Comments on Good Question, Angry Andrew

Yes, they do. Fenway's capacity is barely 38,000, including all the freak seats and standing-room areas they've jammed into it in the last decade or so. And the team is reasonably good, so they often sell out whole seasons. Getting tickets there is hard.

Yes, they do. I moved here from Boston 5 years ago. My mother's recent visit to see me (she left this morning) was a thinly veiled ploy to see the Red Sox play in Seattle. She arranged her travel dates around game days.

TONS of people from Boston live in Seattle (including myself). We all are born with inherent knowledge of two things: driving and the current state of the Red Sox. These are things people from outside the state never understand about us. If I had money or time, I would go see the Red Sox when they were here. I love them, just like we all do.

they were also in San Diego this weekend. check the Padres blogs for angry fans complaining about the Red Sox nation.

Mariner fans can learn from Red Sox fans. we suck in comparison.

red sox fans are soon to be the new yankees fans.

this week they at both games i went to they were totally fucking rude in the extreme.

stepping in front of little kids who needed to use the toilet. being loud mouthed and obnoxious during most of the game.

one guy in front of me was talking to his little brother about how ichiro looked like he was "taking a dump" everytime he was at bat.

i'm glad we swept those fucking losers.

the red sox are THIS CLOSE to being as hated as the yankees.

don't let that one world series win go to your heads guys. or god will smite you and it'll take another 100 years....

@4: No one can learn anything from Red Sox fans. They are drunken boors with annoying accents.

@3: I've been to Massachusetts, and no one there knows how to drive. The only place in the country where people know how to drive properly is Southern California.

I highly doubt there are as many Boston/New England expats here as people claim. There are TONS of folks from Northern California here, yet you don't see nearly as many opposing fans at Giants or A's games. I hypothesize that many of the fans were brought up as Red Sox fans by their asshole expat parents who didn't have the good sense to teach them to "root, root, root for the home team." (Witness the confused children at Safeco wearing Sox gear and cheering at Mariner hits.)

Also, if Sox fans actually have to fly across the country in order to actually see a game, it might be time to reconsider the divine status of Fenway. Look, I know classic baseball fields are great and all -- really, I love them -- but if you can't fit anyone in them, their finer points are somewhat moot.

Finally: the Sox are a decent team this year, but no one should let the current weakness of the AL East delude them into thinking the Sox are somehow destined for the World Series.

Boston is the passive aggressive capital of the country. Bostonians come here for just slightly less passive aggressiveness and better driving. Perhaps they can regale us with their stories of the Big Dig if Vinnie Chestnut in City Hall gets his way on the unfunded tunnel (or is his son drawing up plans for a casino to pay for it?).

The fans are the worst thing about the Red Sox. Say what you will about the Yankees, but New York is one of the greatest cities in the world. Boston just sucks. Sorry.

Maybe you got lucky at previous Red Sox series. Throughout my experience, the Bosox fans, thousands of them, have swarmed every Mariners series in Seattle, and they're so obnoxious that several of my friends make it a point not to go to see Red Sox series.

As for where they come from, no, they don't fly from Boston just to see the Sox in Seattle. Allegedly a lot of Chowds from Boston have moved here over time, just like fans of other teams move here from their respective cities, and they come out to support their hometown teams when they come to Safeco. Unlike the Yankees and, heh, the Red Sox, the Mariners don't have a strong fan base that snaps up every available ticket and prevents the Chowds from coming in en masse to cheer on the Bosox.

@7, you couldn't be any further off... seattle has the lock on passive aggressiveness in this country.

you could make a claim that bostonians are obnoxious but, well, it's just so darn hard to come across as humble when you actually *are* better than everyone else.

as for the games at safeco, red sox nation shows up in force for the *actual ball game*. if that's too much for you milquetoast mariners fans, then don't go to our games!

save your money and get tickets when the royals are in town. then you can eat your ichirolls and shishkaberries in peace and cheer on your favorite hydro because you just know it's due for a win because last time it was totally robbed by the orca that jumped out at the last minute that you never saw coming but you cheered anyway because that was just so much fun.

douchebags...

Terry, Red Sox fans HAVE become Yankees fans. In fact, they're worse. The Yankees have won, what, 20 WS titles in the last 80 years? So I can understand if they have some sort of superiority thing going. But Red Sox fans have won 1 in the same time frame. Otherwise, they've basically been losers since they gave up on Babe Ruth.

