Enough is enough.
There used to be plenty to like about Red Sox Nation. The bombast, the bitterness, the barely-even-joking belief in curses—these were charming, in their own twisted way, as only the hopeless neuroses of an inveterate loser can ever really be charming.
But then the Sox finally won.
And suddenly a buried David Ortiz jersey is sufficient cause to root for Hank Steinbrenner.
In 2003, the jersey stunt would have been cute. Now it’s just lame. Pathos in an underdog is excusable, endearing, evocative of those trials and tribulations that comprise the human condition. Pathos in a big shot is just, well, pathos.
When Woody Allen makes a fool of himself trying to get the girl, it’s funny.
When Ben Affleck does it, it’s Gigli.
Maybe that’s why one of them looks so natural in the front row at Fenway Park.
For the record, I’m not out to fault Sox fans here, because Lord knows it isn’t easy to have your dreams come true. Anyone can lose. Winning demands a certain ironic grace, an understanding that victory is not and never can be a thing worth debasing yourself for. Unfortunately, nine decades of privation tend to limit a man’s capacity for perspective.
If you want something for too long, you’re liable to wind up needing your own sense of need.
If you want something for too long and then actually get it, on the other hand, you’re liable to wind up longing for the days of Bucky Dent and Mookie Wilson.
Funny how some demons just plain refuse to be exorcised.
You can’t get enough of a good thing. Ever. We aren’t wired for long-term satiation, because in some ancient evolutionary eon he who got satiated was he who didn’t survive to sow his seed among the next generation. Chronic psychic dis-ease is good for the species. The only catch, of course, is that what’s good for the species is very rarely good for the Champions of the World.
It’s the same old story, isn’t it Bubba?:
There’s something you’ve got to have, a distant glimmer you merely and fundamentally cannot Be without.
And so you wait and you hope and you hope and you wait—and to pass the time you tell anyone who’ll listen how it’ll be better, later; how you’ll get over yourself, and your Self; how you’ll be able to Die in Peace, so long as you finally get a taste of that Last Big Thing.
And then, one fine morning, your ship comes in.
And you’re still there.
And you discover to your horror—the horror, Bubba, the horror!—that you were only ever just saying, is all...
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3 months ago
You hit on something here Ryan. I grew up in New York and watched twenty-five years of the NFL before the New York Giants won the Super Bowl in 1986. I also watched twenty-five years of the NHL before the NY Rangers won the cup in 1994. I will freely admit that when they won it was weird in one did not know how to feel. A good friend of mine lives in Massachusetts and he had a similar experience when the Red Cox won their first modern day World Series in 2004. He said all the people in New England were beside themselves in that they could no longer COMPLAIN about the crappy Red Sox!
3 months ago
You haven't hit on anything. Losing is never better. You're and idiot.
from 3 months ago
Colin: "You're and idiot"
...just wondering.. but don't you mean "You're an idiot"..?
a bit contradictory don't you think?
3 months ago
Ryan, if I hadn't already used my pick of the day, this one would easily have got it.
Great piece.
3 months ago
I think you are onto something. Baseball fans who love the Red Sox fans probably cried, wept and did everything they told themselves they'd do if they ever won it all.
It's the 'underdog' fans who chose the Red Sox. Those fans of the lovable losers, they're the ones who's devotion became listless and wandering, drifting like a rudderless boat on a lake; because the Sox aren't underdogs anymore.
It's the 'rail against the establishment' fan; who's coming to realize that the Sox are quickly becoming the very establishment they're compelled to rail against.
The Red Sox 'fan' who wears Che Guevara shirts at coffee houses during the week won't be rooting for the Sox much longer. With every Sox victory, they'll become more disinterested.
from 2 months ago
I am a diehard Red Sox fan who grow up in the Boston area, and I am telling you, the more they win, the MORE interested I get. So I strongly disagree with this response, but this is only from one member of that "nation."
3 months ago
Great article!!!
