The Nation keeps multiplying

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.

– Cameron Smith