Last week the BOSTON GLOBE reported that there were empty seats for some of the ALCS games at Fenway Park between the Rays and the Red Sox. Apparently people weren’t buying seats even at under-face-value prices.
Well, at the time, I found it pretty hard to believe that the honorable members of Red Sox Nation would abandon and embarrass their team in that fashion. It couldn’t be true!
Then I saw an ASSOCIATED PRESS report about the club’s return home to Boston this morning. AP:
In contrast to the raucous celebrations that followed victorious postseasons in 2004 and 2007, it was a quiet homecoming for the Red Sox after their 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.
There were TV crews but no fans on hand when buses carrying the team arrived in the early-morning chill outside Fenway Park on Monday. The team flew home from Florida immediately after the game.
Most players quickly climbed into cars and drove away, preferring not to reflect any further on the disappointing finish.
One year removed from a World Series title. Coming off one of the most thrilling playoff comebacks in history, despite a team riddled with injuries, and NO ONE is there to greet them back in Boston?
That was fast.
I really, really wanted to believe* that Red Sox fans were indeed as special as they said they were. That they truly were diehards. That all those seasons of god-awful attendance numbers before the Red Sox went on their World Series rampage wasn’t a reflection of what Bosox locals were truly made of.
Well, turns out the Sox fans are no different than fans of any other city. They show up when the team wins. And they abandon the club when they close.
Welcome to the party kids! See you opening night for the Celts’ banner-raising!
* Ok, maybe I didn’t.
11:52 am on October 20th, 2008
Why show up? They lost.
11:56 am on October 20th, 2008
Think they'd have showed up if the Sox hadn't won a Series before?
Yeah, prob not then too.
11:59 am on October 20th, 2008
Still, you'd think there would be at least a few diehards to provide some polite applause and snap a few photos.
12:00 pm on October 20th, 2008
Must have been too cold out.
12:05 pm on October 20th, 2008
It's not like they couldn't have stopped by the nearest Dunkin Donuts and warmed themselves up with some great-tastin' coffee.
12:06 pm on October 20th, 2008
Is there anyone besides a Bostonian surprised by this? Yawn. Red Sox fans have always been overrated garbage.
12:10 pm on October 20th, 2008
It's such a relief not having the Red Sox in the Series yet again. And an even bigger relief not having to put up with the obnoxious Red Sox Nation anymore this year.
12:11 pm on October 20th, 2008
Who besides college kids and the unemployed can afford to wait outside in the cold past midnight and wait for their team to arrive? I'm a Sox fan and I'd laugh at anyone who even suggested that I go and greet a team at that hour — and that's if they won. But if they'd lost? Only masochistic morons would be out there.
12:25 pm on October 20th, 2008
You sit there and blast Red Sox fans for not showing up, when you perfectly know that this would happen with any team that just lost a series. Would Yankees fans have shown up had they just lost a playoff series? No. Did any Cubs fans show up when they lost for the billionth time? No.
12:30 pm on October 20th, 2008
What makes this story interesting is because of the reputation the mighty "Red Sox Nation" has built of itself - diehard fans spread throughout the country, filling the seats at road games, sticking with their team through thick and thin. So when such supposedly strong supporters don't even bother to greet their returning team, you wonder just how mighty the RSN is.
12:39 pm on October 20th, 2008
Ya really wonder, huh Jimmy Rollins? You, the guy who has an avatar of a player who called Phillies fans a bunch of frontrunners? What would Philadelphia fans know about greeting a returning team anyway? Were you at the airport with your I heart Donovan signs every time they lost an NFC title game?
12:46 pm on October 20th, 2008
Fans had trouble pahking their cahs in Hahvahd Yahd.
12:47 pm on October 20th, 2008
It's one thing to get busted at work for going to see a World Series trophy. It's completely another to see a bunch of pissed-off, tired guys who aren't going to acknowledge you , the media, or anyone else for that matter. I think the only one I even saw on TV talking to the media was Papelbon. People need to get a clue….
12:52 pm on October 20th, 2008
Was Papelbon dancing, as he is wont to do?
12:57 pm on October 20th, 2008
Probably a sad waltz.
1:08 pm on October 20th, 2008
With all this new free time, maybe Paps should try out for Dancing With The Stars.
1:35 pm on October 20th, 2008
I wouldn't want to be out in Boston in the middle of the night, either.
