By A.J. Hayes
A cursory inspection of the sea of fans sporting navy blue and crimson at the Oakland Coliseum this past weekend proved that a) Boston Red Sox fans travel really well. And b) David Ortiz replica jerseys are not limited to “Big Popi” sizes.
Dozens of men, women, teens and toddlers of all dimensions ringed the stadium, spreading New England support from foul pole to foul pole and representing Ortiz, the Red Sox massive slugger. And those not wearing Ortiz’s iconic No. 34 modeled jerseys and t-shits representing the likes of Manny Ramirez, Kevin Youkilis, and Jonathan Papelbon. Sprinkled among them were some retro pieces featuring the numbers of Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski and Ted Williams.
No matter how Oakland fared on the field against the visiting Bosox, the Green and Gold bean counters knew in advance they would be big winners at the box office. Boston is the hottest ticket in baseball and the Red Sox currently lead the American League in road attendance with an average of nearly 35,000 fans per road game. Plus, the A’s charge more for their tickets when the world champs come to town. In all the three game set in Oakland series netted 97,592 customers.
But long before the Red Sox won two world championships over the past four seasons, the Red Sox were a big draw in the Bay Area. During the Red Sox inaugural inter-league visit/invasion of San Francisco a few seasons ago, Boston fans famously took over the lower grand stand of the Giants freshly minted ball park.
New England and the Bay Area have their share of bicoastal similarities. Both area have Irish/Italian roots; both have legendary sea ports, each has boho street cred and each region is over-shadowed by neon glitz to the south.
Prior to Saturday evening’s contest at the Coliseum we ventured into the heart of the Red Sox Nation’s west coast capitol and let it’s citizenry speak for themselves.
Ray Remocapozzi, 35, sporting Bosox cap and t-shirt:
“I grew up and live in Reno and try to make it out to the Bay Area every time the Red Sox come in. My mom and dad are originally from the Boston area and my half-brother, who is 18 years older than me, turned me on to the team. When I was growing up he brought me a bunch of Red Sox stuff: caps t-shirts, pennants. Naturally, I rooted for them. This is the second time seen the Red Sox this year and the second time we’ve brought our two-year old daughter (out-fitted in Lil’ Popi tee). Red Sox fans are a tight knit group and we run into the same people year after year. This is Red Sox Nation way out west.”
Dawn Brown, 40, wearing Red Sox cap and jersey:
“I’ve been a Red Sox fan my whole life. I’m from Maine. I work as a traveling nurse so I’m out here on assignment now. I haven’t even tried to get tickets at Fenway Park, it’s impossible. I’ve seen the Red Sox in Oakland, Los Angeles and Baltimore. There are tons of Red Sox fans everywhere.”
Al Birdsong, 35, with son Elijah, 8, and fiancé Diana, 32, each outfitted in various Boston garb:
“I’m originally from Oakland, but my fiancé is from Rhode Island and her family is all Boston Red Sox fans. We’ve been together 10 years, so I’ve become a fan through association. I like Big Popi, I like Manny. Me and my dad used to come out to the Coliseum to see the A’s when I was a kid. I’m an avid baseball fan, so it could be little league, it could be anything. If there’s a bat and a ball involved, I’m watching. We try to catch every game the Red Sox play here or in San Francisco. We’re hoping to get out to Boston too. I definitely love being a Red Sox fan. We like the Giants, we love the Giants, and we love the A’s too. It’s a baseball thing with us. We’ll get out to Sacramento to catch the Rivercats. But when the Sox are in town we definitely want to support them. My son loves Big Popi, any time we can get this close we’ll be here.”
Bill Gould, 70, Stanford Law Professor and former Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, wearing Boston windbreaker:
“The Red Sox always did attract a lot of people here in Oakland. I vividly remember the Red Sox fans sitting behind that first base dugout the very first time that I came out here in 1972. Of course it’s built over the years, particularly over this last five years as more Red Sox fans have traveled from the east coast to the west coast. But there was always that phenomena, not only people who are living here, but people who are traveling. People are unable to get tickets in Boston. More people are frozen out of Fenway Park. This concept of Red Sox Nation is a fairly recent one, but the Red Sox have always had much more of a pull, they have been much more of a national team.
“More Boston fans are mobile. Boston probably has a greater percentage of professionals, people who have income. There are certain things about the team that I call ‘eternal verities.’ The uniform has been consistent. The road uniform is not quite as dignified as the old uniform. When they switched from navy to red lettering, Dwight Evan said to me ‘I feel like a California Angel.’ Fenway plays a big part of it. No stadium historically has been more idiosyncratic that Fenway Park. It’s really an exciting, lovely experience to see a game there. The rivalry with the Yankees plays into it. When I was a kid in the 1940s that was it, that was the big confrontation, the big match-up. I was born in Boston, but the first year I began playing sandlot ball, 1946, I was living in New Jersey, we all figured out what teams we were going to support. I disliked all these obnoxious Yankees fans. I’ve been with the Red Sox ever since without failure, without exception, year after year, through rich and through poor. Unlike the Cubs, the Red Sox were almost always right there at the alter, and they just missed the big thing at the end. Now we have two championships and I want many more. This is just the beginning.”
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
