Exposing the Red Sox "Nation".

Indifference

I loved this.......it is so right - down with the PINK HATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indifference

MrSmith wrote:

theres only one nation: raider nation. the rest are clones

by Gerry Callahan
Friday, November 15, 2002

To: Mommy.
From: Your loser son, the Vice President of the Oakland Raider fan club.
Re: Sunday night's game.
First, let me just say something that is long overdue: You are a wonderful mother. You have been so nice to me for more than 40 years and I want you to know that I appreciate all the little things you do: make my bed; bake me peanut butter cookies; wash and iron my Ted Hendricks jersey; tuck me in at night.
I mean it when I say I don't care if I ever meet a girl. I'm perfectly content living in your basement, playing video games, polishing my Raiders helmet nightly, and watching ``Becker'' with you and Dad every Sunday night. Truly, it's one of the highlights of my sad, empty life, and I know you enjoy it, too. That's why it's not easy for me to ask a very special favor of you this week. I need to borrow the Buick, Mom. Please, please, please! There's a big, big Raiders game Sunday night, and my friends from the fan club are counting on me.
I'm just warning you now, Mommy: I'm painting my face; I'm borrowing our poodle's spiked collar and I'm staying out past curfew. If that's OK with you, I mean. You have to understand that this week is special in the lives of pathetic Raiders fans like me: The New England Patriots are coming to town, and we owe those guys, big time. We've got a score to settle.
You probably don't remember because you and Dad were sleeping on the couch, but last year we got robbed. We got screwed. We got ripped off. We went to New England for a playoff game, and they literally stole away our ticket to the Super Bowl. I cried so much that night I almost woke you.
It has been 10 months since the infamous snow job in Foxboro, and at our meetings every week we bat around the same nagging questions: How does Al Davis manage to stay so young-looking? How can we get Sebastian Janikowski to slip us the date-rape drug? And how badly are we going to beat those lucky bums from New England when we get them in the Black Hole?
It just wasn't right, Momma. All the citizens of Raider Nation are still angry about the so-called tuck rule - not the same as the one in our house where you promise to tuck me in if I brush properly - and one of the oldest members of our fan club put it best. He's a nice old man named Ben Dreith and he said it doesn't matter what the rules say. That stupid ref Walt Coleman should have called it a fumble because, well, you know, it looked like a fumble, didn't it?
I know you think my obsession with the Silver and Black is just something to do between Star Trek conventions, but it's much more than that. It's my chance to dress like some of my heroes in Dungeons and Dragons and pretend I'm a bad-***. It's like being in a motorcycle gang, without having to ask your permission to ride a motorcycle. I know you'd never say yes to that. Put it this way: If I had a life, the Raiders would be my life. That's why I got the skull and crossbones temporarily tattooed on the doughy underside of my love handle.
You may not believe it, Mommy, but most people actually buy my act: They see me wearing my funny helmet, and they actually think I'm not a complete nerd. I mean, it's amazing: We're basically the same guys who made up the audio-visual club in high school, but now we dress like the Village People and no one messes with us! Can you believe it? Sometimes I wear the same Darth Vader costume that I wore while waiting in line for 12 hours on the opening night of Phantom Menace. The only difference is the little kids in the neighborhood don't beat me up. They think I'm cool!
Do you remember the time we saw William Shatner at the airport and he treated me like dirt? Well, my guy Sea Bass doesn't do that. No way. If I see Sebastian out at one of the local restaurants, all I have to do is buy him a couple dozen drinks, help him steer the key into the ignition of his car, and he treats me like one of his old buddies. What a guy. And how about the new guy? All I did was fill one lousy prescription for Bill Romanowski, and Romo shook my hand, looked me in the eye, and said, ``Thanks, loser.'' I don't know how he knew my nickname, but it was a nice touch.
And this might be hard to believe, but some people in the media think we actually give our team an edge on the field. They put the TV camera on us, we make scary faces, and they say we intimidate the opposing teams. It's almost as if they're expecting us to jump out of the stands like those lunatics at Comiskey Park and beat up a coach or something. Maybe I'll do that this weekend. Maybe I'll run down on the sideline and slap around that guy Pepper Johnson.
I'm like all the crazies from Raider Nation, Mom: I'm bad; I'm mad and I'm capable of anything. As long as you lend me your car for this one big night, I'll do whatever you ask. I'll clean my room, I'll get a job, I'll even try to stop polishing my Raiders helmet so often. It won't be easy, but I'll do anything for my Raiders.

ledvedderman

hoopinman wrote:

thats funny!!! I really like the Cards...and being an Astros fan thats hard to say...but I really love the way they play the game....and their fans are awesome and respectful. Im reminded of goin to Busch for the NLCS against the Astros, and seeing Cardinals fans applaud guys like Craig Biggio and Roy Oswalt....even though they are the enemy.

