My blog, along with lots of other Sox blogs, was mentioned in this post at Willie McGee's Willie Nilly Cardinal Nest. Alright, it's actually called "CardNilly," but I'm stickin' with my version. The link to me is in the comments section--it's the quote "“Eh — these aren’t real baseball games anyway,” which was said, in different words, by me, about interleague play. Mr. Nilly also writes, in the comments section of that post as well, that my attitude is "disrespectful to the opposing team and their fans." And he says, in that same paragraph, "Part of being a fan, I think, is being there for the losses and the down times, too — not acknowledging the losses doesn't get you there."

So I'd just like to clarify some things:

I'm sure this guy is a good guy, and didn't have time to read every post at every blog, especially since he visited so many sites. So, I'd like to say to him that he need not worry about me--or most other fans of the team who went 86 years without winning--not being a fan. I "was there" for the losses and down times for 29 years, 1 month, and 19 days. I wore my Red Sox clothes my whole life growing up 50 miles from New York City. Most kids probably wouldn't have been able to take the abuse. In fact, besides me and Pat (and Chris Schmidt depending on the day), no one even tried. I stayed til the bitter end of 19-8 last season, saying, "The yanks are wasting their runs for the rest of the series! It's okay!"

I acknowlege the losses. I promise you. I'm not the type fan who can just forget about a game. My "shrug it off" attitude is just that. I wanted the Sox to move on from their loss. I feel confident with this team, and I thought they could get over the two losses in St. Louis. Look at my blog from last summer, you'll see I had the same attitude. I knew how good we were, and I didn't worry about losses, because they never seem to devastate these Sox (see the "Jeter catch" game last year--which I call the "Pokey catch" game). I get mad, throw-stuff-at-the-wall mad sometimes, but I needed to move on from this series without going crazy. (In fact, now that I think about it, I was really pissed during game one, with all those ground balls going through. But again, just had to move on.)

Maybe the confusion comes from the fact that I just don't like interleague play. So my attitude about that is: Since this idea is so stupid, with us suddenly having to have our pitcher bat, I can't worry about it too much when we lose, because my head will explode if I do. It's the one part of the season I have a negative attitude about. I'm totally confident when the Champs go into yankee Stadium, but making our pitchers bat--that's ri-goddamn-diculous.

I don't see how this is disrespecting to other teams and their fans. I hate National League baseball. It's a different sport to me. I have nothing at all against the teams or their fans, though. When interleague play started, I was immediately against it, thinking it was just done for New York, basically. Even if the Sox had gone undefeated in interleague play up until three days ago, I'd still hate it, and have this attitude about it. I hate the wild-card, too, even now, after we won a World Series as one.


He also gave five general themes of what Sox blogger were saying after the first two games of the Cards series. I'll only respond to the ones that apply to me.

There's "The yanks lost, too, so it doesn't matter!" (Then he gives the definition of monomania: "mental illness especially when related to one idea or area of thought.")

That's my disease, baby! Who woulda thought it had such a cool name? I'm a yankee-hater of monomaniacal proportions. Sweet. Seriously, dude, try livin' around here, you'll be a monomaniac, too. Join us, it's so fun. The yanks have recently added boredom and shitty play to their usual deception- and chicanery-filled ways. It's more fun to hate them now than ever.


Then there's "Hey! Screw the game — the Queer Eye with the Red Sox was on last night!"

I didn't exactly say "screw the game" per se, but of course I'm gonna watch a show about World Champion Red Sox players goofin' around behind the scenes! And ask Rebecca, we sat there with the computer screen right next to the TV, so we could keep tabs on the game while we watched Queer Eye.


Another thing he brought up is how some of us said, "We swept them in the World Series, so it doesn't matter." Which he follows up by comparing us to yankee fans for saying so.

Okay, why the hostility toward the Sox? This series didn't seem particularly special going in, except that it's cool to see the stadium we won the World Series in. But it seems like the Cardinals were "out for revenge" or something. I've always felt that the Cards and their fans were classy, and was proud to play them in the World Series, instead of the Marlins or something. And I would have graciously accepted defeat to them, and I thought they were doing that with us. Instead, I read things like people cheering when Youk got hit by a pitch, and when Ortiz hit himself in the face with his helmet. I don't go to Fenway and root specifically against Cardinal players. And I love Ozzie Smith like a second, handspringin', back-flippin' dad. Is this that thing I've heard so much about, that everybody hates you when you're number one? If it is, my advice, again, is to just go ahead and keep hating the yanks, and be happy when one of the classier (every other other team in baseball) teams wins out over them, even if they beat your team to do it. I mean, seriously, if you Card fans are really pissed about losing last year, I'm sorry. I know what it's like to be one goddamn strike away from winning the World Series and NOT winning, so I can relate to anything you may have gone through last October. Seriously, the Red Sox aren't out to get you. And my guess is, any of us saying that line was probably just reacting to all the talk from Card fans getting some kind of revenge that we didn't even know was at stake. (Also, about Empy's quote about the midwest being the fulcrum: The woman's a regular comedian, trust me. I think you just couldn't see her tongue in her cheek 'cause it was so far back in there.)

Now beat those fuckin' yanks this weekend, all right? We cool?