Red Sox Nation is alive and well out here on the West Coast. Most Red Sox fans in the West are transplants with roots in New England, for many Red Sox players it is the opposite. The team has had a history of great players from the West Coast like Ted Willims, Bobby Doerr, and Dom DiMaggio and today's team is no different. Pedroia is from Woodland, California, as we are all too well aware of, and there is a big contingent of players from the Pacific Northwest. Jon Lester is from Tacoma, Wa and from Jeff Bailey is from Longview, Wa. Jason Bay is from British Columbia and has a home in Seattle and Jacoby Ellsbury is from Madras, Or. There will be large number of players' family members in the stands for this series and when you add that to all of the transplanted Red Sox fans as well as those New Englanders who planned a weekend vacation in Seattle, you have a favorable crowd.
Late last season the Red Sox announced the Governors of Red Sox Nation for all 50 States. Karen Doherty was selected as RSN Governor of California. Fenway West spoke with her this week:
FW: What made you become a Red Sox fan?
Gov. Doherty:The Nation made me want to become a Red Sox fan. I went to a Giants/Red Sox game in June of 2004. I noticed that about 40% of the people in attendance were Red Sox fans. A lot of them flew in from Boston. I started talking with them, joking, laughing, betting (dollar bills flying around) and I never had so much fun at a baseball game. I thought "who are these crazy people who fly around the country for a baseball game? I want to be a part of this." The fans were extremely knowledgeable, loyal, devoted. I started following the team, went to Fenway. We all know what happened in the playoffs and finally the World Series. I felt partially responsible for reversing the curse. I converted a Yankee fan that year.
FW: Who is your favorite player? Historic and current
Gov. Doherty:Ted Williams. Dave Roberts changed my life. Current: too difficult to choose just one. JD & JBay are so solid. I admire Youk's work ethic and the way he plays like every play is do or die. I love Papelbon. I'm starting to take Pedroia for granted. Jacoby? Come on!
FW: Have you had any contact with Jerry Remy?
Gov. Doherty:No contact with Remy. We are having a Governors Day 6/16 at Fenway so I hope to meet him then.
FW: What are your goals for RSN in California?
Gov. Doherty: Goals: Continually promote and support our team in a positive manner. Get the word out about RSN. My experience so far is not that many California fans are aware of RSN citizenship, Fenway West, Sawxheads and even redsox.com.
FW: Have you met any of the other governors?
Gov. Doherty: I was at spring training in March and met the Governor of Florida, Alexa Jimenez and the Governor of New Hampshire, Janice Paige.
FW: How can Red Sox fans get in touch with you? Gov. Doherty: cagov@ redsoxnation.com
The ABC hit TV show “LOST” tells the story of the 48 survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 that crashed on a remote South Pacific island. I first discovered the show shortly after it began in 2004. Red Sox fans can be excused from not watching it from episode #1, as the Sox were on a rampage. After a shocking trade of Nomar Garciaparra, playing .500 ball for too long and falling more than 10 games behind those despised Yankees, the Sox had come to life and were bearing down on 1st place. They didn’t win their division, but still made the playoffs. They then proceeded to shock the pro baseball world by winning the pennant after being down three games to none in the playoffs, and about to lose the 4th and final game in the bottom of the 9th inning, when their epic odds defying rally began, a feat no other baseball team had ever done, and against the Yankees no less! There were still 4 games left to be played against St. Louis, but looking back, they were almost a moot point after that spectacular comeback over the Yanks. October 27th, 2004 marked the 1st time in 86 years that the Red Sox had won a World Series, so Sox fans were basically incommunicado until after that date.
After watching too many years of police and law dramas (Hill St. Blues, LA Law, NYPD Blue, and the bazillion incarnations of CSI and Law & Order), I was ready for something different. I had been expecting LOST to be a real life drama about survival (think Tom Hanks in “Castaway”), but by the time I realized it was as much science fiction as it was real life drama, I was hooked. Besides dealing with a horrifically traumatic experience (surviving a plane crash), the survivors must deal with immediate needs such as medical treatment, water, food, and shelter. As the show progresses, they slowly come to realize that help is NOT on the way. Temporary needs turning into permanent needs present dilemmas. These dilemmas are harshened by the fact that there are violent, predatory others already living there, and that there are many inexplicable discoveries such as a centuries old pirate ship and a small plane wreck in the middle of the island, a highly involved and detailed science project, supernatural beings, and a polar bear; all on a tropical island.
Besides being lost in a geographical sense, the characters discover that many of themselves are also lost inside. Backstories are interwoven throughout the tale, illuminating aspects of each character that the audience would not otherwise be aware of. At least one of the survivors seems to have ‘found’ himself on the island from the very onset of their ordeal. These backstories also show how interwoven the lives of the survivors had been, unbeknownst to them.
One of the main characters is Jack Shephard who is a brilliant surgeon with a strong need to fix as many patients as possible. He has flown to Australia to pick up his dead father’s body. Sawyer, another survivor, is a loner con-man who was seeking revenge in Australia, and had the opportunity to share a few moments in a bar with Jack’s father before he died. The following exchange happened in Australia sometime before September 22, 2004, the date of the doomed flight.