That's weird. I'm a Cardinals fan whose second favorite team is the Astros. Mostly because I remember Darryl Kile (RIP DK57), Bagwell, and Biggio playing growing up, and I really respect the way they all played the game.

pjhawks

any section of fans that has the gall to call themselves 'nation' is due to be ripped. what an arrogant name -red sox nation, nova nation (for the philly area people) is so uppity and annoying. i can't stand that.

sennin

Indifference wrote:

I loved this.......it is so right - down with the PINK HATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that's more the point of it. It's not making fun of the Red Sox or it's true fan base (new and old). The Red Sox are a great team. But the Pink Hats....I'm not so sure about.

roar

1STmammal2wearPants wrote:

You guys need a new GM -- one that doesn't load up the team with the Adrian Beltres and Richie Sexsons of the world.

you are preaching to the choir about that.

funny little segment.
montana really needs to be welcomed into Mariner 'nation'.
the betty ford joke made me laugh. a lot.
i never understood selling opposing team gear at the ballpark. if you're a fan, you should have come prepared.

5 years ago: there were nowhere near as many Red Sox fans at M's games as there are now and they certainly weren't as obnoxious. i used to get along with many of them due to our shared hatred of the Yankees. in 5 more years maybe we'll see a rise in Rays nation at the park?

either way, welcome to the ballpark.
we understand the bandwagon as post-'95 M's fans are abundant, but at least they're geographically loyal.

hoopinman

ledvedderman wrote:

That's weird. I'm a Cardinals fan whose second favorite team is the Astros. Mostly because I remember Darryl Kile (RIP DK57), Bagwell, and Biggio playing growing up, and I really respect the way they all played the game.

THATS baseball IMO...play the game the way it should be played....don't make excuses....and the fans will love you for it

carolinabeerguy

NickyNooch wrote:

I love how they point out the guy that says "my uncle lives there so I'm a fan". Kinda funny you never hear how "my uncle lives in Texas so I'm a Rangers fan" but strangely everyone has some relative in NY or Boston to be a bandwagon fan.

Great radio point.

Nothing worse than bandwagon fans.

I guess I'm that guy then. I live in NC where the closest team is 6 hours away. My uncle was a Sox fan and bought me a Sox helmet when I was 4 and I jumped on board. I always got made fun of in elementary school for wearing my Sox hats and shirts by all the Braves fans here. My other teams are the Celtics, Redskins and Tar Heels for the record. I don't get all the hate...

BTW, the wife and I are going to Baltimore this weekend to see the Sox play the O's. The in-laws are from Maryland and got us tickets.

restlesssoul

when i was in boston i was SHOCKED at the team support there. 1 in 3 people had in one way or another a Boston Red Sox on them. bus drivers, people in suits, skateboarders. it was crazy. after the show in 06 , there was a huge yankees suck chant.

Kilgore_Trout

MattyJoe wrote:

Chicago fans are pretty bad.

midwesterners need an outlet for our arrogance and sports just happens to be that since chicago generally has atleast 1 decent team between all of our sports... east coasters on the other hand are arrogant about EVERYTHING so the fact that they try claiming sports too just makes them all very unlikeable to the rest of the nation (IMO)

looks like it might be the year for a cubs vs. white sox world series anyway... so we'll see just how bad chicago fans can be

g under p

adam42381 wrote:

I guess I'm that guy then. I live in NC where the closest team is 6 hours away. My uncle was a Sox fan and bought me a Sox helmet when I was 4 and I jumped on board. I always got made fun of in elementary school for wearing my Sox hats and shirts by all the Braves fans here. My other teams are the Celtics, Redskins and Tar Heels for the record. I don't get all the hate...

