Voices of the Nation on Postseason's Eve

Red Sox nation was such a good idea in the beginning...an organized fan base, everyone having an opportunity to participate. Now, RSN has a president who requires that you buy membership on his website to even contact him. You have state governors who all regard the city of Boston their "hometown" team. Let me straighten out, you out-of-towners. The residents of Boston have had a baseball team for a hundred years. While I'm genuinely happy that you are Sox fans, I draw the linne at calling my true hometown your "hometown". It is not. I grew up going to Sox games, like Regular Rob, long before the pink hats and RSN. I am tired of RSN...it's not a fanbase, it's a trendy, cool activity for out-of-staters to call Boston home. Be Sox fans, bless your hearts, but please back off, too. The fans that supported the Sox over decades like me are tired of you. While we all root for the Sox, kindly remember that without true Bostonians supporting the team, it would be nothing. Congrats for being a "governor"...now go away. And Remy..step down. We need a president who doesn't profit from his position.

Loosetear, I love your passion for the Red Sox and I understand and accept your skepticism about Red Sox Nation becoming too "trendy," but since when did being a Red Sox fan become an elitist experience? Sure, you and I and everyone else who grew up in New England watching them come close and then collapse every year have a different perspective on the team and a different bond with Fenway, but why condemn those who have grown to love the team in recent years, or who root from the team far from Boston? I mean, can you blame them? The Red Sox are (and, frankly, always have been) an irresistible team. It's time for all of us to realize that THE WORLD loves the Red Sox, not just Cambridge and Roxbury and Quincy and Revere and Hyannis and Montpelier and Manchester and Providence. And did you know that the majority of the governors either grew up in New England or lived here for a period of time? Baseball is all about fun, and we Red Sox fans have more fun than everyone else. There's plenty of Red Sox fun to go around.

Thank you both for your comments. I know how hard it is to have outsiders come in and take over something as pure and beautiful as the love for the Red Sox you have Loosetear. You've been there for the good games and the bad games, not to mention the bad seasons as well. And you weren't just watching from a TV hundreds of miles away. You were probably there in the stands of Fenway, or the bars of Boston with hundreds of other fans, or in your home cheering on your true hometown boys. And we all know how many people suddenly became fans after 2004 and again after 2007. But we are not those bandwagon fans.

I live in Mississippi and am proud to represent Red Sox Nation as the governor of my state. I have never been to Fenway, I've never been to Boston, and the closest I have been to a hometown fan is rooting from my couch.

But I proudly call myself a Red Sox fan and a member of Red Sox Nation.

I don't do it because it is trendy. I don't do it because I became a fan after a World Series victory. I do it because for me to cheer for any other team would feel like abandoning a part of me. My love for the Red Sox has taken me all over the country to see them play. I've gone to Seattle for games, Kansas City for games, and Tampa for more games than I remember. There is never a question of distance because the Sox are my team and I will go where I need to so I can see them. Every time I have seen a Red Sox game in person they have lost. But it doesn't keep me from going year after year to wherever they are. And it won't keep me from going to Fenway for the first time next year on my honeymoon with my wife. I know they will win that day and it will be a great day for me.

I may never call Boston home, but I will always call the Red Sox my team because my life without the Red Sox in it would be very different indeed.

Garreth Blackwell
Mississippi RSN Governor

Loosetear, I am writing to say I understand your passion and possessiveness for your team and your hometown. Baseball is as much about nostalgia as it is about the present day. It is like hearing an old favorite song or remembering your little league games as you glance at the dusty trophy on the mantle. It tugs at your heart and soul. So, it must seem as if we are encroaching upon your team and town and taking some of that away from you.

For us recent fans, it is equivalent to finding the mother lode. We can’t believe our luck! But, just like Love, there is enough Red Sox Fandom to go around! We don’t want to take away your memories, or pretend that we know the pain you felt in your non-winning years. We want to be there as a new friend, we want to learn from you and share in the new memories which are being created daily. And just like Love, Fandom is about chemistry. Some of us are lucky that on an otherwise uneventful day, we tuned in to a Red Sox game and were hit with Cupid’s arrow. We can’t help who we fell in love with!

