This is unbelievably well said
If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know that I have zero tolerance for the three ring circus that has become the Red Sox Fan Experience. All that is basically necessary to root for this team is to actually enjoy baseball and to enjoy watching the Red Sox play the game of baseball. That's it. And that attitude is as true in 2008 - after 2 world series titles - as it was in 1967 during the year when the fan base was created. It was still true in all the years when the Red Sox finished in last place.
What is not necessary is some of the superfluous programming I see on NESN (Sox Appeal?!??!) , the idea of Red Sox "nation" and any piece of Red Sox equipment that is not navy blue, red and white (the green hats are as bad as the pink ones, in my opinion). While the anti-Pink Hat sentiment does venture into misogyny, I want to make it clear that this sentiment is NOT anti-woman. Nor is it anti-"casual" Red Sox fan (no reasonable human being should be expected to live and breathe this team. This is a sports affiliation, NOT a lifestyle). Instead, it's an indictment against the current marketing campaign that the Red Sox have embraced where they're TRYING to turn this into a lifestyle. It's not and I refuse to play this game. I love baseball and the Red Sox and I'm going to leave it at this.
There are is a reason I feel this way The experience of rooting for PC hockey has so poisoned my enjoyment of sports in general , that I can't get too attached to a team for fear that they will kill me - as the Bruins are slowly doing. This has made me a notoriously poor loser. If my team is losing, I will not stay until the "bitter end" unless there's a chance my team will pull it out or if I'm up in Maine and someone stole my alternator. Also keep in mind that while I love the Red Sox, I also love the Patriots (EVIL!!!), Celtics, Bruins, Friars, and Celtic FC. I'm a sports polygamist.
In summation, it's a sport. It should be fun. And the team's colors are still navy blue, red and white. And I like women.
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Two problems
Two things I'd like to go over this morning:
1. The story over the weekend that one of the workers on the new Yankees Stadium buried a David Ortiz jersey in the concrete in order to jinx the team is so utterly preposterous that it could have only come from the New York Post. A few things don't make sense here:
A. Why would the person who did this tell ANYONE at this stage of construction? Clearly, if you're going to try to "hex" the Be-Pinstriped Ones, you wait until the stadium is complete. Also, why would you let this get leaked to press? For one thing, you're going to get FIRED from your job. I would think most construction companies would frown on burying random items in concrete. Unless you work for the Mafia, of course.
B. The goofy "let's dig up the jersey" scene that followed. This was especially funny if you remember the Yankees initially dismissing the story as an April Fools joke. Apparently, it wasn't a joke. Or maybe the joke was on anyone who took it seriously.
C. The whole curse thing is hilarious. Red Sox fans went through this malarky during the "Curse of the Bambino" idiocy that the local and national media took over from Dan Shaugnessy in the 80's. Are New Yorkers really naive enough to believe in weird superstitions? In reality, sports is sports and losing streaks happen. God doesn't care one way or another who wins a bloody baseball game. I thought New Yorkers were smarter than this. Or was it just a slow news day?
D. What probably happened was the Yankees planted the jersey, dug it up and put on a huge show. Even if they didn't do it intentionally, this is still colossal waste of time. But it was kind of amusing, as compared to other wastes of time.
2. This is just a quick reminder for John Dennis and Gerry Callahan: Not everything in the world revolves around golf. Because I didn't feel like staying up until 1AM to see the Red Sox and Yankees, I went to bed early and turned on WEEI this morning to see if they were talking about the game. They were talking about the game, kind of. They spent 20 minutes babbling about the fact that baseball games take so long to complete.
I do agree that 4 hours for a baseball game is a bit much. I even agreed with their contention that the game could be stepped up if the batters didn't spend so much adjusting their gloves or stepping out of the batters box after every pitch. These are all valid points.
The problem is that they compared baseball to golf about 30 times in the span of 15 minutes. That was their only sports analogy. Golf. I understand the Masters was yesterday and they're getting over the shock of Tiger Woods not winning something, but come on: isn't there another sport you can compare it to? Basketball? Hockey? Football? The long laborious at bats that baseball is famous for are equaled by the ninety timeouts and fouls that happen at the end of every basketball game and the endless commercial breaks that accompany any NFL or college football contest. Both of those analogies I just made are better than comparing baseball to golf. Where's my million dollar contract and lucrative radio career?
1. The story over the weekend that one of the workers on the new Yankees Stadium buried a David Ortiz jersey in the concrete in order to jinx the team is so utterly preposterous that it could have only come from the New York Post. A few things don't make sense here:
A. Why would the person who did this tell ANYONE at this stage of construction? Clearly, if you're going to try to "hex" the Be-Pinstriped Ones, you wait until the stadium is complete. Also, why would you let this get leaked to press? For one thing, you're going to get FIRED from your job. I would think most construction companies would frown on burying random items in concrete. Unless you work for the Mafia, of course.
B. The goofy "let's dig up the jersey" scene that followed. This was especially funny if you remember the Yankees initially dismissing the story as an April Fools joke. Apparently, it wasn't a joke. Or maybe the joke was on anyone who took it seriously.
C. The whole curse thing is hilarious. Red Sox fans went through this malarky during the "Curse of the Bambino" idiocy that the local and national media took over from Dan Shaugnessy in the 80's. Are New Yorkers really naive enough to believe in weird superstitions? In reality, sports is sports and losing streaks happen. God doesn't care one way or another who wins a bloody baseball game. I thought New Yorkers were smarter than this. Or was it just a slow news day?
D. What probably happened was the Yankees planted the jersey, dug it up and put on a huge show. Even if they didn't do it intentionally, this is still colossal waste of time. But it was kind of amusing, as compared to other wastes of time.
2. This is just a quick reminder for John Dennis and Gerry Callahan: Not everything in the world revolves around golf. Because I didn't feel like staying up until 1AM to see the Red Sox and Yankees, I went to bed early and turned on WEEI this morning to see if they were talking about the game. They were talking about the game, kind of. They spent 20 minutes babbling about the fact that baseball games take so long to complete.
I do agree that 4 hours for a baseball game is a bit much. I even agreed with their contention that the game could be stepped up if the batters didn't spend so much adjusting their gloves or stepping out of the batters box after every pitch. These are all valid points.
The problem is that they compared baseball to golf about 30 times in the span of 15 minutes. That was their only sports analogy. Golf. I understand the Masters was yesterday and they're getting over the shock of Tiger Woods not winning something, but come on: isn't there another sport you can compare it to? Basketball? Hockey? Football? The long laborious at bats that baseball is famous for are equaled by the ninety timeouts and fouls that happen at the end of every basketball game and the endless commercial breaks that accompany any NFL or college football contest. Both of those analogies I just made are better than comparing baseball to golf. Where's my million dollar contract and lucrative radio career?
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