I wrote more than a year ago about how Red Sox fans are idiots. I have reason to revisit that article, on account of K-Dub's observations on "a soulless, grim-faced monster-machine" and a recent Fark thread in which Red Sox fans behave like the undereducated, tunnel-visioned jackasses they are.
Let me put this succinctly. Red Sox fans are bandwagoners. I said that last year, and I say it now. "Red Sox Nation" did not emerge as an entity until the 2004 World Series. If "Red Sox Nation," the sea of red that invades ballparks across the country when the BoSox come to town, existed prior to 2004, where were they?
Devil Rays fans are all-too-familiar with the torrent of fans that accompany a home series against the Sox. Yet this phenomenon is actually fairly recent, having been instigated BY THE 2004 WORLD SERIES.
Quantitative data coming... Average attendance of a Boston Red Sox game vs. the Devil Rays @ Tropicana Field followed by the season average for all games at the Trop:
2007: 27,487 (average: 17,148) = "Red Sox Nation" boost of 10,339 or 60% increase
2006: 24,690 (average: 16,901) = "Red Sox Nation" boost of 7,789 or 46% increase
2005: 24,055 (average: 14,052) = "Red Sox Nation" boost of 10,003 or 71% increase
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2004: 17,671 (average: 16,139) = "Red Sox Nation" boost of 1,532 or 9% increase
2003: 16,001 (average: 13,070) = "Red Sox Nation" boost of 2,931 or 22% increase
2002: 13,983 (average: 13,158) = "Red Sox Nation" boost of 825 or 6% increase
IMPORTANT NOTE: I have not the time to compensate in the yearly average for the Red Sox games; thus my numbers are actually conservative and the "Red Sox Nation" boost is heavily underestimated 2005-2007 and slightly underestimated 2002-2004.
To make a long story short, either a massive number of Red Sox fans immediately moved to the Tampa Bay area before the 2005 season, or a massive number of baseball fans decided to cheer for the Red Sox after their 2004 World Series win. That alone makes them jackasses; their public behavior only reinforces this characteristic.
Nice try kid.
But I've been a Sox fan long enough to ONLY remember game 6 of '75 (Pudge Fisk willing the ball fair - I've blocked out who won game 7).
I suffered the meltdown of '78, Buckner's ignominious squat, and I know that Bucky Dent's middle name begins with F and ends with UCKIN.
Yes we have our share of pink-hatted hanger-ons.
Same with my beloved Patriots...
And yes, I sat on the cold, hard, aluminum, bench seats of Shaefer Stadium when the Pats were 1-15.