight here earlier this season, but it didn’t happen.
Ali: Wicked! Dis be your turf, aiight? Watch you Warrior in dere.
DP: Sure, no problem.
Ali: Aiight, big up yourselves. Dis be Dustinn Pedhoya, and he be fit ball playa ere in de Fenway Pahk, and he be wantin’ to say to all you dat you better not come in on dis turf cuz dis de turf of Fenway Massive. No mo natterin’ wit’ des peeps, increase da peace, Westside!
Here’s a note that was brought to my attention by the good folks over at Surving Grady, perhaps its time to take stock in the spread of Red Sox Nation. According to the Grady-ites, a Baltimore weblog (The Loss Column) is planning a “Take Back the Yard” night when the Orioles host the Sox at Camden Yard Sep. 8.
San Diego: A particularly sunny outpost of Red Sox Nation.
That’s right, so many Sox fans have flooded Baltimore for Boston series, the Orioles are suddenly a road team. Just ponder the significance of that for a minute. A team that less than 15 years ago was a favorite to reach the World Series can no longer even hold a home field advantage. And that doesn’t even start to comment on the product the O’s, aka “Tejada, Roberts, two pitchers and a bunch of crap” are putting on the field. Ick.
But the more significant issue, from a Sox perspective, is just how far fans have to go to see the Sox in person. If you haven’t made a Fenway game this year - and judging by the current ticket prices on stubhub and ace ticket, you probably haven’t unless you’ve taken out a new mortgage on the family chateau - then you probably won’t as the season goes along. Tonight’s game with the Blue Jays will push the sellout streak above 350. There’s no end to the ticket shortage in sight. Fans are getting desperate.
How desperate, you ask? Remember the April series against the Jays in Toronto? Both Boston and Toronto players talked about how there were more Sox fans in the Rogers Center then Blue Jays backers. Within days, multiple drunken fan videos popped up on deadspin.
Yes, Sox fans outnumbered the hosts in another country.
No one’s forgetting this idiot from Atlanta’s Turner Field.
Look, this isn’t new. The Sports Guy has talked about how the children of the impossible dream generation, combined with the burgeoning hordes of college-converted Sox fans creates an ever growing populace of legitimate, or at least pseudo-legitimate, Boston backers. It’s a unique cultural fusion bred by the team’s very ethos and the unspoken power of the Fenway experience itself. Combine bandwagon fans, and those who have jumped on board purely because of their hatred of the Yankees, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Baltimore fans put out these ground rules for Sep. 8:
We will be making it clear to the Invaders that they are not welcome in our stadium. Like I said in the original post: if they insist on coming down here we need to at least get them out of thinking it’s a vacation.
This means we will engage in the following:
– Vigorous rooting for the home team
– Taunting of Red Sox fans
– Taunting of Red Sox players
– Generalized boisterousness and revelry
You know what? Let them have their delusional fun. They can’t stop the spread of Red Sox Nation, and come Sep. 8, they’ll probably learn its too late to take back their own park. It’s a sad statement on Baltimore sports, but reality is reality.
Now, just imagine how crazy the generation of children from the 2004 World Series will be.
