tellhimfred.com

Ouch. Last night hurt. All three Boston sports teams lost, and for one of them it was the end of their season. But why do I care?

See, fredders, I’m not from Boston. In fact, I’m not even from Massachusetts. I’m from New York. Now before you start pelting me with lids from steel garbage cans, let me tell you something: upstate New York is not the New York you loathe. It’s New York in name only.

Growing up I was a Mets fan (still am), a Buffalo Bills fan (not anymore), and a Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I never cared about basketball. But since moving to the Bay State in 1997, my loyalties have changed. While I still am a Mets fan, I find myself watching the Sox and even listening to them on the radio. I am a Patriots fanatic. I would now consider myself a Bruins fan, as I found myself arguing in a comment thread on Boston.com with Carolina fans over whether Walker is a cheap shot artist. By the way, he is. And almost inconceivably I find myself paying attention to the Celtics. I never saw that one coming.

So now I’m wondering why. As someone that derives massive enjoyment from bringing up 1986 to any Sox fan previously, I’m now finding myself checking the score on my phone, making sure to get a table next to a TV at a restaurant, and knowing the pitching matchup for the next game. When 2/3 of THF.com went camping two weekends ago, I almost was lynched for checking the score of the Celtics game. [Listening to the Kentucky Derby on the radio was a different story entirely] All of these bizarre Boston homer behaviors I’m exhibiting beg the question: what happened to me, and why do I care about these teams?

Hypothesis One: The Radio

I believe this to be the weaker of the two potential explanations, but we’ll go with it anyway. Since taking the new job in the Watch City, I find myself in the car a lot (at least 2 and a half hours each day). In the morning I listen to the Toucher and Rich show on WBCN, and they talk about sports a bit. They have drunken Red Sox recaps, drunken Celtics recaps, and they talk to Aaron Ward from the Bruins each week during the season. On my way home, I listen to WEEI, the local sports talk radio station. So each day I’m getting a lot of information about Boston sports teams, thus increasing my affinity for them. Because I know when each game is taking place, who the callers hate on the other teams, etc., it makes me want to pay attention.

Hypothesis Two: The Culture

After writig that last paragraph, I’m calling myself out as a bullshit artist. I think it’s the people. Yep, Boston is a sports town. The people here aren’t like most people in the country who have a passing interest in their teams. Ask 10 people who won the game last night (regardless of which sport), and I’m pretty sure 8 of them would know immediately and would also know the score, and they’d give you an opinion about it. Ask someone today in Boston who won the Sox game, and I’d bet they’ll say “The fahkin’ Sox lost in extra innings because Big Papi can’t fahkin’ hit no more. Left like a dozen stranded.”

Anyway, with all that babble aside, let me finally get to my question: Do I qualify as a Boston sports fan? What’s the statute of limitations? How many years do you have to live in a new city before you can consider yourself a true fan? I realize that because I still like the Mets, I’ll never really be considered a Sox fan. That’s fine. But what about the other teams?

Well?

Final Plug: Come to the Cask ‘N Flagon tonight to support Hoffa’s band, Red Square in the Battle of the Cover Bands. Find me there and I’ll buy you a beer.