Red Sox fans perturb me. They confuse me. For the last 86 years—the last two in particular—I have heard chants of, “This is the year, Yankees suck, and reverse the curse.” And now that Red Sox have finally broken the curse of the Bambino they are caught in a paradox between the spoils of victory and the misery of defeat.
For some Boston fans, it seems, the flavor of Champagne is a little too sweet. Their taste buds seem to prefer the bite of Jack Daniels on their road to absentmindedness. Drowning themselves in their own grief has become a typical and time-honored event come October in New England. It was a tradition, like Halloween. Mark the calendar. Red Sox lose. Get wasted in despair.
For years these reasons have made Red Sox fans the darlings of Major League Baseball. Fans across the country have sympathized with Red Sox Nation and their plight with the Babe and the New York Yankees.
However, with Boston’s coming back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat those hated Yankees, then sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, the patience of baseball has begun to run thin. Red Sox fans have been quoted in newspapers across the country as saying they will “miss” being the lovable losers, a title which now is solely owned by the Chicago Cubs.
Other franchises like the Cubs have had their fair share of disappointments. The Houston Astros have failed to even reach the World Series in 43 years, a statistic that places them among the likes of the Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos, Seattle Mariners, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. But none of these fans are mourned for, or grieve so openly about their entrapment in failure.
Boston fans are those loud and obnoxious folks that constantly want to complain to you about how depressing their life has been, even in the moments of victory. They don’t know how to act among the winners because they are so used to being the losers. They have the ability to be endearing but irritating. You can almost see the Babe, Mantle, and DiMaggio looking down at Derek Jeter saying, “How’d you let them get in here?”
So it is time to make up your minds, Boston fans. It is either time to stop complaining about not being able to complain, or accept the role of “world’s favorite second place team,” for life.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual writer and are not necessarily held by The Poly or the sports department.
