THE PLANK OCTOBER 26, 2007
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After I slandered an entire "nation" of sports fans, it's only fair that I point to a positive counter-example: Mark Armour, who's written a lovely piece for the Baseball Analysts site about his own lifelong Red Sox fandom. The best bit:
As a fan of the Boston Red Sox, I submit that the team is no more,
and no less, worthy of my caring than they were five years ago, or
thirty years ago. The winning has changed the labels applied to me, but
the new labels are no more accurate than the old labels. Winning is
fun, don’t get me wrong. But I had fun in 1969, when we finished a
gentleman’s third. Maybe it was even more fun--I was eight years old,
after all. But in thinking it over, I admit that I miss the days when
Red Sox fans were admired and thought to be the smartest guy in the
room. Maybe we weren’t, but I liked hearing it.But really, I just want to be treated like any other fan. I know
faithful Indians followers, smart Pirates nuts, proud Phillies
loyalists, and, yes, kind Yankees fans. My wish is that they all
experience the occasional championship banner, but also that they enjoy
the journey every year. But none of them, and certainly not I, can
represent a Nation, or be made to pay for the sins of their team.
I think that last graf should be a code of sorts for all sports fans. Hell, in one of my weaker moments, I might even say it about Duke fans. (H/t J.S.)
--Jason Zengerle
11 comments
Armour protests too much when he says that he wished that a Yankees fan would experiencce "the occasional championship banner." No real Red Sox fan would say that, any more than a true Washington Redskins fan would wish the "occasional" Lombardi Trophy on the Cowboys.
- kerouac9
October 26, 2007 at 10:37am
That's very generous of you.
Go to Hell, Carolina.
- jamie322
October 26, 2007 at 10:53am
Exorcising the Curse of the Bambino has, at least for some of us, taken a bit of the fun out of watching the Bosox get so close, then, inevitably find some way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This year's post Bambino purged Sox even border on a bit of the Yankee arrogance. I remember experiencing a simiiar feeliing when Pia Zadora, a long time kitsch fav of mine, finally found a thin veneer of respectabilty when she started warbling those standards and even got a positive review for it. The plate shifted one could say. I sure felt it. Maybe you did too.
That is how it feels right now with the Sox just beatin' the crap out of the Rocks...
- MrCookie1
October 26, 2007 at 11:05am
I had it with Boston fans when they booed Johnny Damon's return to Fenway after he signed with the Yankees as a free agent, presumably because it demonstrated mercenary disloyalty. This was three years after he left Oakland to sign with Boston as a free agent. I guess deserting "Red Sox nation" is a worse form of apostasy than deserting another team, which after all, had fans too.
It dawned on me that here were 38,000 people who formerly cheered for Dave Cowens.
- stanmvp48
October 26, 2007 at 11:33am
Cookie:
Don't worry, we'll always have the Cubs. 100 years of futility and counting.
- adamvaught
October 26, 2007 at 11:43am
Look what Jason's done. Instead of letting Chait work The Plank with his shame, JZ's got Jon working in the minor's over on Slate with this article on 'The Worst Football Coach in the Universe' (www.slate.com/.../2176634). After Chait's debut debacle ripping on in state rival Michigan State in which Michigan folded that next weekend to Appalachian State I guess JZ figured Chait could duck the regular crowd on The Plank if Michigan whiffs again the weekend (on top of having to live with the knowledge that Rutgers is better than Michigan now). Lucky Michigan doesn't play this year's Big Ten former-hot-commodity now uber-panzy Iowa. Getting beat by them would have been an embarrassment worse than the A State loss.
- jet
October 26, 2007 at 1:01pm
Stan: Boston fans would not have booed Damon had he signed with any team other than the Yankees. If you think it's just as mercenary to go from Oakland to Boston as from Boston to New York, you don't understand sports rivalries. Also, he had previously said he would never play for the Yankees. If you want a better test of Sox fans' consistancy, ask anybody in Boston what they think about the possibility that we might sign A-Rod (probably the greatest hitter ever) rather than Mike Lowell. I suspect most people would be as appalled at the idea as I am.
- Bowdoin
October 26, 2007 at 1:11pm
Is it just me, or do the Tampa Bay Devil Rays possess that certain...je ne sais quoi?
And so it is written: we must confront our greatest fears. Abandon your childhood team, or your adopted club of overpaid superstars. Your dream is over; you are like Winston Smith, near the end, the scuffling sounds of a hungry rat pushing him over the edge.
You have burst through from the warm amniotic gloam of ignorance into the harsh, cold light of truth.
2 + 2 = 5.
Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated.
Go Devil Rays!
- williamyard
October 26, 2007 at 2:20pm
"Boston fans would not have booed Damon had he signed with any team other than the Yankees. If you think it's just as mercenary to go from Oakland to Boston as from Boston to New York, you don't understand sports rivalries. "
Look Bowdoin. It's just possible that Oakland losing a player to Boston is just as infuriating to them as Boston losing a player to NY is to you. If you weren't so blinded by your New england self importance you might see how wearisome this rivalry is to the rest of mankind who would appreciate turning on the TV at least one Saturday a year and seeing some one else play.
- stanmvp48
October 26, 2007 at 6:40pm
This is in response to dcat, over on the other RSN thread:
I can't speak for you, because I don't know where you live, but I've attended every Rockies game since the last weekend of the season, *including Games 3 and 4 of the NLCS*--it was sold out. That there were empty seats for Game 3, I'll grant; then again, it was raining steadily, the temperature was below 40 at first pitch, and the wind picked up as the game went on. Game 4 was a packed house.
And if butts warming seats is your standard, you should know that Fenway had some empty seats for Game 1 of the World Series, when it was raining as well, and the temperature was marginally warmer (by ten degrees).
Then again, seeing as how, post-2004, the Red Sox have essentially become a more pretentious version of the New York Yankees, it's only understandable that everything west of the Bronx might as well be AAA baseball to you. :-)
- rnoboa
October 26, 2007 at 10:48pm
Stan, you seem to be rejecting not just the Red Sox fans who focus particular ire on the Yankees, but the whole idea of the sports rivalry. It's possible, I suppose, that Oakland fans were just as angry about losing Damon to Boston as Sox fans were about losing him to New York -- just as it's theoretically possible that Wake Forest fans hate losing to Duke just as much as Carolina fans do. But to my mind there's something unusually intense and fun about rivalries between particular teams that extend through time. Either you get it or you don't.
Yeah, I admit that I'm a self-important New Englander, but steam doesn't come out of my ears when Sportscenter spends ten minutes on the Ohio State - Michigan game. I'm sure that's a big deal and a lot of fun to the people who care about those teams. I don't begrudge them their rivalry or the hype that attends it.
I'm a New England native and have been a Red Sox fan since I was a little kid. I'm not going to start rooting for the Rockies just because the Sox won a World Series a few years ago and some bitter people from flyover states don't care whether Boston beats New York in baseball. Rooting for the underdog is nice (and the Red Sox were very often underdogs until their recent string of success), but anybody who would put aside a life-long sports affiliation just because their team is doing well isn't much of a fan.
- Bowdoin
October 27, 2007 at 10:44am