What’s there to complain about?

Tuning into sports talk radio and hearing all of the complaints, you would think that the Sox are a 2nd rate team owned by Bud Selig’s daughter.  The 11 or 12 fans in Milwaukee or Montreal would give up their first born to watch a team like the Sox night-in and night-out.  Believe me, it’s true.  Nobody there cares.  I have a friend who’s a Brewers’ “fan” and I asked him the other day how his team looks this year.  He answered with, “I like the Packers chances in the NFC North.”  

It’s a great time to be a Sox fan.  Sure, we’ve had our ups and our downs and downs and downs, but what we have that Expos/Pirates/Brewers/Devil Rays/Rockies’ fans don’t have is hope and passion.  Imagine a Fenway Park that wasn’t packed with 35,000 rabid fans.  What would life be like if you got off at the Kenmore Sq. stop of the greenline and 50 scalpers weren’t shouting, “You got tickets! Need tickets! Bleachahhhs! I’ve got bleachahhh seats!”?  It just wouldn’t be right.  Who else has cursed out Jerry Trupiano because his overly dramatic radio call of “WAAAAY BAAAACK” was inaccurate and the ball was caught 15 feet in front of the Monster?  Certainly not a Brewer fan.  Could you honestly imagine a world where the status of your favorite shortstop’s Achilles tendon wasn’t worthy of the front page of the newspaper?  I can’t.

The passion of this fan base makes baseball season so much fun.  Sure, I know that Pedro isn’t the Pedro of 1999… Okay, maybe Lowe is a mental patient with screwed up pitching mechanics…  Yeah, I know Nomahhh and Trot are hurt and that Varitek hasn’t re-signed yet, but I’m enjoying this season and I’m happy that there’s more than 11 or 12 of us out there.