Red Sox Nation? I Liked It Better When It Was The Massachusetts Bay Colony

Let me first start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of the Boston Red Sox. In fact that statement does not even begin to do my allegiance to the Red Sox justice. To give you an idea of how big a fan I am I have actually had relationships (plural) end because of my passion for everything Sox. Recently however there is an aspect of being a Red Sox fan that has begun to annoy me, and that is RED SOX NATION!!!

Fans of the Boston Red Sox, like myself, are the most passionate fans in baseball, and are also among the most knowledgeable (sometimes, I'll admit we can definitely let our hearts get in the way of our heads). This new "Red Sox Nation" however, is nothing more than an insanely large group of bandwagon fans whose only contribution to society has been to turn every other sports fan against Red Sox fans. People used to love their home town team and whoever was playing the Yankees. Now you can lump whoever is playing the Red Sox in that category as well.

Now I know winning breeds contempt but this has gone too far. Prior to 2004 Red Sox fans were relegated to most of New England (Connecticut's iffy), and people like myself whose family is from Boston. For full disclosure purposes, I was born and raised in Norfolk, VA but I was raised knowing that if I rooted for any team other than the Red Sox my family would disown me. I spent my summers going to games at Fenway with my grandfather seeing everyone from The Rocket to Pedro, from The Hit Dog to Manny.

Quick quiz: All you Red Sox Nation members, who is the Hit Dog?

The problem now is you have a successful franchise, the only team with 2 titles this decade, and a legion of followers who couldn't even tell you who made the error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Red Sox Nation invades visiting ballparks and makes an absolute mockery of true Red Sox fans, the ones that suffered through the close calls in '46, '67, '75, '86, and '03, prompting every other fan in attendance to contemplate homicide, not suicide, homicide. And unfortunately for Red Sox fans this problem is not exclusive to visiting ballparks. Never did I think I would see fans leaving a playoff game at Fenway in the 5th inning, but I saw it last year against the Rays and it made me sick to my stomach.

I'm a young Red Sox fan who has no idea what it was like for my grandfather and his peers growing up watching the Red Sox. He was 79 when he saw them win for the first time in his life, and I was 21. What I do know is that I am more of a Red Sox fan than probably every single card carrying member (seriously they have cards) of Red Sox Nation because one of the worst and one of the best days of my life so far have been because of the Red Sox. October 17th, 2003 and October 27, 2004. If you are a true Red Sox fan you know what each of those dates symbolize.

Too bad the Cubs will never win and take all of these fans with them.

Quiz Answer: Mo Vaughn.