The Fenway Faithful

"Sweet Caro..."

The music stops. Jason Bay is already at the plate to start the bottom of eighth while Scott Downs is ready to pitch. But the fans won't let him pitch without finishing the song themselves... without the music.

"...line, BA BA BA. Good times never felt so good, SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD."

After letting the fans finish the 8th inning tradition, the first pitch Jason Bay sees he hits off the green monster for a double. For the Downs and the Jays, their season ended a few moments after that.

Why? Cause of that darn Neil Diamond and the passionate Boston fans.

During the seventh inning stretch at Fenway Park, its a tradition (at least since 2002) to play Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" over the speakers. The fans are encouraged to sing along and I would say 95% of them do. Take last Saturday for example. 40,000 plus were on their feet singing the tune while adding their own little Fenway rendition at some parts. Once the inning was ready to resume, the music abruptly stopped much to the displeasure of the Fenway faithful.

But that didn't stop the fans. Without the music, they continued the song until after the chorus was over. At least 25,000 fans must have sang along because it sounded like the whole stadium was singing... and they sang it pretty well. Everyone let out a big cheer afterwards. I don't know if this has happened before where the song suddenly stops but the fans continue it. But if not, then it was something quite special to witness.

It really shows you how close-knit Red Sox fans are. To chant a song on the fly like that was pretty cool. And it changed the whole dynamic of the baseball game. With the whole Fenway crowd on their feet, Jason Bay smacked a first pitch double to start the Red Sox rally in the 8th. Before you know it, the Red Sox do what they do best... find a way to win. I know that's one of the most overused cliches in sports but I don't think there's a team that better exemplifies that. How do they do it?

Not only do they have speed and power. Sure they have guys like Ortiz, Lowell, Pedroia and Ellsbury. But I think it is the Fenway fans that make a huge difference. Fenway Park has had over 450 straight sellouts! Yes, they only have a capacity of just over 40,000 but we're including weekdays too. 40,000 plus people on a Tuesday? That's unheard of... even when some other teams hold $2 promotions, they don't get 40,000. Now that isn't a knock on Toronto fans, it just shows how loyal and passionate Boston is about their beloved Red Sox.

Don't get me wrong, I hate the Red Sox as much as the next guy (as long as the next guy isn't Hank Steinbrenner). But I have to salute the fans. They cheer their team on whether the Sox are at Fenway or not. Take today's Sox/Jays game for example. The Rogers Centre attendance was just a shade over 40,000. Does anyone really believe that all 40,000 of these fans are from Toronto? Not a chance. I would say at the most, 33,000 fans were Jays fans and that's being generous (and the other 7,000 are the loudest Bostonians I've ever heard). Red Sox Nation goes anywhere and everywhere.

To open the 2008 season, the Sox started an "away" series with Oakland in Tokyo. Even though Oakland was the home team on paper, Boston had a distinct advantage. The first being the fact that they had two Japanese players on their roster in Dice-k and Okajima. Second, Japan has their very own Red Sox Nation. Apparently many Japanese baseball fans are Sox fans. "Sweet Caroline" was actually played during the 7th inning stretches of the games over there! So much for an away game for Boston.

As much as I'd like to take a page out of Hank Steinbrenner's book and say "F*** Red Sox nation!", I really can't. Their fans take it upon themselves to travel where ever the team goes. It's sad this isn't the case everywhere, especially in Toronto. Toronto has a great sports city but as long as the ownership of these teams raise ticket prices to insane levels, the REAL Toronto sports fan has to stay home and watch the game on television. Once hockey season starts up, I'll definitely go into more detail as the Leafs are a prime example of corporations screwing the average fan.

So cheers to you Red Sox fans... your team is about to reach the playoffs once again. Enjoy the success until hockey season starts.


DD


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