I hope to run into you at a Red Sox game and shake your hand. I think you’ll find that we are not so bad and that our hearts are in the right place. BTW, one advantage in living in AZ is that here, the game starts at 7PM!

Lety Haynes
Arizona RSN Guv

Loosetear -
I have the honor and privilege of being the RSN Governor for Missouri, but I have been a Red Sox fan since my very first baseball game at Fenway Park when I was 8 years old. I grew up with the Red Sox, adoring Wade Boggs and Mo Vaughn, weeping when Grady Little left Pedro in one inning too long in Game 7 of the ALCS in 2003 and well, weeping when our Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years!
I may no longer live in New England, but my love for the Red Sox goes with me wherever I go - and I have lived in many states over the last five years. And when I see Red Sox fans in Virginia or Florida or Texas or Missouri, it always puts a smile on my face, to know that our fans (old and new) are everywhere.
Misty Haungs
Missouri RSN Gov

Being a fan is about passion, not proximity. I also grew up going to Red Sox games through the good times and the bad (and the heart-breaking) despite the fact that Fenway is 1200 miles from my house. Instead of catching the green line to the game, I have to get on a plane. I don't mean this to say, " I'm a better fan than you." I just want to point out that being an "out of town" fan takes some commitment and is not about being, "cool and trendy..." I do feel frustrated (and I suspect this is a big part of Loosetear's gripe) about how hard it is now to get tickets to Fenway games, but that's inevitable when a team like the Sox has a sustained run of winning. No matter where we're from and where we live now, we're all Red Sox fans, so can't we all just get along?
-Jud Barber
Alabama Gov. RNS

While I’m glad to see so many fair responses to an essentially hostile rant by Loosestar I have to take exception with remarks made here that seem to agree with his. Baseball is a game and the Red Sox are a team. I believe that over-possessiveness creates schisms. Terms like “Band Wagon” and “Commitment” and “Pink Hats” are just further ways to distance ourselves in merit from other fans.

Tom Werner became a Sox fan when as a freshman at Harvard he fell in love with ’67 Impossible Dream team. Is he band leader of the band wagon? Or, is there an exception for time served?

John Updike who penned the greatest of sports essays “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” fell in love for a team through the feats of one player despite being hundreds of miles away. Does his far reaching commitment outweigh someone from Back Bay who simply paid 50 cents and went to games?

And, “Pink Hats”-no sports pejorative more riles me-is perhaps the most ridiculous way to condescend to a fan. I have two pink Sox hats sitting on my dining room table awaiting the birth of my twin girls. I think they’ll look adorable. (Incidentally, they were bought by my mother who grew up within earshot of Fenway and more than likely did not make the gift with irony.)

Living in New York I know so many Sox fans from Brooklyn, and Queens, and New Jersey, and California, and even Europe. There’s always someone who claims to be a bigger fan than you, so why not just root for your team with everyone else?

-Gov. Chris Wertz, New York

Loosetear,

Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, Dodgers, Angels and so on… these are teams that are part of a beautiful passionate game. We are all proud of where we come from and yes I do totally understand your point of view regarding this matter, baseball is about rooting for the team that makes you feel good watching, the team that you would travel miles to go see, the team that makes you proud and if that is not your home team it doesn’t' mean you are a trader or is just jumping on the wagon, share the love with everyone, and if so happened to be that the team that makes us feel good and proud is the Red Sox, then as a Bostonian you should welcome all of us who didn’t have the pleasure of living in such great city as Boston. And I also wanted to say that only cause we are part of the RSN doesn’t mean we haven’t been fans and supporting this team for a while ago. I have been a fan since I was 10 years old and still feel the same about this team. But I do want to tell you is nice to know and meet people like you who have that devotion and passion for their city, home team and the game. Please don’t feel like we are trying to invade your city we are just trying to enjoy the beauty and talent your city brings.

Alexa Jimenez
RSN Gov. of Florida

I'm going to be a little more genteel about this, and I won't belabor loosetear's post, but I can see his frustration. Mr. Remy has, apparently been a "no show" in his job as RSN President. He has his own website, he has blogged on Sawxheads.com, but hasn't made any appearances at the RSN board. And people were led to believe that the "Nation" was going to expand, and create social opportunities across the country, etc., and those things are just starting NOW, a year after the election process ended. I am encouraged that they're happening now, and it appears that the governors that were selected are in tune with the idea of meetups/watch parties and things are starting to roll.

