Boston Red Sox = America's team?

by anaconda on Aug 23, 2007 8:16 PM EDT in News Comment 26 comments

Looks like Jscape has been working overtime today, so it's my turn to catch up and post some off-day banter of my own. I was going to post this several hours ago but a tornado hit a few blocks from my house and I was without power for awhile.

Anyways, I'm sure many of you have already seen this piece from USA Today, so take it for what it's worth.

However, Pete Abraham brings up a couple of good points that illustrates exactly why these attendance figures are flawed and why the notion that the Red Sox are now America's team based on these figures is ridiculous.

The Red Sox have averaged 38,802 fans for road games. The Yankees have averaged 37,906. I'm not quite sure 896 people means one team is more popular than the other in the entire nation.

It's also worth noting that when the Yankees play on the road, they fill 84 percent of the seats and the Red Sox 82 percent.

USA Today also failed to take into account that when the Red Sox play in New York, they're playing in front of crowds of 55,000. When the Yankees play in Boston, they play before 36,000. So the Red Sox benefit in that exchange.

What it boils down to is that the Red Sox greatly benefit because they gain an average of 19,000+ in road attendance figures over the Yanks for every game played at Yankee Stadium because Fenway Park is so small. Those numbers certainly add up when you're talking about 9-10 games every season these teams play in each other's ballpark.

Oh well. It's a rather bogus conclusion but I'm sure it makes RSN very happy.

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I read this on lohud

but who really cares? A lot of RS fans are johnny come latelys per usual...when the RS are doing poorly their "fans" seem to disappear. Let them keep those fans.

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." -Casey Stengel

by bxgrl1 on Aug 23, 2007 8:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

any research

on the dramatic increase of fans from 2004 on? i do know alot of die-hard sox fans (being from CT) but i also know at least ten people that weren't red sox fans until then.

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 23, 2007 8:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I know

a guy who grew up in Jersey and says he was a die hard Yankee fan in the 80's through 90's. Then he moved to boston in 01 and now says he is a die hard Sox fan and hates the Yanks. I don't listen to anything he has to say about baseball anymore because that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Pride, Power, Cocktease

by ReLaunch on Aug 23, 2007 8:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

who is he

and where does he live?

by beantownbosoxh8er on Aug 24, 2007 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I

will set him straight on loyalty

by beantownbosoxh8er on Aug 24, 2007 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hahah, its

funny because he now moved backed to jersey and his house is decked in Sox stuff. Pathetic.

Pride, Power, Cocktease

by ReLaunch on Aug 24, 2007 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

As an attorney

I can't advise you to break the law, but one could argue that is justifiable arson!

Fear the Evil Empire

by pfistyunc on Aug 24, 2007 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I know of worse

Someone I work with is from Boston, but worked in NYC for several years and claims to be a fan of both teams. I still can't wrap my head around it.

by docgonzo on Aug 24, 2007 11:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

that's because there is no such thing

I know someone from NY who lives in Boston and is really the fan of no team because he liked (not loved) the Yankees when he lived in NY but now all his friends are RS fans and he watches and goes to RS games and sometimes Yankee games in NY. He says, now, that he really can't root for either team because his loyalties are torn. I think that's more like it than fan of both teams. Identifying yourself as a fan of one of those teams precludes the other FOR LIFE. If not you were never really a fan of Team 1.

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." -Casey Stengel

by bxgrl1 on Aug 24, 2007 2:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Baseball fans

are better than team fans anyways.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Aug 24, 2007 3:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also

I know a few Red Sox fans who "settle" for seeing their team on the road because it's so damn hard to get a ticket to Fenway.
Again, the road numbers are inflated by the small home park.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Aug 23, 2007 8:59 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

the road numbers

are also inflated by this kid i know.

he travels to see them all the time. oh and hes from indianapolis and also likes michigan football, lakers basketball and the colts and steelers. go figure. as you can see, he's a huge die-hard.

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 23, 2007 9:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Is that the same guy who went to see

"I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" about 11 million times?

Everything looks nicer when you win. The girls are prettier. The cigars taste better. The trees are greener. --Billy Martin

by garp on Aug 23, 2007 10:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You could use the same reasoning

that McDonald's has the best burger because they sell the most. Three kind of lies; Lies, Damn lies and Statistics.

by Mr Farley on Aug 23, 2007 10:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Texas

blows, 3-1 lead in the 6th, lets turn it into a 8-3 defecit.

Pride, Power, Cocktease

by ReLaunch on Aug 23, 2007 10:47 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

what a joke

Yankees fans are the biggest fair weather fans in the country. Sox fans stuck by their team for 86 years. The Yankees dropped their team in 6 months. The Sox may not have the championships the Yankees have, but at least they have more intelligent, more loyal fans.

by charger on Aug 24, 2007 12:08 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'll tell you what

in the late '90s I would have agreed with you. Every bandwagon fan in the country owned a Yankee hat. But post-2004 I've seen Red Sox caps on people who don't know who the starting left fielder is.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Aug 24, 2007 12:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What?

How are you even agreeing with that? Look at every site (Baltimore, LAA, etc), they all comlain about the Sox fans and even actually say the Yankee fans are classier. Boston is full of bandwagon fans. Tell that stupid ass to go watch Sox appeal on NESN.

Pride, Power, Cocktease

by ReLaunch on Aug 24, 2007 12:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm disagreeing with it

I'm just saying that 6 or 7 years ago he could have made the case that the Yankees had the most bandwagon fans, and that most Red Sox fans were diehards. But that is no longer the case.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Aug 24, 2007 1:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

as someone who grew up in the Bronx

and weathered all the losing years as a Yankee fan (because they were the hometown team), I was accused of being a bandwagon jumper in the 90s because I lived all over the country in the championship years and wore (as always) Yankee gear. People who didn't even know me or where I was from or who I had rooted for all my life (Yankees) accused me of being a bandwagon jumper...and I lived in Boston for two years and no one there seemed to sport RS gear. I've been up there a few times this year and now everyone has it on.

In the 90s if you had Yankee gear on anywhere but NY they seemed to accuse you of being a bandwagon jumper. One guy in LA said to me, "Oh it's easy being a Yankee fan because they win all the time." The guy had NO IDEA how long I'd been a Yankee fan. Time to break out that "Office Space" Jump To Conclusions mat. Idiots.

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." -Casey Stengel

by bxgrl1 on Aug 24, 2007 7:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Goons

The lot of 'em are goons. They don't know how to win with class, they don't know how to lose with class--which is surprising to me because they've had so much experience doing so.

"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will

by Ronster22 on Aug 24, 2007 10:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

here we go with the

"we are better fan because we suffer"
That is BS.
come to Boston and see how many college kids are "loyal" fans.
They are here to get shitfaced and chant "yankees suck" before puking on their shoes.
As intelligent fans , some sure. but is rioting after your team wins intelligent?
Awesome! yea! we win! lets go fuck shit up! that will show the world how smart we are! we deserve it! we "suffered" for 86 years.
Grouping them all together and saying they are more intelligent then another teams fan base is retarded.
let me guess charger you are a sox fan? are you loyal? did you grow up in the N.E. area?

by beantownbosoxh8er on Aug 25, 2007 9:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs