If you want to help the Red Sox, boo Sweet Caroline
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| (AP Photo) |
Contributing Writer
It was refreshing to hear Red Sox fans boo David Ortiz
for not running hard down the first-base line Saturday.
It probably was a coincidence that Ortiz hit two
three-run home runs and an RBI single in his next game, but you’ve got to love
the timing of the well-deserved booing and his career high in RBIs.
These Red Sox have needed a good booing all season
long. They need a booing like Buttercup in her dream about marrying Prince
Humperdinck on The Princess Bride.
Really, it might have done the Red Sox some good to hear
that level of disapproval from their die-hard fans once the ship started
heading south a few weeks into the season.
There was a time in Fenway Park where anything short
of an honest effort was not accepted. Even the great Ted Williams was routinely
booed at home games.
These days, even when the home team is trailing by 11
runs and bottoming out on the American League East standings posted on the
Green Monster, Red Sox fans sing along with Sweet Caroline every game like they
are extras in the horrible movie Fever Pitch.
For the record, if you think Fever Pitch was a good
movie you are part of the problem.
These Fever Pitch fans, or pink hat fans if you prefer,
apparently go to Fenway Park as a place to be seen or a place to be part of the
singalong.
By the way, Neil Diamond admitted a few years ago that
he wrote Sweet Caroline about John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline. When she was
10.
Can you honestly listen to that song now and not get
creeped out a by the lyrics? Diamond should have to register as a sex offender
for his 2007 revelation about the true meaning of the song the Red Sox have
been playing every game since 2002.
Sure, you can’t blame fans for singing along with the catchy
tune and having a little fun as the Red Sox were beating the bejesus out of the
Tigers on ESPN. That game was so enjoyable that Curt Schilling and John Kruk
weren’t even that annoying.
Still, knowing that the win was basically meaningless thanks
to the countless lethargic eggs the team has laid down since the last Duck Boat
parade was absolutely enraging, and Red Sox fans have to let the team know they
aren’t going to put up with it.
It isn’t enough to stay home or watch Catfish: The TV
Show on MTV instead of NESN. Go to the games and let them hear it. Really
let them hear it.
Let Hanley Ramirez know just how much you hate his
effort every time a ball is hit to left. Let Pablo Sandoval know that his
effort on the hot corner and his Jon Lester slugging percentage aren’t going to
cut it.
Boo the pitchers when they give up a touchdown in the
first inning. Both pitching coach and the manager when the poke their heads out
of the dugout. Boo the general manager and boo the owners.
More importantly boo Sweet Caroline (the song, not the
Kennedy).
Boo. Boo. Rubbish. Filth. Slime. Muck. Boo. Boo. Boo.
Like Ben Cherington at the trade deadline on Friday it
probably won’t do any good, but it will sure as heck make us all feel better
about the 2015 version of the Olde Towne Team.
At least they will know that we know how bad they
stink.
And, who knows, maybe Big Papi’s monster game wasn’t a
coincidence.