I can appreciate the New England tourists who visit (I can't think of a better baseball city to visit in the summer). But it is the Red Sox nation, JimEd, who have become the true douchebags.

They must've all passed their exit on I-90 and went too far. Way too far.

It's fun to watch them when the Sox are losing. They take it so personally.

I can't think of a better baseball city to visit in the summer.

Take some time off and visit Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T/ Whatever phone company park in San Francisco. SOOOOOOOOOOO much nicer than Safeco. And near three rail lines!

Oh and it's also nice to know that the tax payers paid nothing for Giant's stadium.

Ya sure, those Red Soxers are obnoxious, not nice like us here! And they are too passive, too! And they have a bad city because their fans come out here! YA, there tooooo dedicated! Settle down there ya know! Ya, that Fenway, it's so old , guess they don't know how to subsidize a modern stadium like we do, yah!

Giants fans may have a nice park, but they are about as disconnected and disinterested in the actual game as L.A. fans... unless, of course, Barry Bonds is batting.

@14/15: #17 nailed it. Public subsides & public transit mean nothing when your team is terrible and the only draw is the biggest bonehead in the game.

Also, I happen to think Sound Transit service to M's games are pretty good. Secondly, the weather in the Bay Area come July/August isn't nearly as nice as in Seattle. In fact, it's pretty much the same weather as the rest of the year.

Vegetable Lasagna? Hey, nice West Coast handle. Your parents bring you up in a lean-to? Let me guess: Near Cougar Mountain...before it was clear-cut and gentrified. Right On. Musta been pretty.

Anyways, I couldn't disagree with you more regarding your claims about Boston. I know, since I'm from there, that: 1) Bostonians are not passive-agressive, you knucklehead -- Seattle has to be the world capital of Friendships Of Convenience and, 2) (Your Seattle friends - no doubt all turned instant bailers once they take a pull off their hand-blown glass bongs when really they should have been shaving and showering and getting ready to come meet you at some awesome bar, maaaaaaan -- are probably wincing right now, knowing what you opened Seattle up to the reminder that) You guys can't even extend a fucking monorail! Let alone dig a single tunnel. I'm sure that, ironically, it still somehow puts proof in the pudding that yes this is! the forward-thinking Emerald City with a "Green Mayor" that we all hear about. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong.

In Seattle, no one ever tells you you're wrong because they're too concerned that you might cry or smile and tell everyone else what a dick you are, but still call you to hang out on the same convenient as ever schedule. Sounds like a good time. I should try that. Is it fun? Bostonians tend to be unsophisticated, so it might be too hard for me.

So, I gotta get going. This Red Sox Fan will request, without your solicitation (which would undoubtedly require from you the most falsely-enthusiastic encouragement and acceptance as you solicit), that you thank your underappreciated Seattle Mariners for playing a great series at an important time. Sure beats last season's road trip to Anaheim and points AL West.

And thank the decent and respectable core of your fans for somehow being able to make the other 50% of M's "fans" at Safeco stop vogue-ing in whatever the myri-fuckin-ad of retarded forms for long enough to help cheer and drown out the Sox fans this year more than ever.

At least there's that.

Christ, imagine if Ken Griffey was a Bosock? Putting the Hydros under the Baseball Hats couldn't take the unheartfeltness out of that Right On.

Well, gotta run. On my way to Seatac. Guess what I was doing on my vacation?

I also enjoyed Pike's Market and the horse carriage thing. Kind of folksy that horses and cars share the road. If I saw that in Boston, it'd probably be beause I was simultaneously getting billy clubbed.

It's a long flight back to Beantown. I hope I'm sitting next to a Packers fan who's planning his late Fall vacation which likely includes a Packers away game.

In parting, perfect time to ask: What in the fuck is Field Roast?

@19: It's the fucking Pike Place Market, not "Pike's Market." It was not founded by Dennis Pike. It is on Pike Street. Get a fucking clue.

@20: OMG! what a *burn*! dennis pike... ha! you really schooled 'em...

douchebag.

Saw two out of the three games in our SWEEP of the Red Sox. I have always found their fans to be overly obnoxious. The only difference between them and Yankees fans is that the Yanks actually win more than once a century. They both spend buckets of money, the Yanks just spend it better.

Damn it was fun watching them lose...

