Red Sox Natives vs. Red Sox Nation

Ever since Tony Massarotti wrote about the pink hat and cell-phone crowd in the Boston Herald last month, there has been a bit of a blogswarm surrounding who is and is not a true Red Sox fan. Universal Hub documented some of the discussion when it first came up a month ago, and the topic has returned for round two in the last couple of days.

I don't like to say that anyone is more of a "true" Sox fan than another, but there are certainly two types of fans: Red Sox Natives, and Red Sox Nation.

I am a Red Sox Native, and proud of it. I am NOT a member of Red Sox Nation, no matter what Larry Lucchino and NESN and Dan Shaughnessy say.

A Red Sox Native is a fan of the Red Sox as a team, not the Red Sox as an experience. A Native was a fan before the mayhem of 2003 and 2004, and will remain a fan whenever the next Butch Hobson era arrives (heaven forbid it ever does).

As a Native, I have a love-hate relationship with Red Sox Nation. On the one hand, I appreciate the Nation because the team needs the revenue generated by inflated ticket prices, wall-to-wall corporate sponsorship, and yes, the sale of pink hats, in order to put a perennial pennant contender on the field. It's cool to see thousands of Sox fans every night when I watch a game on NESN, whether the team is home or away.

On the other hand, I hate all of those fans who cheer for the Red Sox because it's the thing to do, because Fenway is the place to be seen, because in New England one almost has to be a Sox fan in order to be anything. I hate that they don't know the language of the game, don't know what a "good out" is...that they boo Johnny Damon because they feel like they have somehow been jilted.

I hate that they talk about the Curse of the Bambino, and curses reversed, and all of that mystical hokum instead of understanding that the Sox were victims of bad pitching, bad defense, bad management, and bad baseball for all those years.

I hate that at least one citizen of the Nation is on his or her cell phone on my TV at all times. A Native would never risk missing a pitch by even having their phone on, never mind calling someone.

I hate that citizens of the Nation buy jerseys and T-Shirts with things like "Karaoke Guy" on the back (you know who you are). If I'm going to buy a jersey, I sure as hell am not going to but a home jersey with a name on it, since they don't exist in the real world. And nicknames? Ugh!

I hate that citizens of the Nation talk about how beating the Yankees in the playoffs was more fulfilling than winning the World Series, and that winning the World Series wouldn't have meant as much if they'd had to play the Twins or someone else. A Native realizes that we had won the pennant before, winning the World Series was all that mattered.

A citizen of the Nation is so happy that Bill Buckner can be finally forgiven. A Native remembers that we forgave Bill Buckner when we gave him a standing ovation on opening day, 1990. In fact, we realize that if anyone is to blame for game 6, it's either Bob Stanley or Rich Gedman, depending on if you believe that errant palm ball that allowed the tying run to score was a wild pitch or a passed ball.

A Native wears a hat that the team wears in a game (Blue, or 70s throwback Red). Citizens of Red Sox Nation wear whatever.

Red Sox Nation considers Wally the Green Monster as one of them. Natives booed Wally off the field when he was introduced.

Citizens of Red Sox Nation aren't necessarily bad people, they just don't know what they don't know. And while they cheer for the Sox in blissful ignorance, they annoy the snot out of Natives like me.

Tags: Boston Red Sox Nation World Series 1986 2004