Shephard the elder comments that Australia is as close to hell as you can get.
"We're in hell, huh?"
"Don't let the air conditioning fool you, son. You're here too. You are suffering. But don't beat yourself up about it. It's fate. Some people are just supposed to suffer. That's why the Red Sox will never win the damn Series.”
On or about October 22, 2004, less than a week before the Sox actually did win the Series, the following dialogue occurred between Jack and Sawyer:
Jack: That’s why the Sox will never win the Series. Sawyer: What’s that? Jack: I said, ‘That’s why the Red Sox will never win the Series.’ Sawyer: What the hell’s that supposed to mean? Jack: “[It’s] just something my father used to say—[he] went through life knowing that people hated him. Instead of taking responsibility for it, he just put it on fate. Said he was made that way."
Con-man Sawyer does not reveal to Jack that he spoke with his father at the bar back in Australia. He keeps this to himself, waiting for the right time to barter the information for his ever present ulterior motives.
The Red Sox won the World Series as season #1, episode #8 was wrapping up. The writers then worked this into episode #9, which originally aired on February 16, 2005.
[S]o the writers [knew] at the time they wrote that episode that the Red Sox had won the World Series, providing some irony to the comments by Christian and by Jack. The Red Sox win in 2004 proved that they were not "destined" to lose, and the team's ability to win over enormous odds resonates with the difficulties facing the castaways on the Island.
After the survivors of the crash discover that there is a colony of people already living on the island with homes, medicine, and some modern conveniences and technology, Jack is held captive by these “Others” as the survivors have taken to calling them. The survivors are scared, confused, ‘lost’, and very wary of all their mysterious surroundings. The “Others” are wary of the survivors, as they do not want to be found by search parties. While being held by the “Others”, Benjamin Linus, leader of the colony, trying to prove to Jack that they indeed do have contact with the rest of the world, tells him that since they have been on the island, George W. Bush had been re-elected, Christopher Reeve passed away, and the Red Sox won the World Series. Jack laughs and says that he almost believed Linus up until he said that the Sox won the Series. Linus says that it’s true and shows him a clip of Keith Foulke tossing the ball to Doug Mientkewicz for the deciding out.
In season #4, a search party eventually lands on the island. In one episode Jack asks the helicopter pilot if the Sox really did win the Series, to which the pilot replies, "Don't even get me started on that, I grew up in the Bronx". Jack mentions that he has not seen a Red Sox game in over 100 days.
The show is not an easy one to follow, especially if you have not been watching it from the beginning. Although the show started airing over 4 years ago, only a couple of months have passed on the island since the crash. Themes of fate and destiny, and faith versus science are a constant. It has a cult-like following with Internet fan sites and discussion groups too numerous to mention. Many of these fans discuss and analyze just about every detail that occurs during the show, seeking any possible relevance in determining the importance of events that occur or which direction the story will take.
One of the most dissected details is the recurring appearance of the following numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. These were the winning lottery numbers chosen by one of the characters, they were important numbers as part of the science project that was discovered on the island, as well other appearances. Interestingly, the Yankees retired numbers include all of the numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. The Boston Red Sox retired numbers are 1, 4, 8, 9, 27, and 42. Furthur investigation reveals that executive producer Carlton Cuse is a Red Sox fan, and executive producer Damon Lindelof is a Yankees fan. Lindelof has described the use of the Red Sox win in LOST as therapeutic. (Therapeutic? He uses his favorite team’s biggest choke ever in his show and he calls that therapeutic? He must be one glutton for punishment!)
So, is Jack a Red Sox fan? I have not been able to find proof positive that he is. He lives in Los Angeles, but I suppose it is possible he went to med school in Boston. Viewers have not learned that much detail of Jack’s past, but judging from his reaction to Linus telling him about the amazing Sox comeback (Sox fans, think about this for a minute…. how would you react if you were in Jack’s shoes?) and his reaction to seeing the Foulke to Mientkewicz final out (Damn! I can’t believe I’m on this island when the Sox finally won it all!), I would think that he is indeed, a Sox fan. He even sought reaffirmation from the helicopter pilot.
Will Jack’s apparent citizenship in Red Sox Nation have any significance in upcoming episodes? Hard to say. As a Sox fan, I would hope so, but I wouldn’t need it to enjoy the show. Season #5 begins airing on January 21st.
Sean Bunn is the Red Sox Nation governor from North Carolina. He had organized a viewing party in Raleigh the night the Sox lost to Tampa Bay by the score of 13-4. Adding insult to injury, upon returning home after the game that night, he discovered that his condo had been vandalized by "Yankes" fans. Vandals broke into his house and spray painted the NY logo, pinstripes (jail bars?), and other vulgarisms all over his home, including Jeter and A-Rod's uniform numbers on the back of his dress shirts. (He may donate the shirts to The Jimmy Fund to be auctioned off.)