On the other hand, for those in the Boston area, a lot of the perks that used to be offered with RSN membership have dried up. Still, two watch parties in three weeks -- good luck and have fun tonight -- I can't make it for the party tonight, but I will be at "the party" on Sunday night at Fenway. I'm behind you, Rob, as I always have been, and although things are rolling out rather late, they ARE rolling out. I hope to see you on the RSN members' boards, and I hope I bump into you in this post-season. If there's another viewing party at Fenway, I'll try to be there.... Greg (section15).

Fellow governors, thanks for representing yourselves and those of us who are out of state Red Sox fans with class and passion in these comments. I hope our paths cross in person over the coming year.

Ben Crawford
Governor of Virginia

I grew up in upstate New York with no baseball team nearby to follow. I fell in love with the Sox when I moved to Boston in 2001 at age 23 and consider my ardor for the Sox every bit as genuine and legitimate as that of those raised from childhood to love the team. In fact, one of the things I love most about the Sox is their ability to take people of disparate backgrounds and belief systems and unite them based on a shared passion for this remarkable team.

As a (card-carrying, car decal-sporting) member of RSN newly transplanted from Boston to Southern California, I was lucky to have been able to attend Games 1 and 2 at Angel Stadium. Some observations from "outside the hometown:"
1) In a stadium that holds 45,000+ people, at least a third of those in attendance were Sox fans in full regalia.
2) Angels fans were the loudest when the scoreboard told them to cheer, which was often between innings. Sox fans were the loudest at the critical moments of the game when they knew their team needed to come through--which they did.
3) It was possible to get tickets to both games on eBay at Angel Stadium for a combined price less than what a pair of Sox/Yankees tickets in a meaningless game went for at the end of September. Sox fans want to go to the game--whatever game is closest to them--more than anyone else.
4) I find myself conflicted between hoping for another sweep on Sunday, and wanting the series to go to 5 games so I can see them play in person again.
5) For so many reasons, I am hoping for a Sox/Dodgers World Series!

Rob, thank you for making your campaign promises a reality! And Karen Doherty, if you need cabinet members for the California branch of RSN, I'm happy to represent the San Diego district!
~~Laura Moberg

I'd like to address the Bostonian re: the RSN. I became a fan of the Red Sox because of the RSN. I wanted to be part of it. I'm a fan by choice not by location. Boston is not my home team, just my favorite team. While I have the utmost respect for fans that are from Boston I don't discriminate. I WANT to promote and support the team and its fanbase.

To Mississippi Gov Garreth Blackwell: if every RS game you've been to in person they have lost, please stay home.

To Laura Moberg, let's talk (friday night was awesome!)

Karen Doherty
Governor of California

Loosetear--I am a member of RSN and, like you, have followed this team through thick and thin, even back to when the only team they were ahead of in the standings was the Washington Senators. I "ran" for RSN president because I thought it was fun--and lost, I "ran" for governor of my state because it was fun--and lost--but I take it for what it's supposed to be--a good-natured way to meet other Red Sox fans. I have met some very passionate, knowledgeable people who love their Red Sox as much as I do, some of whom can quote chapter and verse about this player's stats and that player's pluses and minuses. I have also met some neophyte fans who are just getting into baseball. I can respect that as well. What I still have a hard time with, though, are the people who flit from team to team, depending on who's winning. I have a hard time with the young women (this is not a sexist comment--I am a woman) who dress provocatively when they go to Fenway, taking up seats that many passionate Red Sox fans therefore cannot get, know nothing about the game, CARE nothing about the game, walk up and down the aisle during the game, and only talk about how cute Jacoby is or how wonderful Justin Masterson looks with his red socks pulled up to his knees. Cut the crap! I am there to watch BASEBALL, not to read Playgirl magazine. I love BASEBALL, and in 1956 I picked the Red Sox as MY TEAM. They have been MY TEAM for 52 years and they will be MY TEAM until I'm in a pine box and being lowered into the ground. Fenway has become "the place to be" and "the place to be seen." So why are you there to watch baseball if you're text-messaging throughout the game, if you stand up and walk in front of me when the Sox have bases loaded, two out in the bottom of the eighth, and are down one run, and Youkilis is up??? Can't you wait for one pitch?

