It's great to be a Boston fan

Well, this weekend has been great for this Boston fan (horrible for sleep, working on such a low level of alertness). I could not believe how masterful the Red Sox were against the Rockies. Outscored them by double digits easy. With BC winning last Thursday and with the Red Sox sweeping up the pebbles (oops, Rockies) and the complete pasting the Patriots put on the Redskins I am pleased.

I'm soooo wiped out today and I've got three meetings. Not going to be fun today. Congrats to Boston!

What is a Washington DC area sports fan like?

I've lived here in DC for over 13 years now (almost half my adult life, short as it has been) and I'm still baffled by the folks who call themselves sports fans here. I'm a loyal listener of the Junkies (formerly known as the "sports junkies") in the morning hours since I get up ever so early to get to my avocation's work site and like to laugh. Anyways, a few days ago (last week actually) the foursome that comprises the Junkies got quite bent over a few comments from a blog site www.misterirrelevant.com. I was fairly amused at their characterizations but the churlishness showed by both sides is astounding. It all boiled up and over from an interview that the Junkies did with a Redskin receiver, Brandon Lloyd (see this link for audio http://www.wjfk.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=1067453). The topics were pretty innocuous until Troy Aikman came up. Lloyd implied that Aikman may have had a, um, same sex encouter in the past. The Junkies hopped on that item and then the Mothram boys (who run the blog) wrote this. It created a firestorm and made Lloyd an instant media celebrity (he's a middling receiver apparently).

What I'm finding is that sports fans in DC are just plain weird. There seems to be an incessant need to nit pick or complain about everything. Now, the pot is calling the kettle black here since I'm originally from Boston and sports fans there are beyond weird. However, we're pyschos from up nawth, predictable, and hyper-passionate. I've never seen folks down here get passionate over sports unless it's the Redskins, but even then it seems pretty tepid compared to my old haunts. I mean, there are three legitimate football teams, college mind you, that play here and you'd never know it. Not unlike Boston with the Red Sox presumably, but, there are three other major sports teams that get attention, scant it may be though.

Washington DC needs to get on board with hockey. I'm a Bruins fan no doubt, grew up with Gerry Cheevers, Mike Milbury, Ray Bourque and so on, but here in DC there is a decent squad on the frozen water with a rooskie who can flat out score. Again, it's weird down here, football and basketball, that's it for sports attention. Weird I tell you.

I'd be interested in finding out if I'm on an island or if I'm close to the tree and/or target.

Red Sox fans

Bill Simmons, one of the page two contributers to ESPN.com wrote a hilarious article about the phenomenon of Red Sox Nation. The article captured almost to a perfect "T" how confusing it is to be a Red Sox fan these days when you grew up with Bucky Dent ruining your life or Buckner forgetting glove to the ground or Jim Rice's catlike reflexes in hitting foul balls. The article begins with a friend of his chiding him that he missed the CURSE. Well, I for one, don't miss that gibberish chatter and for once getting Yankees fans to shut the bleep up. What's weird now is that folks are now comparing the Red Sox to the Yankees, especially their fan base. That's blasphemy. I've gone so far as to tell my southern friends "don't call me a Yankee, I'm from Boston, they're not the same." I've gotten to know many Yankees fans in my short life, and for the most part they are simpletons (some are very savvy, but they are the exception, not the rule). Now wait, I'm not discounting the massholes who comprise 60% to 80% of Red Sox nation who are knuckleheads themselves, however, many Red Sox fans have a pretty good knowledge of the game beyond a "our team won!" or "wow! what a home run!".

After 2004 and the Sox finally winning it all for the first time in a bazillion years all these Red Sox fans came out of the woodworks. I used to go to Orioles games when I first moved here to Washington DC and I could count on one hand how many Red Sox fans there were in the stands. Now I go to the "Yard" and I'm right back with the "bleachah creetchahs." Surrealism is no longer the purview of the French, it has been supplanted by the strangeness that has become Red Sox Nation.

I remember I went to a game last year at the Yard to see Schilling pitch. I was walking from my car (Baltimore may be a bit scruffy but they have better parking than Boston) and I'm waiting to cross W. Pratt St. when all of a sudden I'm engulfed by Red Sox fans. I started hearing "Dude, look at all the cahs" and "Oh yar, Manny's good for two" and "they have a microbrew beeyah guy?" I thought I was back in Kenmore Square. I saw maybe two Orioles fans as I was walking into the park, and they worked there! Strange.