I hope security at the Trop has the safety off their tasers tonight because the fans representing Red Sox may not be the best of Red Sox Nation. The local Rays watering hole, Ferg’s Bar and Grill, has stocked Narragansett beer for Sox fans:
“We even stock a beer for them from up there. Narragansett,” she said. “They all say it’s awful. “Gimme one!”
I know economic times are tough, but come onSox fans, pony up for a decent beer. I am happy to say that you can't get Narragansett out here in California. I can remember a few not so pleasant experiences in the mid 90's after a night of drinking Rhode Island's $2 a 6 pack beer.
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Rays fans are not even safe in their own local watering hole. Will it be the same story at the Trop tonight? It won't be like the old days where there were more Sox fans than Rays fans in the stands but the Nation will be represented.
More on how I came to write for Fenway West furthur on down the line, but tonight I had the good fortune to eat, drink, and watch the Red Sox All Star Game with Fenway West founder and future governor of Red Sox Nation from California, Matt O’Donnell.
We met in person briefly at an A’s-Sox game back in May, but he had the family in tow, so we didn’t get to speak much that day. We decided to meet at McNear’s in Petaluma, CA to watch the game. Now McNear’s has good food, good ale, and TV’s all over the place with the game on many of them, but the BIG screen was on the DL, and they weren’t putting the volume up on any of them either. So we went up the road a bit to Behind the Glory Sports Bar and Grill (yes we know the jokes.) TV’s were all over the place with the game on all of ‘em, but it was a noisy crowd, so we weren’t able to hear Fox’s Ken Rosenthal very well (awwwww…) Our suspicions were aroused when we saw the bartender wearing a pinstriped shirt with #13 on it, and an Evil Empire hat with those mysterious N and Y letters on it. But the food was good, the beer was good, the game was, well….. the AL won the game (we could feel Tito exhaling 3k miles away!), and much to the chagrin of the 100 or so fans left after the game, we got to see JD DREW of the RED SOX WIN the MVP award! And in venerable Yankee Stadium, taboot! Hey, NY! You got what you wanted! Mo pitched the 9th inning! In 1.2 innings, Mo allowed 2 hits, 0 runs, and struck out two. We were (not so secretly) hoping Tito would send him out for the rest of the game, as NY wanted desperately for him to get the win. Like Barry in search of a ring, it would not be (Tito sending Mo out for 6 innings, or getting the win.) Oh well. Nonetheless, it was a great night of baseball. A-Rod and Jeter combined line: 1 for 5 (cheap single) 0 runs, 0 RBI’s, 4 LOB. Drew’s line: 2 for 4 (game tying HR, single), 1 walk, 1 run, 1 SB. Not being able to hear the game well didn’t hurt our enjoyment of it as we told baseball stories back and forth all night.
Now about that bartender. Despite his unsightly NY garb, he said nothing ill of the Sox, no trash talking, nothing. After Matt and I had both eaten, he even came by with a kind offer of some free food, but we were both stuffed and had to pass. Not all Yankee fans are scum. (I dare Yankee fans to say the same of Sox fans, hah!) Didn’t get his name (we just called him A-Rod), but props anyhow. (Just get a better wardrobe :-)
I am running for Governor of Red Sox Nation for California and I would really appreciate your support. If you can take a minute and endorse my application here. You need to put Matt O'Donnell in the name field and odmatt@yahoo.com in the email field. You can vote up to 10 times so please vote as many times as possible. I appreciate your support. (You do not have to live in California to vote for me.)
Red Sox Owner John Henry told the Boston Herald the following in an email: ""Just to ensure he knows how cool Red Sox Nation is, [Saturday] we officially inducted him as a member of Red Sox Nation and we are sending him his membership card giving him access to an array of options including our newsletter, bumper stickers, pins, Green Monster seats and a hat personally autographed by David Ortiz."
If you want to send anything to Hank yourself you can mail it to: Hank Steinbrenner Legends Field 1 Steinbrenner Dr., Tampa, FL 33614
Today in Washington, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer issued the oath of office to Jerry Remy to become the official President of Red Sox Nation.
"I, Jerry Remy, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of Red Sox Nation. I pledge to be true to the game, true to our fans and, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and promote all that is great about the beloved sport of baseball and the Boston Red Sox."
Red Sox Nation is alive and well out here on the West Coast. Most Red Sox fans in the West are transplants with roots in New England, for many Red Sox players it is the opposite. The team has had a history of great players from the West Coast like Ted Willims, Bobby Doerr, and Dom DiMaggio and today's team is no different. Pedroia is from Woodland, California, as we are all too well aware of, and there is a big contingent of players from the Pacific Northwest. Jon Lester is from Tacoma, Wa and from Jeff Bailey is from Longview, Wa. Jason Bay is from British Columbia and has a home in Seattle and Jacoby Ellsbury is from Madras, Or. There will be large number of players' family members in the stands for this series and when you add that to all of the transplanted Red Sox fans as well as those New Englanders who planned a weekend vacation in Seattle, you have a favorable crowd.