Okay, that's my rant. I will be 60 years old next month, and I've seen a lot of baseball games, but, alas, I have to watch them on TV from afar. I still love them and feel kinship with them, every last player on the team, every last security guard and vendor. That's why I stand by Red Sox Nation and will become a member every year. I have fun when I do get to attend a game. I drive four hours each way, and believe me, it's worth every minute, every mile on the NYS Thruway and the Mass Pike.

I don't own a pink hat; I am not a bandwagon fan. Never was, never will be.

You ask what I'm thinking about in October. Well, at about the end of September, I start having baseball withdrawal feelings. During these bad times, when I need something to take my mind off the fact that my retirement fund is disappearing and I will probably be working until I am 90, baseball--Red Sox baseball--gets me through. Football just doesn't do it. So it's withdrawal time for me. Is there a patch or a gum to help you get through baseball withdrawal???

Wanda Fischer
Schenectady, NY
Finalist for President of RSN 2007
Loser for Governor of New York RSN 2008

A short addendum...Boston IS my hometown (actually, Weymouth). When I first started to go to Red Sox games in the early 1960s, we had to take two buses to get to Fields Corner, then the train to Park Street, then the trolley to Kenmore. It took about two hours--just half the time it takes me to get from Schenectady to Fenway these days. I love that dirty water...Boston, you're my home!!!

Wanda,
Glad you ranted! Great to hear from you.
-- Rob

I can understand a lot of what is being said from both sides. I am originally a Mainiac (someone from Maine). Starting with loosetear, I am a born, raised and branded Sox fan. I remember going to Fenway as a kid watching guys like Jim Rice, Mike Greenwell, Marty Barrett, and the list goes, playing their hearts out to do everything possible to make a run at the World Series. I remember as a kid how disappointed I was when they lost in 86. I can honestly say that it makes me upset to see people who pulled for the Yankees now pulling for the Sox. That I know is what you are talking about, when you say "band wagon fans" I can also understand why someone is NOW a Sox fan. We don't have a team stacked with 'Superstars", but contend year after year. Just enjoy the fans and help them understand what the real "RSN" is all about. Also, for the ones bashing loosetear, watch how many fans come out of the closet when we win this year. Just look at how many people are now wearing Sox hats and gear, that would not have done so 10 years ago, and only do so because "WE" are on a better streak than those guys from NY. Lets make the best of what we have. True fans will be beside whoever they pull for, NO MATTER WHAT!!!!! Let's go Sox!!!!!!

I appreciate all the responses to "Loosetears" rant from the other RSN Governors and fans. They are all very well written and obviously from the heart. My response is a bit less PC and more to the point.

Loosetear, who are you to tell ANYONE why or how they should cheer for their favorite team? Lighten up... Just because you physically live in a closer proximity to Fenway does not grant you more allegiance or fan entitlement to the Red Sox. If you've ever left Boston in your life, you'd realize there are thousands of fans around the country that are just as, and FAR MORE loyal to the Red Sox than you claim to be. You sound like a disgruntled RSN President wannabe...

You have a problem with Remy that's fine, write away. Don't be preaching to us "out-of-towners" about how we should "go away". And DON'T try to tell me you are the voice of the "hometowners". You are the exception not the rule, I was born in Boston and spent the first 28 years of my life there. I am "one of the fans that supported the Red Sox over the decades" and you are the one that should "go away".

Marty McLoughlin
RSN Governor - Michigan

Loosetear: I spent the first 18 years of my life in Boston, and still get back there often. I spent years going to Red Sox games, chasing down players for autographs, and hoping to get another chance after that one season about 22 years ago I prefer to forget about. Boston IS my hometown and always will be, no matter how far I move away. There are Red Sox fans all over this country, and so many of them were fans long before 2004 ever happened. You have so much distaste for other Red Sox fans, why? And you say "the fans" as if you speak for them? Do us all a favor, log off. Pick up a Yankees hat, and hate us for a good reason.

Being a member of Red Sox Nation is not about proximity. I haven't lived in Maine for 20 years but the passion has only gotten stronger as I shared my loyalty with my sons, nieces, and nephews.