1:53 pm on October 20th, 2008
In response to Dirty Waterboy… YES many yankees fans were present at the stadium during all of their recently early exits from the post season. Sox fans are all pathetic scum and sore winners.
2:23 pm on October 20th, 2008
What a ridiculous column! Where was the column about nobody showing up at Yankee Stadium when they were eliminated the last week of the season… or Angel fans not showing up after their team was ousted.
This pathological obsession with the Sox and RSN is not healthy. You should seek help.
2:33 pm on October 20th, 2008
What's worse - obsessing about the Red Sox Nation, or obsessing about someone obsessing about the Red Sox Nation?
2:47 pm on October 20th, 2008
Are you high? Nobody was broadcasting that the Red Sox would be outside Fenway Park at 4 AM in 25 degree weather so obviously nobody showed up. Are we supposed to stalk the team and follow Mike Lowell when he takes a piss?
As for the ALCS tickets, I'm not sure if you've taken a look at the economy lately. I was offered below face-value bleacher seats for the ALDS and I had to turn them down because they were still 110 a pop. I love the Red Sox but the brakes on my car just died and I can't even afford to fix that (so I walk to work) much less throw down 250 bucks so my girlfriend and I can see a baseball game.
3:35 pm on October 20th, 2008
Aren't Red Sox Nationals supposed to have a sixth sense of knowing where all Boston players are at all times? Sort of like a 'Shining' thing.
3:38 pm on October 20th, 2008
Berman:
Or obsessing about someone obsessing about someone obsessing about the Red Sox Nation?
3:40 pm on October 20th, 2008
if heidi watney didn't show up, then why should i?
3:42 pm on October 20th, 2008
Or obsessing about someone obsessing about someone obsessing about someone…uh…oh, forget it.
4:08 pm on October 20th, 2008
What's the big deal? So fans didn't show up to see a bunch of losers. It's not like they accomplished anything.
4:49 pm on October 20th, 2008
As someone mentioned before, this is a mute point. The team came in at the VERY EARLY hours of a MONDAY morning with no annoucement regarding the arrival time and it was pretty damn cold outside. If they had won, then yes some people probably would have been parked outside Fenway waiting but I don't think it shows badly on Red Sox Nation if they decided to stay home and rest up for work today. Would YOU honestly wait out in the cold to see your team come off a bus tired, dissappointed, and ready to return to their own homes?
4:58 pm on October 20th, 2008
Wow, people didn't line up in the middle of the frigid morning to greet a bunch of guys who were probably weren't even feeling as miserable as the fans were?
Greeting teams at the airport/ballpark is blase and retarded anyway. Sox fans were exercising rational restraint.
Nothing to read here. Move on, people.
4:59 pm on October 20th, 2008
Your sure it's not a moot point?
5:56 pm on October 20th, 2008
If the Redskins were involved, it would be a Fred Smoot point.
6:55 pm on October 20th, 2008
They would have showed up if Manny was still there.
7:06 pm on October 20th, 2008
By the time the team got back, Red Sox fans had already drunk themselves to sleep by then.
7:11 pm on October 20th, 2008
If the Sox players were feeling so terrible, having some fans there could have cheered them up.
10:43 pm on October 20th, 2008
When the Celtics lose in the NBA playoffs this year, we'll see how many "diehards" wait outside the Garden. Probably a few, since the weather is usually nicer in May.
10:46 pm on October 20th, 2008
I can understand if it was the Dodgers coming back after a pennant loss, since most people in L.A. could care less. But this is Beantown! Fans don't bleed red in their socks?
10:24 am on October 21st, 2008
Do you think it was really as bad as the AP story reported? Surely there were a handful of fans on site, or at least some friends and family of the players!
10:49 am on October 21st, 2008
F#$*n Broncos! Sure would have been nice to shut those Boston Jerks up.
11:47 am on October 21st, 2008
What time did they arrive, 5AM? Who the hell would get up that early and wait in the cold even if they did win?
10:03 pm on October 21st, 2008
What a stupid topic - lots of sore losers (not Sox Fans) ? As for the Red Sox fans, they stayed up quite late to be there at the game or watch on TV. I'd say many teams in the majors would give their 1st born to have a fan base like RSN! Love 'em or hate 'em, the majority are not fair weather fans.