BTW, the wife and I are going to Baltimore this weekend to see the Sox play the O's. The in-laws are from Maryland and got us tickets.

Going to the O's-Sox game this weekend and I'll see once again how many Sox fans show up. The last time I was there in late July last year it had to be 80% Red Sox fans. I couldn't believe it, in my section of 200 they were only 5 O's fans and my daughter was one of them.

Many in section came down from Boston for the whole weekend series.

Peace

jimed14

Disclaimer - grew up 20 minutes outside of Boston, lived there for around 30 years before moving to Cali, where I've been for 4 years ... been a Sox fan all my life (the 14 in my handle is for Jim Rice) ... and not a casual fan, but also not one of the doom and gloom Sox fans either .... I guess I'm a passionate, level headed Sox fan, a rare breed.

Listening now ...

I'll give the spot this and admit this up front .... there are a lot of folks that have jumped on the bandwagon that really have no idea about the history, aren't "true", or rather, long standing fans, etc etc .... the number of fans I see in the stands in Oakland for a Sox series has at least doubled since I moved here in 2004. (and the Oakland fans hatred for us has gone up 100x) ... There are so many more Sox hats I see around San Fran ... it's pretty amazing. When I moved out here, it was about 2 Yankees hats to every Sox hat I saw. It's now about 3 to 1 in the Sox advantage ... no doubt many band wagoners out here.

Now, the radio spot .... the statement "90% morons, 10% real fans" ... it wasn't even a 90/10 split of the interviews they played, maybe 50/50. And you know they hand picked the interviews which were aired. No doubt, there were a lot of smart folks that wouldn't make their point that they conveniently omitted. Just like most sports talk radio, it's done to create a stong response, and far from good reporting. I *loathe* sports talk radio, and it's a shame that ESPN is essentially becomming just that.

Oh, the 17 year old guy that JUST bought the shirt at Champs who's from Detroit .... c'mon he just wanted to get laid, don't blame that poor guy, or even think of lumping him in with "Sox fans".

The point is true ... people love to knock down who ever is on top ... it's how we view sports teams, it's how we view celebrities ... it's why there are so many TV shows based around embarassment of others on these days .... people like to see other people fail, especially if they have been successful.

Finally ... the interviewer asked the question "Who hit the homerun in game 7 of the 1978 ALCS series for the Yankees that knocked the Sox out of the playoffs" (answer: Bucky Dent) ... he's the fucking idiot ... that was a one game playoff to determine the AL East champ ... the Sox and Yanks tied in the standings after the regular season (like the Rockies and Padres last year) it was not a series, it was NOT a game seven. Idiot.

g under p

jimed14 wrote:

Disclaimer - grew up 20 minutes outside of Boston, lived there for around 30 years before moving to Cali, where I've been for 4 years ... been a Sox fan all my life (the 14 in my handle is for Jim Rice) ... and not a casual fan, but also not one of the doom and gloom Sox fans either .... I guess I'm a passionate, level headed Sox fan, a rare breed.

Listening now ...

I'll give the spot this and admit this up front .... there are a lot of folks that have jumped on the bandwagon that really have no idea about the history, aren't "true", or rather, long standing fans, etc etc .... the number of fans I see in the stands in Oakland for a Sox series has at least doubled since I moved here in 2004. (and the Oakland fans hatred for us has gone up 100x) ... There are so many more Sox hats I see around San Fran ... it's pretty amazing. When I moved out here, it was about 2 Yankees hats to every Sox hat I saw. It's now about 3 to 1 in the Sox advantage ... no doubt many band wagoners out here.

Now, the radio spot .... the statement "90% morons, 10% real fans" ... it wasn't even a 90/10 split of the interviews they played, maybe 50/50. And you know they hand picked the interviews which were aired. No doubt, there were a lot of smart folks that wouldn't make their point that they conveniently omitted. Just like most sports talk radio, it's done to create a stong response, and far from good reporting. I *loathe* sports talk radio, and it's a shame that ESPN is essentially becomming just that.

Oh, the 17 year old guy that JUST bought the shirt at Champs who's from Detroit .... c'mon he just wanted to get laid, don't blame that poor guy, or even think of lumping him in with "Sox fans".