Here's my story:
Mike Macisso, Virginia Delegation, Red Sox Nation:

I became a Red Sox fan in 1967, back when the thought of a Red Sox Nation was a whisper. My family was caught up in the Impossible Dream team. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of a childhood/adolescence/adult “period” of disappointment.

Long before 24 hour cable TV, we had 3 major networks with the Sox occasionally appearing on the NBC Game of the Week. I primarily listened to the Sox on the radio relying on Ken Coleman, the smooth professional and Ned Martin, the poetic genius, in the booth. They were so descriptive of the action on the field but they could never have prepared me for my first visit to Fenway.

On September 29, 1968, my parents drove us from Maine down to Boston. The twin’s souvenir shop was just one large room chocked full of T-shirts, caps, posters, etc . . . My father purchased Grandstand seats for $2.50 a piece. Imagine that, 6 tickets to see the Yankees for less than $20.00! We entered Fenway from behind home plate. As an excited nine years old, I walked up the ramp. The sky was so blue, then came my first sight of the fabled Green Monster and lastly, the greenest grass that I have ever seen. A moment that has stayed with me a lifetime.

Around the batting cage were my heroes of the radio just joking with one another. There was Yaz, Rico, Hawk, etc . . .

We moved to our seats in Section 2, Row 33. Oh so far from the action at home plate but we were sitting at Fenway.

Fast forward to 2003, I’m in my mid-40s working for the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Grandfathers and Uncles had passed away without knowing a winner.

I remember thinking to myself, “I don’t know what it is about this 2003 team but they act different from any other version I’ve seen before. They look like they are built to win, I can just feel it.”

I’m so confident that when I return to Maine for summer
vacation that I tell everyone that I know that if the Sox don’t win it all this Fall, “I’m going to put a tattoo on my butt.” Well, we all know how that ended.

True to my word, on Good Friday, 2004, my wife Lynnda and I had lunch and a beer in Georgetown then crossed the street to spend the next hour and a half getting my backside branded. Although I was angry at the 2003 season, I was still optimistic for the 2004 season. The message on my left cheek was a message of Hope.

I took my 9-year son Joe to Opening Day 2004 in Baltimore (it was so cold, it felt like Boston in November). A great omen though, Johnny Damon, now looking like a savior, flips my son Joe a ball in batting practice. It was a scene right out of a Coca Cola commercial! Through the course of the season, we watched all the games on Directv. My teenage son Danny is now drinking the Red Sox Kool-Aid hard. My wife and sons were caught up in what I had been living since the summer of 1967.

The Sox took care of the Angels with just a little bit of drama. Then came the Evil Empire. I thought the Yankees would give us a hard time on our way to the World Series but they took the first three games rather convincingly. No one was hitting and the pitching was getting pounded. By the middle of Game 3, my son Joe was in tears, dismantling his room of all the Red Sox memorabilia. I figured that his heart is too tender to deal with such heartache. “Dad, do you think they’ll win it in my lifetime?” I tried to give him some fatherly counsel, “hey, this thing’s not over yet,” although I really did think it was over. Then it happened, one game at a time, just like the cliche. Dave Roberts stole second base when everybody watching knew he was going to steal it. If he’s out, we were done. But it proved to be the turning point in the ALCS. Boston wins. They are still down 3 games to 1. Before you know, it’s Sox in Seven. They put together 8 wins in a row. They seemed to take the Cardinals without too much effort. By the end of this winning streak, I’m numb. I was on business travel in New York, watching the game alone in a Times Square Hotel, jumping up and down in my room, I didn’t know how to react other than to call my family and friends back in Virginia and in New England.

Even now, I’ll start general conversations with people on the street if they are wearing any Sox-related garb. Some are very talkative. While others wonder who the hell am I and why am I talking to them (they also have that Please Go Away look on their faces).

My Christmas cards for 2004 featured an up close photograph of my tat. The New Englanders loved it. The Yankee fans and co-workers didn’t know what to think of me. Everyone who knows about it, still asks to see it. My wife has asked me to start showing people a photograph after I completely embarrassed her by flashing it in the local grocery store.

Since October 27, 2004, my vision has been clearer, my food tastes better, life is good. Even now, if I get down, I just think about the Boston Red Sox, the 2004 World Series Champions.