Please, just stop.
I’m borderline embarrassed to be a Red Sox fan these days — almost to the point of saying, “I miss Dan Duquette’s (non-existant) marketing staff.”
Eric Wilbur of Boston.com (ironically, the birthplace of Sox Saturate: Soxuration) eloquently described what the force-fed ‘Red Sox Nation’ has cultivated into, much to the despise of our non-bandwagon generation of fans — pre-2004. Fathers, mothers, aunts, cousins- everybody. They relish all of it. They love to flash their fancy World Series merchandise, talk about Jacoby’s cuteness and buy into becoming an ‘official’ bandwagoner.
It’s the sole reason why the Red Sox went from most beloved to most despised in just a mere four years.
It’s a capitalistic cult, saturated beyond the boiling point.
Take earlier this week at Fenway — a gaudy pregame ceremony to honor the Roush-Fenway racing team pissed me off beyond belief, especially because NESN aired the entire thing. I don’t care about NASCAR. I don’t care about a race car driver with a Red Sox logo on his car.
Ohhh, but they do. They’ll head to the nearest Olympia Sports and buy all of that corporate saturation shit. We live in a time of certified douchebag conversations like:
- “Hey check out this cool racing hat I bought, it’s authentic!”
- “Dude do you even watch NASCAR?”
- “No, but look it’s got the Red Sox logo on it how sweet is that!!”
Then there was Jerry Remy night at Fenway, another flashy, puke-inducing ceremony to sell a couple t-shirts and continue pushing the spoon-fed Sox-NESN onslaught.
And now, the Boston Globe wants to find a fanboy, so “they” have more cheerleader-esque garbage to exchange with other wagon-jumpers.
Just check out the contest’s submitted videos. By the initial looks, I’d guess the contest rules are:
1) Be a post-2004 bandwagoner
2) Be a completely biased cheerleader without any knowledge of teams outside of New England
3) Don’t be interested in anything but home runs
4) Usage of any stats or any other actual MLB relevance is prohibited
I’m not bashing the current professionals on the Boston Globe staff; I think they’re spectacular jouralists — the ones covering the team. But when a newspaper is looking to attract the hometown fanboys by promoting a gaudy internship contest — save me from the cult.
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8 responses so far ↓
I sir agree with you, but it just doesn’t seem to affect the Red Sox. It seems to be a Boston deal. I mean everyone was a New England fan after their first superbowl, everyone now is a Celtics fan after their first championship in years.
See on that part I completely disagree 100%. The Patriots have a unique fanbase, and the Celtics have an even more exclusive fanbase. The Sox are 200% greater than both those teams combined. I would rank the Celtics as my #1 favorite team in this city I live in, while others couldn’t name the C’s starting five. Nobody joined the Pats and C’s bandwagon en route to their first respective championships (I’m speaking prematurely for the C’s) and I hope it doesn’t stay that way. The Pats are hated because of SpyGate (understood) and the C’s are just neutral.
A. Freakin’. Men.
So…is this about knowing that Oil Can Boyd used to speak in the third person? Or that Mo Vaughn was pre-Manny Being Manny?
I could ask, “What’s the criteria?” But then doesn’t that give bandwagoners their checklist of things to know?
Or the original “Louuuuuuu!” (Merloni) before there was “Yoooooouk!”? Or Way Back Wasdin? Or the whole Uugeth Urbina life story, accurately documented through police reports? Or how the 1999 All-Star game will never be matched. And who the fuck was that woman PA announcer? Or more recently, the infamous Derek Lowe Suck It? The BK Kim Finger? EL GUAPO!!!!!!!
Yes. This one is for Brian Daubach (who my buddy Matys still represents), Jeff Frye, Damon Buford, John Valentin, Bret Saberhagen, Jose Offerman and many more.
Ah fuck I’m just adding to their checklist. Hmm I guess we’ll never be able to distinguish us from them.
Eees So Reeeeeaaaalllll [Blogdome] | eNNvy // Jun 29, 2008 at 7:56 pm [6]
[...] Boston Globe’s Red Sox fanboy contest drawing the bandwagon fans. STHURPRISE! [The Sports Culture] [...]
Yup, there are more pink Red Sox hats than all the other teams combined. As a Rays fan I have to go to games at the Trop half filled with “Sox” fans who you can tell have no idea about the team. I know and respect alot of real Sox fans, but they are quickly becoming outnumbered.
“It’s the soul reason why…”
Soul reason? English much?