To Boston Sports Fans

There has been something building up for a while now and having listened to a couple of days of shock and horror about the Red Sox, I am going to chirp about it now. First of all, I have a couple of disclaimers: I am from Boston, live in Boston and have had the opportunity to live in a city where professional sports was not the top game in town. Having said that, I have an ever increasing annoyance with the attitude of Boston sports fans and I think we are spoiled. There...I said it.

Well, what is it I do not like. There are 3 points:

One, the prevalence that titles are a birthright. For whatever reason, people have forgotten that sometimes you just get beat. There is another team on the field or ice. If winning titles was easy, we would not have had to wait 86 years before the Sox won in 2004; we would not have had to wait until 2001 for the Patriots to win their first title; we would not have to wait 22 years until the Celtics and wait 39 years for the Bruins. It is not the end of the world, if you lose a game. If you are playing the sport, then it is about winning. If you gamble, maybe its about winning. If you are watching sports it is not about winning; it is about supporting and enjoying the team. It is about enjoying the game and sometimes being critical; which leads me to my next point.

Two, the rip at all cost mentality fuelled by the Boston sports media monolith.  Now the epic collapse that was the 2011 Red Sox deserves criticism. However, criticism in this town is a spectator sport in its own right. Now, I have not lived in New York City, Philadelphia or Chicago but the media here like to hear themselves talk and it pays to be a dink. You have media and sports fans alike feeling good about hearing and seeing all the negativity around Red Sox management, the players and the owner. It's a feeling of nostalgia about the about the good old days of losing and when the teams where actually somewhat pitiful. Mind you, this is basically the same group of people that brought 2 World Series titles to Boston, the first titles since 1918. If we look towards the 2010 New England Patriots, we have a team that defied all the predictions to finish 14-2 with young opportunistic defense but in the immortal words of Bart Scott could not stop a nosebleed; we knew it, we saw it. Instead of saying wow that was a pretty good season performance, we wallowed and complained how can we lose three straight playoff games. Simple, one of them required a couple of historic plays for them to lose, the other two were example where the better, tougher teams won. Only saving grace I can think of is the 2008 Patriots, where Tom Brady was lost for the season but the team finished 11-5 with a completely untested Matt Cassel at quarterback. They did not make the playoffs but there was a generally good outlook at their performance. 

Three, comfort in being miserable. Being a miserable Boston sports fan worked when Boston was not winning anything or the teams were hopeless and mediocre. However, the fact that the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox are all perennial title contenders and are very competitive makes us look like morons at best and assholes at worst when we get ready to jump off the Tobin like it was the early 90's. Right now, hockey is in pre-season and the Stanley Cup winning Bruins have gotten no love. Right now, our sports media is worried about why hasn't the owner of the Boston Red Sox had a press conference after there has already been like 3 press conferences; and worrying about whether the Partiots can perform in the playoffs 4 weeks into the season in addition to coaching legacies if they do not win another Superbowl now.

When our sports teams have collected 7 major professional sport championships since 2001 and have been in position to win a few more, it is hard to feel bad if you truly enjoy the actual games of football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Maybe folks need to stop using "the title card" to boost their egos about a great city; enjoy the games. Having lived in Atlanta where football (particularly college football) is king, it was an embarrassment that the Atlanta Braves could win a World Series in 1995 and win 14 straight division titles and could not sell out playoff games. I could up walk up and buy a ticket at the window. In addition to being the second game in town, they were a victim of their own success.

I'm not sure if Boston would get to that point, but if you define your existence or success solely on the recent championships teams have won, then who knows.  If that becomes the expectation every year, you can only go downhill after the recent success of these teams. Some speculate that is the reason the Sox had to go after over priced free agents; a need to generate interest in the team given some sagging ratings. Also, there has been chatter in recent years that the crowd noise level at Foxboro Stadium (no product placement here) is not what it used to be. In other words, people got spoiled at the success, a "call me when the playoffs begin" mentality. Clearly a by-product of continued success of the teams. Well, if the 2011 baseball season or 2008 NFL season is any teacher, you never know if you actually get there or not. So, enjoy the games, save the misery for a funeral, and be proud that we have 4 teams that at any moment can be in the fight.