Ha! "That douche!"
 

When I worked at Borders in Danbury starting from the day it opened, I noticed something odd. People would try to pay for their CDs at the upstairs music desk. I'd tell them "registers are downstairs at the front of the store." But they'd keep asking. Two years into that store's existence, we were still regularly getting people who'd never been there before.

I think that goes for Fenway too. I think on a given night, most people at Fenway are there for there one game that season. So at any game, me and the season ticket holders will see the wave starting, know exactly how it's gonna go down, how long it'll take to get going, that it will die a few times in the "dead zone" by Canvas Alley, all while listening to the people next to us saying "oh my god, they're trying to start the wave!" or "ha, this'll never work," outing themselves as Fen-wave rookies. Then it really gets going and suddenly they're in complete awe, focused on one thing and one thing only.

Sometimes a play will happen during the wave, and I'll clap loudly for it, startling the gaggle of college kids next to me--"what?? Oh...he's watching the game...."

Again, though, I'd rather have this than the scoreboard telling us when to cheer and sound effects. Get a few beers in those bleacher people who are 600 feet away, who can't see the scoreboard or even the game unless they've got high-powered binoculars, and they're gonna try to do something, anything to stop the boredom of just looking out at ten guys standing in an open field, doing, from their vantage point, nothing.

Last night you could almost say it helped the team. The energy of the wave right at the right time led to a big cheer with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 8th, and we got the last out. (Though it almost left the park.) But at the same time, are the fans really "getting into the game" when what they're really excited about is something else entirely? The worst is when some douche in the bleachers will be trying to "conduct" a wave by running along a row, and he'll get really MAD at people who aren't playing along. Like, "come on, what the hell is your PROBLEM?" Meanwhile I'm watching the game while his back is to it, yet I'm shamed into thinking I'm less of a fan.

It's all very interesting. Because you've got some people like that, but others who will try to start Let's Go Red Sox chants and rhythmic claps. These people are watching the game. They've also got no one telling them when to cheer, but they do it--for the team--anyway.