The point is true ... people love to knock down who ever is on top ... it's how we view sports teams, it's how we view celebrities ... it's why there are so many TV shows based around embarassment of others on these days .... people like to see other people fail, especially if they have been successful.

Finally ... the interviewer asked the question "Who hit the homerun in game 7 of the 1978 ALCS series for the Yankees that knocked the Sox out of the playoffs" (answer: Bucky Dent) ... he's the fucking idiot ... that was a one game playoff to determine the AL East champ ... the Sox and Yanks tied in the standings after the regular season (like the Rockies and Padres last year) it was not a series, it was NOT a game seven. Idiot.

I've been a fan snce 1972 and I tell ya it's nice to see a Red Sox in All the places I've been. In London, Palm Beach to Key West, FL. I see Sox hats. Grant you many from Mass come down to Florida in the winter but where were they 10 years ago?

Once a drunk O's fan in the mid 90's asked me why do I still root for the Sox and you now live here? Well, I asked you're a O's fan right? He said yeah, well let's say you got a nice job in Boston, then moved and you went to Fenway when the O's are playing. Tell me which team are you going to root for? He shook my hand and we enjoyed the rest of the game as the Sox won but lost the 3 game series.

Peace

myhook

There is a good article on ESPN from jim Caple who is a die hard Sox fan about this "Red Sox Nation Phenomenon".

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/080529&sportCat=mlb

As a die hard Yanks fan I know what you Boston fans are going through. To me it is very annoying to have to defend your "fan hood" because there are a ton of fair weather fans. I root for all my NY / NJ teams win or lose. But I have a different problem. I live in norther NJ I get the opportunity to chose from 2 football teams, 2 basketball teams, 3 hockey teams and 2 baseball teams. Now I root for the Yanks, Giants, Devils and Nets. But I run into SO many people that will flip flop between teams in the same city. For example, I know of a Jets fan last season that rooted for the Jets all year but when the Giants made the playoffs he became a Giants fan??? There should be a rule against that.

LOVEBOATCAPT0226

You can expose any team that wins with fairweather fans. I used to run a sports store and everyone was a Yankees fan, claiming to be a diehard for life.
I would then ask them, just to bust balls who was #9 on the yankees? who was #7? Guess what-most didn't have a fu**ing clue!! LOL
So it goes for all teams.

I had a guy come in about 17 or so and said he got a Yogi Bear autograph,
I said really Yogi Bear?? He really thought that was the right name.

g under p

LOVEBOATCAPT0226 wrote:

You can expose any team that wins with fairweather fans. I used to run a sports store and everyone was a Yankees fan, claiming to be a diehard for life.
I would then ask them, just to bust balls who was #9 on the yankees? who was #7? Guess what-most didn't have a fu**ing clue!! LOL
So it goes for all teams.

I had a guy come in about 17 or so and said he got a Yogi Bear autograph,
I said really Yogi Bear?? He really thought that was the right name.

CLASSIC!

Peace

sennin

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SEATTLE-WA/KJR-AM/Mitch_080529_Bunker%20and%20Red%20Sox%20nation.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=SEATTLE-WA&NG_FORMAT=sports&SITE_ID=645&STATION_ID=KJR-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Mitch_In_The_Morning&PCAST_CAT=Entertainment&PCAST_TITLE=Mitch_In_The_Morning_OnDemand

Yesterday we showed you where Red Sox Nation came from ... today we show you just how much these LONGTIME Red Sox fans know about there team.

Go Sox!

jimed14

sennin wrote:

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SEATTLE-WA/KJR-AM/Mitch_080529_Bunker%20and%20Red%20Sox%20nation.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=SEATTLE-WA&NG_FORMAT=sports&SITE_ID=645&STATION_ID=KJR-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Mitch_In_The_Morning&PCAST_CAT=Entertainment&PCAST_TITLE=Mitch_In_The_Morning_OnDemand

Yesterday we showed you where Red Sox Nation came from ... today we show you just how much these LONGTIME Red Sox fans know about there team.

Go Sox!