"which begs the question"

This is deprecated usage. Go with "raises the question." Question begging refers to assuming your conclusions. Writers for The Stranger may be leading our descent into moral decay, but must you sodomize the English language along the way?

Sox are winning, and it's June.

The Sox aren't winning here--they have lost eight in a row in Seattle.

#25 Because they don't have Pedro anymore. If I remember right, the M's batting average against Martinez was below .100.

Sox@Fenway tix seem to sell out even before they go on sale. Hell, it was easier for me to buy tix to The Police at Fenway this summer.

A good friend came to town last summer who is a huge baseball fan and always wanted to see a game in Fenway. A week before she got here, she suggested I could pick up some tix to a game. When I stopped laughing, I sucked it up and plunked down $300 for bleacher seats on eBay to make her happy. At least it was only a minor game. So in the end, it may be more cost-effective to travel to see them.

Watching your average M's game is like watching golf... I'm glad Griffey and Co. saved baseball in Seattle, and that we have a great ballpark now, but this town has always been very fair weather about their team. Fenway is packed when the team is losing too, and always has been. Not so at Safeco. It's only when the Sox or Yanks come to town and actually, you know, watch the game and root for their team that you EVER hear M's fans getting into it and hollering for their boys. I went to just one of the games this week, and the overall energy from BOTH Sox and M's fans was better than any game I've been to in Seattle in a long time.

Of course there are some drunk assholes at the games.. they do serve beer. Sorry your sensitive northwest sensibilities were offended. It's BASEBALL, not a town meeting. Get over yourselves, get into the game, or stay home and watch on TV.

I'm a Sox fan, and I pull for the M's unless Boston's in town. Jesus, you guys debate this stuff like it's national politics... It's a ballgame folks. Congrats to the M's this time; hope we meet in the playoffs!

Wow, so much animosity for us Sox fans! I had a great time yesterday, despite the loss - and I actually noticed that there were a lot fewer Sox fans than normal.

What you really gotta love is the Yankees fans who seem to come out only to frown and make sure we all know how much Boston sucks. The day I found out Derek Jeter and I had the same birthday was a dark, dark day . . .

Also, we don't have a lock on obnoxious behavior. There was at least 1 M's fan loudly heckling and berating John Papelbon as he warmed up in the bullpen yesterday, as there was last time I saw the Sox here, last year.

But yes, I truly appreciate that I can walk up to the ticket window on the day of a game and see my favorite team play baseball. I could not do that in Boston, as has been noted.

Forgot to mention that everyone should see a Sox/Yanks game in the Bronx. Now, that's a great experience and really how obnoxious Sox fans should be treated.

I went to school in Boston, and Bostonians are majorly passive-agressive and incredibly rude to people who didn't grow up there. Plus, they rival Rome for the worst drivers, not even stopping at red lights. On the other hand, there are somehting like 50,000 students. New Yorkers though manage to be awesome and tell it like it is. So, suck it Bostonians. And, yeah, Cougar Mountain and Issaquah generally are a pretty depressing. If a cougar or coyote is in your backyard because you've built your house in its habitat, your bad and suck it up suburban douchebag.

This is so cute! Just like a bunch of teenage girls debating Paris Hilton.

It's Baseball........

28 and 29

I appreciate your posts. There are many Red Sox fans I like and attend games with. What I don't like are sanctimonious fans, be they from Boston, NY, the UW, or the Seattle Monorail Project.

I will say that having spent time in Chicago and Boston that it is very difficult to get a ticket. Most of the games are attended by corporate types and well-to-do white males. One of the things I like best about M's crowds is the gender balance and the abundance of cheap seats for us working stiffs.

Not hard to figure this one out: ESPN is the BoSox's biggest booster. Um, Peter Gammons, y'all?

Thus, if you watch ESPN and your home team is kinda boring -- I.E., THE MARINERS -- you subconsciously root for the BoSox.

This subconscious urge is amplified if you're a teen-raping, drunk Irish idiot with an accent that makes you sound like you've got a dick in your mouth.

Ya Boston sucks so much.

Real public transportation and a commuter rail network, gay marriage, no republicans, two of the best universities in the world, etc. What a redneck backwater of horrible uncultured people.

No republicans? Who keeps electing thir governors?

I have on occasion actually enjoyed watching the Bosox play - most particularly in 1986. I'll never forget Bill Buckner, he of the three balls...