2008 Woodie Awards
In my humble opinion
Underdog spirit gone in Beantown
Daniel Roberts
Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Opinions
Sorry if a sports column doesn't interest you, but 65 percent of the students here (I just made that up) are from J.O.B., so let's talk Red Sox.
From the latest issue of GQ magazine: "Boston… Enough. We get it. You rule the universe… But remember, fifteen years ago, your teams sucked large donkey balls."
We do remember, but only vaguely. It's difficult to be humble. Since 2004, the Red Sox have won twice, the Patriots have won twice, and the Celtics took the NBA finals last June, the team's first banner since 1986 (before my time on this earth and likely yours). I'm not even mentioning the Bruins because the NHL is no longer relevant in any real way. It's okay, Midd hockey, you guys are still cool.
But it's not just about winning. It's about the potential of winning. What's changed is that every season, in the three major team sports that people actually care about (football, baseball, and basketball, in that order), we now expect to be contenders for a title.
Obviously it wasn't always like that. When I was in middle school, my family had season tickets for the Celtics at the FleetCenter. During that era, we saw players come and go who were not great - Walter McCarty, Kedrick Brown, Vin Baker, Milt Palacio - and the team was not great either. In fact, after witnessing humiliating, double-digit losses every Friday night, and the management inexplicably jacking up ticket prices in 2003, my dad canceled our season tickets. Call us fair-weather fans, but this team was painful to watch.
Today, in the wake of the Boston Three-Party and their magical championship season, Bostonians expect results, and continue to get them. By the time you read this article the Sox will be in the midst of an ALCS battle with the Tampa Bay Rays. Non-massholes (New Yorkers, most of all) may shudder to think of it, but it's very possible the Sox will nab their third world series title in five seasons.
So what's the problem? Besides being hated by everyone else in sports fandom (which we don't mind anyway), we have an identity crisis. The underdog ethos is gone. The emblematic "B" on a Red Sox hat used to represent devoted suffering through season after season of early playoff elimination. That "B" now represents victory, and people hate Sox fans almost as much as they hate the Pats.
From the latest issue of GQ magazine: "Boston… Enough. We get it. You rule the universe… But remember, fifteen years ago, your teams sucked large donkey balls."
We do remember, but only vaguely. It's difficult to be humble. Since 2004, the Red Sox have won twice, the Patriots have won twice, and the Celtics took the NBA finals last June, the team's first banner since 1986 (before my time on this earth and likely yours). I'm not even mentioning the Bruins because the NHL is no longer relevant in any real way. It's okay, Midd hockey, you guys are still cool.
But it's not just about winning. It's about the potential of winning. What's changed is that every season, in the three major team sports that people actually care about (football, baseball, and basketball, in that order), we now expect to be contenders for a title.
Obviously it wasn't always like that. When I was in middle school, my family had season tickets for the Celtics at the FleetCenter. During that era, we saw players come and go who were not great - Walter McCarty, Kedrick Brown, Vin Baker, Milt Palacio - and the team was not great either. In fact, after witnessing humiliating, double-digit losses every Friday night, and the management inexplicably jacking up ticket prices in 2003, my dad canceled our season tickets. Call us fair-weather fans, but this team was painful to watch.
Today, in the wake of the Boston Three-Party and their magical championship season, Bostonians expect results, and continue to get them. By the time you read this article the Sox will be in the midst of an ALCS battle with the Tampa Bay Rays. Non-massholes (New Yorkers, most of all) may shudder to think of it, but it's very possible the Sox will nab their third world series title in five seasons.
So what's the problem? Besides being hated by everyone else in sports fandom (which we don't mind anyway), we have an identity crisis. The underdog ethos is gone. The emblematic "B" on a Red Sox hat used to represent devoted suffering through season after season of early playoff elimination. That "B" now represents victory, and people hate Sox fans almost as much as they hate the Pats.
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