That was far more lame. Most of the schtick was centered around some chick who obviously had no clue and someone with a thick (real?) Asian accent that kept saying "Matsuzaka" to every question ... did you really think that was funny? Again, it's easy to do 2-3 hours of interviews through the course of a night (mostly centered around drunk people) then hand pick 6 minutes of schtick that may sound funny ... but it's not something to base your opinion on Red Sox fans about, you could probably do the same thing for ANY team.

Some other comments brought up:

Jimmy Fallon. Any self respecting Red Sox fan would love to smack that effin' punk in the head ... he is not a fan, and to see him on the field in St Louis in '04 jumping around like an idiot after game 4 made me want smack the living hell out of him. I'm actually happy people were confused when asked about him, that means they don't know he is an actor, which, is still debatable. Fuckwad.

"Yankees Suck" long before the Sox won, this chant was indeed the lamest of any fanbase .... not when the Yankees were in town so much (I'd kind of understand it during a Sox Yanks game), but in Boston, you'd hear it *anywhere* .... games vs other teams, games in other sport like Pats games, Bruins games, concerts .... fans would just start this up whenever there was a lull .... if there is something to pick on Sox fans for, it is their (in general, the overall) obsession with the Yankees. It is completely fueled by jealousy. The only time I was ever embarrassed to be a Sox fan was when this chant would start up somewhere other than a Sox Yanks game (like, a U2 concert I attended in 2001, for like 5+ minutes, like Bono or The Edge gave a shit ... jesus, I just wanted people to shut up about this)

anyway ... these are my takes on this ... hand picked, talk radio schtick that shouldn't generalize an entire fanbase.

sennin

jimed14 wrote:

That was far more lame. Most of the schtick was centered around some chick who obviously had no clue and someone with a thick (real?) Asian accent that kept saying "Matsuzaka" to every question ... did you really think that was funny? Again, it's easy to do 2-3 hours of interviews through the course of a night (mostly centered around drunk people) then hand pick 6 minutes of schtick that may sound funny ... but it's not something to base your opinion on Red Sox fans about, you could probably do the same thing for ANY team.

Some other comments brought up:

Jimmy Fallon. Any self respecting Red Sox fan would love to smack that effin' punk in the head ... he is not a fan, and to see him on the field in St Louis in '04 jumping around like an idiot after game 4 made me want smack the living hell out of him. I'm actually happy people were confused when asked about him, that means they don't know he is an actor, which, is still debatable. Fuckwad.

"Yankees Suck" long before the Sox won, this chant was indeed the lamest of any fanbase .... not when the Yankees were in town so much (I'd kind of understand it during a Sox Yanks game), but in Boston, you'd hear it *anywhere* .... games vs other teams, games in other sport like Pats games, Bruins games, concerts .... fans would just start this up whenever there was a lull .... if there is something to pick on Sox fans for, it is their (in general, the overall) obsession with the Yankees. It is completely fueled by jealousy. The only time I was ever embarrassed to be a Sox fan was when this chant would start up somewhere other than a Sox Yanks game (like, a U2 concert I attended in 2001, for like 5+ minutes, like Bono or The Edge gave a shit ... jesus, I just wanted people to shut up about this)

anyway ... these are my takes on this ... hand picked, talk radio schtick that shouldn't generalize an entire fanbase.

Oh c'mawwwn. It is funny. If you heard a bit on the radio of a HUGE Yankee's fan who couldn't name the manager....or couldn't name the players....or was wearing pink Yankee gear.....you'd laugh too.

It's all in good fun....it's not like they were making fun of true Red Sox fans.....just exposing the large amount of pink hats.

jimed14

sennin wrote:

Oh c'mawwwn. It is funny. If you heard a bit on the radio of a HUGE Yankee's fan who couldn't name the manager....or couldn't name the players....or was wearing pink Yankee gear.....you'd laugh too.

It's all in good fun....it's not like they were making fun of true Red Sox fans.....just exposing the large amount of pink hats.

honeslty, no I wouldn't. It's not the team, it's the bit, it's just not that funny. Again, this is just schticky ... but, bad schtick. Maybe it would be funnier with video? But it's the same thing as Jay Leno doing stupid street interviews.

I have many good friends that are Yankee fans, there's no blanket hatred for them from me ....... just for some of their players (and people who respect Paul O'Neill ... gag).