I have certainly got to be one of the most fortunate sports fans in the world. I have physically seen with my own two eyes SEVEN professional sports championships be hoisted in the great city of Boston. Let me repeat that; SEVEN professional sports championships. That's just not heard of. Granted, I was born in the right era for Boston sports and I'm not too familiar with anything besides winning. However I have also witnessed some downfalls; the Boston Celtics losing 18 straight (a franchise record), the Bruins flopping in the playoffs and losing 4 straight games after leading a series 3-0, Aaron Boone's walkoff in Yankee Stadium in a Game 7, and the New England Patriots have both a 1-15 season in 1990 and a 2-14 season in '92.
But let us consider before my time. These crazy Boston/New England fans have had there share of suffering throughout each franchise's history and some never got the opportunity to see a championship trophy in their lives. Before 2008, the Celtics hadn't won the title since 1986; which was the longest championship drought in franchise history. For the Red Sox it took 86 years to win again, which was the longest drought in MLB history next to the Chicago Cubs. The Bruins just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 39 years. And, well the New England Patriots had never seen a Super Bowl trophy before 2001. There has always been promise in this town and there has always been a chance at winning it all for these teams, but it just never happened; until the new millennium rolled around.
So here's the reason why I am writing this article; besides the fact that it is an amazing feat that this city has accomplished. There is a news article by a columnist in Philadelphia (which you can read and vomit at here) that calls the fans of Boston sports "obnoxious, arrogant, (and) condescending". That is kind of a very general statement to classify all Boston sports fans as. Massachusetts is populated at 839.4 people per square mile (lots of people, not a lot of space) and I would almost guarantee that out of that number, between 200 and 250 bleed at least one Boston sports team's colors. So let's do the math. Massachusetts is a total of 10,555 square miles (including water), multiply that total by my rough estimate of let's say 200 people per square mile, and you get a total of... 2,111,000 out of 8,859,867 people are legit sports fans. Granted my number might be a little high but you get my point. There are a lot of true sports fans here in Boston. But, we also have the people who show up to a party late and don't know what the party is for (if you catch my drift). I like to call them the "pinkhats"; you know those people you see ALL OVER Fenway Park wearing, well... pink hats.
I have started listening to a Boston sports radio show on my morning commute to work on 98.5 FM "The Sports Hub", more specifically the "Toucher and Rich Show". They played this game during the Boston Bruins Championship Parade called "What Do You Know About the Bruins" (yeah I'm making up the name of the game go with it). They would interview a random person at the parade and ask them some pretty simple questions about the Bruins and hockey in general; such as who is the head coach of the Bruins or what is a face-off. 9 out of 10 times these people would get the question wrong and I got to laugh hysterically in my car. So yes we are famous for our "bandwagoners" almost as much as we are for our championships of late, but we also have a solid base of fans that know what they are talking about.
I guess what I'm trying to say Mr. Philly Columnist is; don't hate, appreciate. This is truly a remarkable accomplishment that has really never been seen before ever in history. People are going to celebrate and enjoy it. When your city wins seven championships in ten years, I'll give you a call and ask what your streets are like. If you can honestly tell me that every fan doesn't have a big smile on their face then maybe I would be willing to accept the fact that Massachusetts is filled with a bunch of Massholes.
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