Thursday, July 08, 2004
They Have No-one to Blame but Themselves
John Donovan has an article about the Red Sox up at Sports Illustrated's site. After being up here for a year I can tell you that Red Sox fans are indeed the most ridiculously anxious and obsessive sports fans I've ever encountered. The only players spared the locals' hatred after last week's 1-5 swing against the Yankees and Atlanta were Manny, David Ortiz, and Curt Schilling. Everybody else could have gone to hell as far as the fans were concerned, especially Francona, Derek Lowe, and Nomar. I'm almost surprised no Sox has ever been killed by some overealous fan.
The Nomar situation is completely ridiculous. Nomar has every single right to be pissed at and apprehensive about this team's management. The conspiracy theories flying around up here, though, about Nomar faking his injury and not playing up to his level, are pathetic. The fact that the fans could so easily turn on their best and most favorite player in a generation or two proves that they don't love the players or the history of the team. The emotion wasted on this ballclub is solely about Boston's own depressing inferiority complex. If the Sox ever win the World Series the people of Boston could briefly believe that Boston is a world-class city without having to lie to themselves. A World Series victory would momentarily justify this town's amazingly inflated self-image. The locals could cease to deny to themselves that Boston is a dying provincial city whose importance and significance peaked over 200 years ago and that is only still kept afloat by higher education and tourism. Since the Revolution the entire history of Boston can be summed up as a futile attempt to keep up with New York.
I really do like this city. It's a beautiful town with amazing history and impressive culture, and I've never encountered another city that's as easy to get around in. I will even acknowledge that it's better than Atlanta in almost every possible way (although Atlanta will always be the city I was born in). But the truth is that Boston is the David Brent of cities, and that combination of desperate, pathetic, neediness and baseless arrogance makes it really hard to love this town.
John Donovan has an article about the Red Sox up at Sports Illustrated's site. After being up here for a year I can tell you that Red Sox fans are indeed the most ridiculously anxious and obsessive sports fans I've ever encountered. The only players spared the locals' hatred after last week's 1-5 swing against the Yankees and Atlanta were Manny, David Ortiz, and Curt Schilling. Everybody else could have gone to hell as far as the fans were concerned, especially Francona, Derek Lowe, and Nomar. I'm almost surprised no Sox has ever been killed by some overealous fan.
The Nomar situation is completely ridiculous. Nomar has every single right to be pissed at and apprehensive about this team's management. The conspiracy theories flying around up here, though, about Nomar faking his injury and not playing up to his level, are pathetic. The fact that the fans could so easily turn on their best and most favorite player in a generation or two proves that they don't love the players or the history of the team. The emotion wasted on this ballclub is solely about Boston's own depressing inferiority complex. If the Sox ever win the World Series the people of Boston could briefly believe that Boston is a world-class city without having to lie to themselves. A World Series victory would momentarily justify this town's amazingly inflated self-image. The locals could cease to deny to themselves that Boston is a dying provincial city whose importance and significance peaked over 200 years ago and that is only still kept afloat by higher education and tourism. Since the Revolution the entire history of Boston can be summed up as a futile attempt to keep up with New York.
I really do like this city. It's a beautiful town with amazing history and impressive culture, and I've never encountered another city that's as easy to get around in. I will even acknowledge that it's better than Atlanta in almost every possible way (although Atlanta will always be the city I was born in). But the truth is that Boston is the David Brent of cities, and that combination of desperate, pathetic, neediness and baseless arrogance makes it really hard to love this town.
