As is his style, Dan Shaughnessy had a rant last weekend on the state of the Red Sox. “Nobody’s mad at the local nine, ” he wrote. “After all, they’ve won the World Series three times in 10 years and they won it last year…everybody is happy just to enjoy another day in America’s most beloved ballpark..”
“Fenway fans, ” he goes on, “don’t mind paying the highest ticket prices in baseball to watch the Pawtucket Red Sox stagger across the finish line in the basement of the once-proud American League East.”
I have a few reservations about Dan’s comments. The fact that they have been so erratic since September 2011 should not detract from Theo Epstein and Ben Cherington’s successes in winning it all on three different occasions. Epstein and Cherington are hardly blameless for the wild fluctuations and, if the team continues to lose, Ben’s job may be in jeapordy. But after enduring 47 years as a fan without a Sox title, I have great memories of 04, 07, and 13-those will stay with me as long as I live. Another factor is that since free-agency began, teams pretty much go season-by-season, which makes the achievements of the Joe Torre Yankees even more of an accomplishment.
As far as ticket prices (which Dan mentions almost weekly), no one is forcing fans to sit in the Fenway stands. Personally, I seldom go to the Fens, since, despite some improvement in the facilities, the park still seems like it was built for 1912. Gillette Stadium, where I have season tickets, is many times more comfortable. But since 04, Fenway has become a shrine, and unless the Sox have a Butch Hobson-type run, the fans will still come.
The latest love affair between the team and fans began in 2013. It is too soon to tell how long it will last.
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