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.