Red Sox Nation Set to Invade South Philly

After sweeping the Braves in Atlanta, the Phillies lost two series to the Marlins and the Cards. Things aren't going to get any easier this week as the World Champion Boston Red Sox come to town.

Bob Ford has a great article today on the annoying beings known as Red Sox fans:

The Red Sox, thanks largely to their streak-breaking championship in 2004, became cuddly, cute, popular, and attractive to great scads of casual fans who wanted to glom onto the gravy train.

There's nothing cuddly or cute about a team with a $133 million payroll. You can't be an underdog if you spend like the Kennedys. If the Red Sox - who struggled to draw one million fans under the penurious final seasons of Yawkey family ownership - were once a cold-water walk-up on Kenmore Square, they are now a gated compound on the Cape.

Ford's piece is on point and doesn't deny the fact that those annoying blue hats with a B on them are seemingly all over the country.

The Sox have had a great deal of success against the Phillies in the days of interleague play. However, the Phils may have one of their best teams to run out against the Sox and who better than Cole Hamels to send out to kick start the series.

Another good timely read is Jim Salisbury's look at Charlie Manuel's relationship with Manny Ramirez when they worked together in Cleveland.

"I've had a lot of good hitters," Manuel said. "Manny was the easiest to work with.

"His fundamentals were always so good, even as a kid. He had a tremendous approach and a natural weight shift. He had a quick bat with a slight lift, just like it is now. He was a free, natural hitter, a pretty hitter. Everything was tension-free."

Manuel pondered that last sentence for a second and laughed.

"Everything Manny does in life is tension-free," he said.

Manny being Manny.

If you're not going to get an attitude of a guy like Chase Utley, I think I'd like a guy like Manny as my second choice. The guy can flat out play baseball and has a blast doing it.

Can we shut up the wicked pissah Red Sox fans, please? Even if just for three days?

>>Bob Ford: Red Sox Nation: Scourge on the country [Inquirer]
>>Manny Ramirez: Carefree guy, serious hitter [Daily News]

Comments

[Matt P]

The connsawt was wicked haad-coar.

[Civil Negligence]

I find the pink hats more annoying than the blue ones.

[Liam]

As a philly fan living in Boston I agree with every single thing in that article and then some. The Boston fans are so annoying, and have the attitude that they are better fans than everyone else just because they are Boston fans. Its funny most of the self proclaimed "die-hard" fans don't even know much about their team. I know many who didn't even know dustin pedroia was their starting second baseman last year. The only thing worse about all this is with the Pats dominance and re-emergence of the Celtics many more "die-hards" have emerged. I've gone to many philly games in Boston including the eagles game this year and a flyers game this year and the differences between the two types of fans is shocking. They may talk trash about how Philly sports haven't won for quite some time, but at least we will always support our teams. Heres to hoping Cole brings those egos back to earth tonight.

[JMS]

Good. Bring it on, Sux fans. I might be a 120-lb girl, but I'm looking forward to fighting these fans.

Besides, we have to live up to B. Hussein Obama's perception of Philly fans, right?

[johndewar]

The worst thing about the Red Sox success? You know, other than the legions of annoying wannabe fans?

That Terry Francona has World Series rings that he didn't buy on ebay.

Unbefuckinglievable.

[cc]

I too am a Philly fan living in Boston (12 years). Obviously I am jealous and it is painful to watch teams win championships year in and year out, but the elitist attitude and sense of entitlement runs rampant. Not to mention, Fenway Park has transformed over the years from a historic ballpark to a hip "place to be seen" filled with pink hats singing "Sweet Caroline" (dumbest/most contrived tradition in sports).

[Stock]

It still amazes me that every year I go down to this series between the Phils & the Sox, that the Phillies organization allows tens of thousands of Red Sox fans to buy tickets. These annoying Red Sox fans are the worst, because where were they a couple of years ago? There was no such thing as Red Sox Nation until 2004. Bunch of bandwagon fans. First person I here cheer for the Red Sox tonight I am going to put my fist through there teeth. I will be the guy wearing the Phillies jersey with 2 Miller Lites with me at all times so look out.

[Dubs]

It just bugs me when Boston fans have such an elitist attitude about everything. "Oh, we're such great fans". B.S.

It's easy to be a "great fan" when your teams are winning. But, where were all these supposedly great Celtic fans last year when the team sucked? There were MVP chants for non-Celtic players in the Garden last year. That's great fans?

How about the Patriots? Those fans certainly came out of the woodwork once the rings came.

