I am a lifelong Red Sox fan. I used to be pretty hard-core, I remember the 1978 play-off game like it was yesterday. Nowadays, I dislike the structure of Major League Baseball, in particular the lack of a level playing field and the too-long play-off system, so much that I can’t get *that* into it all anymore.
One of the bizarre things about many Red Sox fans is the extent to which they focus on the non-baseball aspects of the game. By that, I mean the players’ facial hair, where the players live, how the players dress, where the manager goes to bet on the puppies (Zimmer era), and so on. In August, 2004, my uncle told me that year’s team would never go anywhere since they had too much long hair, too many beards, and not enough guys who wore suits on team flights; they ought to have rules about this, the way the Yankees do, that was the best thing Steinbrenner ever did. A few seasons later he told me that they were going nowhere because they were too uptight, too clean cut, and that didn’t give them the loosey-goosey attitude you need to come back when you’re behind in the late innings.
Apparently, the reason the Red Sox collapsed this year is that the pitchers were allowed to eat fried chicken in the clubhouse during the games when they weren’t pitching.
There’s something about all of this, the things the press picks on, that reminds me a lot of politics.