Since September 20, 2011, the Boston Red Sox ownership hasn’t be able to catch a break. To save you (and me, a lifelong Sox fan) from the pain, I won’t go through the laundry list of problems that have plagued the ball club over the past year-and-a-half. But now, less than a week out from opening day, Sox management has angered some of its more fickle fans once again.
As a way to ‘apologize’ to us for our loyalty this dreadful season, the club has decided to cut the price of beer at the park from $8.50 to $5, offer two-for-one Fenway Frank specials, and give out free kids’ meals for the month of April. While cheap alcohol and free food seems like a deal that would please anyone, some Sox fans have jumped at the chance to complain.
In comments on a Boston Globe Sox story and calls and texts to the Salk and Holley show on WEEI radio, self-entitled fans claimed concessions should stay this cheap all season, that there should be better beer options, cheaper tickets, less greed in corporate management, better minor league prospects.
While the price of the Fenway experience has skyrocketed, arguably unjustifiably, over the last decade, fans that demand apologies and a better win record this season after 2012’s dragged out disappointment were never real fans to begin with.
The corporate face of the team has been working in overdrive since 2004 to keep new bandwagon fans coming to Fenway to the point of absolute ridiculousness. The fake sellout streak, the happy face of NESN ignoring reality, and the decision to install gleaming plaques around the concourse as part of the ‘Fenway living museum’ in 2012 in a sad attempt to distract from the disasters on the field. Enough.
Red Sox history, something that’s always in the back of the Fenway faithfuls’ minds, reminds us that the Sox have never truly been a great team anyway. With the exception of the scruffy, underdog 2004 roster, the Sox have traditionally underperformed and blown big moments whenever possible. And that’s what we love about them.
None of us would trade the 2004 season for the next 100 titles, but we have to admit that the year was a complete anomaly. Manny’s being Manny in the Chinese Baseball League in an attempt to clean his act up, Johnny Damon shaved his beard for the Yankees, and Bronson Arroyo tried to make a career out of that embarrassing rock music cover album. The glory of 2004 will never be repeated. At least not in our lifetimes.
Being a Sox fan has never been about seeing the team win it big, drinking anything better than a Bud Lite, or keeping star players in the lineup. It’s about rooting for the boys, even when you know they don’t have a chance. It’s staying up all night to see a game to the end when they were losing 17-6 in the seventh. It’s paying too much for a seat behind a pole just to be apart of what was once a Boston tradition.
So, this year, can we all refrain from demanding better results and managers and accept the team we’ve loved for decades? If you’re ready to see the team get beat up, love the losses, and keep the faith that maybe, even though you know there’s no possible way, that the Sox could take the World Series this year, I’ll see you at park in two weeks and four days.