3 months ago
haha Ryan, this was a nice start to the morning. But let's be honest... the Red Sox traded Ben Affleck to the Yankees back in 2004 for Jimmy Fallon. It's not that much better... but still a little bit better.
I couldn't help but notice your grapes tasted a little sour Ryan... kidding, great article!
3 months ago
I see what u mean.
3 months ago
Nice photoshop of the Red Sox gear.
3 months ago
The Gigli reference was enough for Vote of the Day for me.
Good stuff...
3 months ago
Ryan, what can I say? You've just said it all....great stuff....I'm still laughing.
It kind of reminds me of how Auburn is now: dominate over Bama, when it used to be that Bama was the stuff. But even though the Tigers have freakin owned the Tide lately, all you will ever hear from Auburn is complaints about Bama - Bama this and Bama that, nothing about themselves. Now it's like winning is not good enough - they want to be back in their "comfortable, miserable state." I think that's how the BoSox are, because winning is just out of their comfort zone!
3 months ago
when depression and let down goes 2 generations deep its kinda hard to "excorcize" those demons. i mean lets face it 86 years of loss is a long time....... but u think sox fans are bad wait till the cubbies win a series. they have sucked so bad that even when back to the future II came out and went to 2015 they still sucked. i cant wait for my blog implant to pick that article in the distant future
3 months ago
The parallels between the Red Sox and the Suns are almost eerily similar, with the Yankees playing the role of the San Antonio Spurs. I'm not sure what I will do when the Suns win the title this year. Great article Bubba!
3 months ago
Good article. What you're saying is probably true.
3 months ago
This whole jersey thing isn't about winning and losing per say, its just about one of the greatest rivalries in sports. Red Sox fans hate the New York Yankees because that's how its always been. The Sox won a world series, but that doesn't mean all the fans are going to shake hands with Yankees fans and say "ok no more hard feelings". And those fans that bail just because the Red Sox win, weren't fans, they'll get over it and the people who leave and breath Boston will always support the team, and to reply to an above comment, and will always complain, its the New England way.
3 months ago
Say this exact same event happened five years ago. Would the Yankees have spent an entire afternoon and thousands of dollars to dig up the shirt? Or would they have laughed it off as a pathetic attempt by a losing team to "jinx" them?
That's the greatness of the jersey stunt...
Nice article. :)
3 months ago
Amen. Screw Red Sox Nation!
3 months ago
reason why so many people all around the country are "Red Sox fans", or part of Red Sox Nation:
...Because for the longest time, whether born in the 90's or all the way to the 40's and beyond, people have experienced an era of the Yankees at least 2 or 3 times winning the World Series.
So many people hate the Yankees and I think a lot of people think that since they hate the Yankees, they must like the Red Sox as a result. Every time I talk to a so-called "Sox fan" where I live, the only reason they give on why they like them is something like "dude, I've always loved the Sox"..
other reason:
...It seems as if there is a social trend that liking the Red Sox is just as comparable to having that new type of polo or something stupid like that. It's the "cool" thing to do. Very similar to the UNC Tarheels and how people only like them because they're baby blue, and it's the trendy thing to do.
Of course, people in the New England area will mostly be Sox fans, and they obviously have a valid reason. But please, I live in Cincinnati and there are seriously almost just as many apparent Red Sox fans than they are Reds fans.
3 months ago
I am confused. The "Jersey Stunt" was started by a single, random red sox fan, and then compounded by the ENTIRE YANKEES ORGANIZATION that responded to it. The Red Sox organization had no involvement in this, and certainly neither did "Red Sox Nation". It was a clown who buried a jersey and then the entire yankees organization made a big deal out of it.