[none]

"First person I here cheer for the Red Sox tonight I am going to put my fist through there teeth. I will be the guy wearing the Phillies jersey with 2 Miller Lites with me at all times so look out."

Will there be a double fist punch while holding a Miller Lite in each said fist? That would be Chuck Norris league.

Agreed about the Boston fans. To be fair, there are a lot of baseball fans up here, but plenty of bandwagoners to go around. Nothing is worse than entitlement behavior though. You'd think fans of a team that played the underdog for so long would act with some class.

[Robert]

Thanks for the heads up on that article, but check out some of the comments. Those fucking Boson fans are just as bad as the Yankees now. I used to like Boston, when they had the Thunder as their farm team, I saw Nomar come up when he was playing in AA. I was happy when they won the World Series, bu then they turned ignorant, and became asshats. So Boston, fuck you, for turning casual fans against you, and becoming another Evil Empire.

[GreggyD]

I fear the fact that I might be attending Boston University for grad school next year. I might kill myself while I'm there if I have to deal with that junk every single day. God help me.

[MarkD]

I lived in metro Boston in the late 90's. Back then, the BoSox fans all had inferiority complexes, which kept them from being annoying douches. They loved their team, but they weren't arrogant jerks about it. There were, of course, fewer of them as the Red Sox had no glory riders at that time. Anytime the Sox fans got annoying, all you had to do was chant "Bucky Dent" and they'd back down like the pussies they are. This trick worked at Bruins and Celtics games too!

[MS]

well the members of douchebag nation won't like CBP - they don't serve Amstel Light there I believe

if anything, just make fun of boston being a racist city to their fans this series.

[so]

Phillies fans have no one to blame for the presence of Red Sox fans tonite but themselves. I am a Red Sox fan and I am going to all three games. Guess how I got the tickets?? One of your season ticket holders sold them to me.

[okay]

of course you forget that when the phils play at fenway phils fans take over up there too.

typical arrogance from a front runner

[whiners]

can there be one post that isnt directly correlated with a philadelphia win on this site that isnt a bunch of whining....seriously......biggest bunch of whiners ive ever had the displeasure of reading........

[jon runyan]

whiners, and you counter your displeasure by whining about this blog? please, stop whining.

[enrico]

it's no surprise that "whiners" is a Mets fan.

[Pete D]

The action for this series on stubhub was incredibly high from the moment the tickets were on sale...I thought it was a great point that half the reason they're in other cities is because of how hard it is to buy tix at Fenway now.

Lets hope the entitled douche invasion comes just in time to see at least 2 of 3 taken from them. As a sports city I hate Boston more than New York right now...I never thought I'd say that.

[Justin Evans]

I'll be there tomorrow in 422.

[PhilaMegaMan]

I wish there was a way to take a piss on Red Sox Nation.

[theKrisheim]

when the phillies played at boston two or three years ago, there were shitloads of annoying phillies fans in the stands, myself included, so we cant sit here and bitch and not to mention that one of our players was arrested.

[j13]

I loathe boston teams and their fans.

That is all.

[cc]

I was at Fenway a few years ago for a Phillies game, days after the "incident" with Meyers and his wife. There were a group of Phillies fans wearing wife-beater style t-shirts with Meyers' name and number on the back. Absolutely genius. My brother turns to me and says "Nobody hates their own players like Phillies fans".

[Steve]

Philly fan who just left Boston. One of the biggest reason I left was that I couldn't stand the shithead people up there. It would drive me up the wall to be honest with you. They are just so arrogant and do nothing but try to convert you to liking their team. It just made me learn how to follow the Phils better while living up there.

It is no OK to have an NL and an AL just cause they rarely play each other.

[chez bippy]

I'm gonna have to concur with Liam and every other philly fan stuck in boston with these douche bag fans. bwoston fans are absolutely obnoxious. I actually used to like them when i was a kid and now i hate them. I wear phillies stuff and they talk shit, they're not even in the same league. fucking assclowns. They didn't even know they had a football team until 2001. Everyone drives around with red sox and cheatriots stickers on their cars. They just figured out a basketball team still plays in their city, and forget about the bruins, they don't even know who they are. Absolute shitty fans. All they do is talk shit. They talk like retards and have shitty food. Bunch of no driving, clam chowda eating, faggot loving, ted kennedy voting communist.
PS. If you're a philly fan living in boston there is a philadelphia Eagles fan club that watches all Eagles games at An Tua Nua on Beacon St. by fenway park. There's about 60 Eagles fans in there every week. myspace.com/phillyeaglesfansofboston