MVN - Most Valuable Network

What it means to be part of Red Sox Nation

This installment of The Last Page is by Evan Brunell, who writes for MVN at Fire Brand of the American League, a look at the Boston Red Sox. He writes on Red Sox Nation, what it means to be part of the Nation, and stories of Red Sox fans…

Boston baseball isn’t just entertainment to fans. It’s a religion, and that religion manifests itself across America, across the world. As the gospel of David Ortiz spreads and new converts make the holy pilgrimage to Fenway Park, it becomes increasingly apparent that these aren’t the Red Sox of 1965, when an average of 8,052 fans would go through the turnstiles to see Yaz. These are the Red Sox of 2007, where Red Sox Nation is in full splendor.

There are four distinct types of people that make up Red Sox Nation, and much like any other attempt at categorizing such a massive population, these types tend to intertwine with each other. A member of Red Sox Nation will be easily able to identify oneself as at least one of the following: a fanatic, a Diaspora fan, a casual fan or a bandwagon fan.

It’s not the categories that make up Red Sox Nation as each team in every sport could apply the list to their own fans. It’s the stories.

Sean Holland, from Lowell, Mass. is a bandwagon fan. He’s not pleased with the term, because in this day and age, the term “bandwagon” is looked upon with great scorn. It’s a term meant to insult those that only became a fan after a team experienced success and has no investment in the team. This is not Holland. Holland is someone who grew up idolizing baseball until baseball turned its back on him in 1994, going on strike. He would not return for ten years.

“I remember in the first game I attended after the strike, we left in the fifth inning because I was so angry being there,” says Holland.

Holland, raised in Methuen, left for Chicago to attend college in 2001. He couldn’t wait to leave Boston. Boston was “dark, dingy, and hopelessly boring,” he says. Leaving the city behind, he ventured off to start a new chapter in his life. He met with a rude realization: Boston was actually a wonderful city rich with culture. With beauty. With history. And despite Chicago possessing all of those as well, it wasn’t even close.

So he came back. But before he could come back, he had to find something that would allow him to relate more with Boston. That was the Red Sox.

He came back just in time. Mid-2004, mere months before the Red Sox would break the Curse of the Bambino in such dazzling fashion. Holland couldn’t be more thankful for it. “Going to a game, even when I go by myself and stand for five hours straight, I feel a kinship with everyone else around me that you don’t get in other aspects of life,” he says.

This is Red Sox Nation.

Daniel Rathman watches from afar. It can be difficult trying to follow the Red Sox when not in the middle of all media coverage surrounding the team. He makes do. He follows the Red Sox – even though he lives in San Francisco, Calif.

What makes Diaspora fans such an important part of Red Sox Nation? For one, it is those fans that pack away games, which is why the Sox lead the major leagues in away attendance. Also, Diaspora fans pretty much have to be diehard fans of the Sox.

“Since it takes extra effort to follow the team closely from afar, Diaspora fans have to be very committed to the team to truly become members of Red Sox Nation,” Rathman explains.

Rathman’s evolution as a Red Sox fan came out of something that is as normal as breathing: hating the Yankees. Growing up a secret San Diego Padres fan in a family of San Francisco Giants, he was turned on to the experience of hating the Yankees when they swept the Padres in 1998. “I found myself rooting against the Bombers at all costs; it finally turned me into an out-of-town Red Sox fan.”

Rathman has only been to Fenway Park once (in 2006) but that doesn’t detract from his obsessive following of the Red Sox. He has a subscription to MLB.tv, which allows him to watch Red Sox games on his computer through the Internet, and he hits several Red Sox-related Web sites a day to get the pulse of the Red Sox.

“(The Red Sox are) a team that you can actually be wholly committed to,” he says. “Like no other team in baseball, the Sox can take over your life, as they have, at times, mine.”

This is Red Sox Nation.

Not all members of Red Sox Nation live and breathe with every pitch. There are casual fans of the Red Sox out there, but even those casual fans know they’re part of something special. Joe Boikess loves are football and basketball, and baseball is third on that list. His first glimpse into Red Sox Nation was eye-opening. Moving to Boston from Austin, Texas for college, he was introduced to Red Sox Nation. “I had no idea just how crazy Red Sox fans were whenever they played the Yankees,” he said.

He was sold. He now identifies himself as a Red Sox fan, but football and basketball still supersede baseball – even the Red Sox. Even for a casual fan, he knows quite a bit: the lineup, rotation, most of the bullpen. He’s attended five games in the three years he’s lived in Boston and has purchased a Red Sox hat. He checks the standings daily and looks at pitching matchups to see what could be good to watch on TV. But as he says, “That’s about all I care when it comes to baseball and the Sox.”

Even casual fans can have amazing experiences when it comes to the Red Sox. “I remember looking out my window after they won Game 7 against the Yankees,” he begins, “and seeing hundreds of my fellow students running around the streets screaming and cheering, and seeing the crazy scene at Fenway. It was surreal.”

This is Red Sox Nation.

Those are the fans that have more than one article of clothing devoted to the Red Sox, that carry the Red Sox with them in all phases of life from pets to home d’cor to their schedule that dictate they be in front of a TV at 7:05 PM almost every night. The fanatic.

“Queen” Lorraine Murawski is so into the Red Sox that she tried to take a leading role in Red Sox Nation by being elected president of Red Sox Nation, a commercial venture led by the Red Sox organization to raise money and offer perks to those “official” members of Red Sox Nation. Murawski, dubbed “Queen” when she received a tiara for her 50th birthday, personifies the word fanatic.

Her entire living room is dedicated to the Red Sox, as is her office at Sturbridge, Mass. town hall, where she is the town clerk. She watches or listens to every game and is on every e-mail list imaginable relating to the Red Sox.

She doesn’t shy away from being labeled a fanatic. “Being a fanatic is someone who is deeply passionate about something they believe in,” she says.

She has a warmup ball from Josh Beckett in her possession, along with a piece of the Green Monster (”Very dense and hard,” she says of the cement). She has danced with Sam Horn and has a letter from Dr. Charles Steinberg, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for the Red Sox, calling her one of the “great, bright personalities to emerge from the election of a President of Red Sox Nation.”

Her favorite part of the Red Sox isn’t David Ortiz’s clutch homeruns, Jonathan Papelbon’s glare into the catcher or Fenway Park.

“What I love most about the Red Sox is their humility — as opposed to Yankee arrogance,” she says.

Red Sox Nation is diverse. It boasts as members Sean Holland from Massachusetts, who tried to run away to Chicago only to end up coming back. It boasts Daniel Rathman, who sits in front of his computer in San Francisco every night to watch the Red Sox. It boasts Joe Boikess, who came to college in Boston from Texas and realized just how seriously the Red Sox were taken around here. It boasts “Queen” Lorraine Murawski, who lives and dies with every pitch and goes above and beyond the call of a regular fan.

No matter where you came from, where you are, or how you got there, the Red Sox are what binds all. All rooting for the same goal, all experiencing the same highs and lows. All doing it together.

This is Red Sox Nation.

Evan Brunell is the President of MVN and writes about the Boston Red Sox at Fire Brand of the American League. His contact information can be found at Fire Brand and welcomes all feedback. Feel free to e-mail or leave a comment.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 6:08 am and is filed under The Last Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.