How does this episode negatively affect the Red Sox or "Red Sox Nation" in any conceivable way? It doesn't -- it is the Yankees who should be embarrassed by this whole thing.
from 3 months ago
Kudos my friend way for the new york media to blow another story outta control and for the yankees to make a mockery of the greatest rivalry in sports history well second best next to ranger/celtic
3 months ago
I for one am happy to see the idea of curses and such live on. With all of the steroid issues baseball has been suffering, it is nice for baseball to still have a "classic" feel. Hopefully baseball will always be America's past time, hopefully I won't have to look back at baseball and say "oh it was so much better back then" as I now have to do with the NBA. Keep the curses going, keep it classic.
2 months ago
good article. dead on. extremely repetitive.
2 months ago
It was all as a fun jester. You want to see a real problem, evaluate Hank Steinbrenner. There is an issue that is a joke. Bad article, try again.
2 months ago
I wish the Colorado Rockies would have beaten the Red Sox last year.
But, then again, I wish for a lot of things....
I always thought that Red Sox Nation was a moniker given to the 6 New England states that inherently root for Boston - MA, RI, CT, VT, NH, ME....not the whole damn country
These selfish morons think it means all of the US.....they are wrong
2 months ago
As a Sox fan from a family of Sox fans, I really enjoyed your article. It's very true, and you have a heck of a writing style to boot. Right after the Sox swept the Cards in '04, my brother and I had an existential conversation about the very points you made. At the time, I wondered why we were having an existential conversation like a couple of geeks, when we should have been celebrating like madmen, and decided my brother was an idiot. The very next season, though, I started thinking about that conversation, and realized my brother was dead on, because I could never watch the Sox in the same way I had before.
2 months ago
As a Red Sox fan, I'm sorry we offended you by rooting for a team that won. Should we expect similar articles about the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs or the Chicago White Sox?
Would you have written this in November of 2000?
Didn't think so.
from 2 months ago
I'm a White Sox fan myself, Alex, and I think he's hit on something here. When the Sox finally punched their golden ticket in '05, it was almost...empty. I had been imagining for years(well, only 10 or so, seeing as how I was only 17 when they won) what I would do when the ChiSox finally won it all. Would I jump up and down, run up the street, shoot off fireworks, or do the unthinkable and weep?
I didn't do any of that. I just pumped my fist and waited to shove it in everyone's faces at school the next day.
When you're a fan of a team that hasn't won in a while, you always say something along the lines of, "When they finally do it, I can die in peace." But then, they win and you've still got a long road to walk, so you want more. While I don't care too much about the jersey stunt, I'll say that Ryan's got a point. I use every opportunity I can do shove it in Cubs fans faces. Speaking of which: hope the boys in blue enjoy their 100-year anniversary of being the worst team in Chicago!
Besides the Bulls, of course.
about 1 month ago
Very well written piece.
Speaking personally, as a Bostonian transplanted to the Philly suburbs, there is something about the psychology of rooting for the lovable loser. It's like my wife says-expect the worst, so that way you're never disappointed.
The post-2004 Red Sox fan, from my perspective, is just a little bit less passionate. I know I still root, and follow, and live and die with my boys, because they've always been my boys. If they're 72-90 a few years from now, they'll still be my boys. But there isn't that near suicidal edge, like when, in the first hour of my thirty second birthday, I watched Aaron Boone's homer fly into the seats and wondered why in the hell I follow this stupid game.
26 days ago
This is a terriblely written article on a number of levels. First, only thing more saddening then Boston bandwagon fans, is journalist, or psuedo-journalists who jump on the boston-bashing bandwagon. Please, Boston is successful and as a result has more fans, some more serious than others, than ever. Completely natrual. Now, that being said, another article about how Boston fans were cool when they were losing and now are obnoxious because Boston is so successful is exactly what it sounds like, and yes I'm going to play that card: jealousy. I am a lifelong Red Sox fan and don't care about bandwagon fans. Why? Because its none of my buisness, it doesn't bother me, and I don't worry about this public image of "Red Sox Nation". If anything when I see a douchebag bandwagon fan, I know they're not worth talking to. Boston keeps winning. Get over it.
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