David Pinto of Baseball Musings offers a thoughtful perspective on the fan response to the unprofessional antics and goings on in Game Three. Thoughtful - but wrong.
" I would suggest what is really bothering people ... is that there was a shift of virtue from the Red Sox to the Yankees Saturday. It's been going on for a while, but Saturday the fault line moved. When it was Nettles and Jackson and Rivers against Lynn and Fisk and Lee, it was easy to see the Yankees as the evil team that deserved to be vanquished by the Red Sox. But on Saturday, it was Pedro and Manny who caused the trouble. Here they were in game the Red Sox had to win, and their antics came close to having them thrown out. ... Someone watching a baseball game for the first time would come away from Saturday thinking the Red Sox are a bunch of evil jerks and the Yankees were just defending themselves. [...] " Red Sox fans no longer have the high ground; they are no longer the nice losers who are worth rooting for. Their stars are jerks ... People who have based the allegiance on the virtuousness of the Sox have a lot to think about today. "
Let's get this out of the way: people who base their allegiance to a sports team based on said team's "virtuousness" aren't fans. Virtue has nothing to do with it, but geography, baby, is destiny.
High ground? I piss on your higher ground. No Yankees fan I have ever met has said, "Sorry about those teams of ours from the 70s, old chap. They were bastards, right enough. Come to think of it, the world would be a better place if they hadn't been successful." Nor would I expect them to.
I want my Red Sox to win this series. That the Yankees are the foe adds some spice, but I'd want the Sox to beat whatever team was across the diamond. I want my Red Sox to win the World Series. Period. Full stop. Pretty much the be all and end all of my fanaticism.
I don't care if we have to empty the prisons and consort with dark powers. I don't care whose soul we have to sell or if the city sinks beneath the waves after the last out. I certainly do not care if Pedro is a world-class jerk or that Manny has issues that prevent his talent from inspiring the awe it should.
What was bothering me during Game Three? My selfish self was bothered by a twenty minute delay in the middle of a playoff game. My manager self was bothered by how unprofessional it all was (I don't get to yell at people, much less throw things at them or wrestle, no matter how mad I get). My fanatic self was bothered that players on my team were actively hurting the team's chances; I was worried about the psychic carryover from one game to the next.
Virtue? Doesn't come into play, really. It's just a game, man. I want to see it played well and - no matter what - I'm going to root, root, root for my team. And if they don't win it's a shame. But you know, it's still one, two, three strikes and you're out.
Posted by Martial