It's fun to check the schedule and see when the Sox will be in town. I enjoy wearing my Sox cap while waiting in line a couple hours before single game seats go on sale. It's also fun to buy great seats from Mariners fans later just before the Sox come to town. I've even had a chance to sit in the front row along the third base line a couple times in the past year or two*. Sometimes they sell the tickets because the Mariners are out of contention, sometimes I think they sell the tickets because Sox fans will pay good money for them and help defray the overall cost of the ticket package. A lot of Mariners fans where I work sell exceptional seats (at face value) to anyone who'll take them if the Mariners don't look playoff bound. I love seeing that the tickets to Sox games are marked "Sold" in a heartbeat, even when the Sox aren't headed to the playoffs.
A number of good friends of mine are Mariners fans and it's an interesting fan base. Seattle has a large number of transplants. So few people who live here actually grew up out here, which is a shame. I trust that the chances of a child rooting for a particular team are much greater if at least one parent roots for that team. It's kinda like religion in that way. For many, it wasn't a conscious choice. It was just how they were raised.
It's easy to be a little spoiled as a Sox fan. I don't tend to like pictures of myself, but one of my favorites is a picture my father took of me with my grandfather at a game at Fenway when I must have been about five years old. I don't know if my grandfather was a Red Sox fan, but I know my Dad's been a Sox fan since he was a kid. Mariners fans my age don't have that. Thankfully, the next generation of Mariners fans might.
The franchise is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this season. Think about that. The franchise has finally been around long enough where the kids going to the games have parents who grew up with the franchise. That's huge. The parents of my Mariners friends don't have the same attachment to the team. They vaguely remember that there was baseball in Seattle one year, but that the team started playing before the city was ready and left the following year. Even into the early '90's, it seemed like there were annual rumors that the Mariners would move to San Jose or Tampa Bay. I think rumors like these had more of a negative impact on the fan base than the fact that the Mariners didn't have a winning record until 1991.
Safeco Field is beautiful. The retractable roof is a must in the area, not so much because it ensures that the game will be played, but because it prevents fans from thinking "I know we have tickets, but the weather looks gloomy. Maybe we should just stay home. If they play, we can probably catch the game on TV." The only thing I'd change is the ballpark's name. A good friend who grew up in the area was hoping a local coffee chain would win the naming rights and give a nod to the New York Giants' old stadium by naming the new ballpark "Seattle's Best Coffee Grounds".
Consider the Mariners home region. The Mariners are obviously home team for the greater Seattle area, but they also draw fans from Eastern Washington, the greater Portland area and the greater Vancouver area. This is a huge potential fan base.
The team has been going through a rough stretch, but they're a good team who has a legitimate chance to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
So why do the Mariners have so much trouble drawing fans? It's sad to see a good team with a huge potential fan base and a beautiful ballpark struggle to draw 25,000 fans for mid week games. It was even more disappointing to hear that when the Red Sox fans were in town, there was apparently a pre-game segment on the Mariners cable broadcast wondering what percentage of the pro-Red Sox crowd were just bandwagon jumpers.
OK, so I admit to being a bit annoyed to hear from friends that I was part of the group of fans that the segment showed when wondering how many of the people in Red Sox gear were "true" Red Sox fans. I briefly chatted up a reported for the station prior to the third game of the series.
Me: "So I hear you guys did a segment last night wondering if the people wearing Red Sox gear were 'true' Red Sox fans."
Reporter: "I wasn't involved with that segment. Sorry."
Me: "I just think it's a shame that you worry about whether people rooting for the Red Sox are 'true' fans when you should be asking why you don't have many fans rooting for the Mariners."
Now-mildly-irate Reporter: "Fans?!? We have fans!!! We had forty five thousand fans at each game last weekend!!!"
Me: "Actually, you had forty five thousand people come to the game to cheer for a player who demanded to be traded away from the Mariners. You have a cute team and a nice ballpark. I just think it would be nice if you had people who showed up to actually cheer for the Mariners. Hey! You could use that as an idea for a segment. 'Come support the team.'"
I love attending Sox games in Seattle. While it's been a little while since I've seen the Sox win here, it's always fun to see the Sox score and take a quick scan of the stands and see how many people are cheering for the Sox. It's also fun to have people sitting near me wondering why I keep making odd marks inside my program if I'm keeping score, especially when someone starts with snide remarks and later asks "Ummm, dude? How many strikeouts does <PitcherX> have?"
Here are my favorite Sox games in Seattle:
- 8/25/1997 - The first Red Sox / Mariners game after the Slocumb / Lowe and Varitek trade. Bonus points awarded since I attended this game with my Dad. At the time, the Red Sox fans had no idea what they were really getting in the trade. All we knew was that we had gotten rid of Slocumb and had gotten something back. When Slocumb came in from the bullpen in the eighth inning in a save situation, the Red Sox fans immediately rose in unison. We all smiled and nodded to each other, knowing the outcome had been decided. Slocumb predictably blew the lead and took the loss.
- 9/2/1996 - Mike Greenwell single-handedly outscoring the Mariners 9-8, prompting one fan to bring a sign to the next game saying "Walk Greenwell".
- 8/02/2000 - The Mariners beat the Red Sox in 19 innings. A college buddy who grew up in the Seattle area and I attended this game, among others. The game featured a "14th inning stretch". At one point, my buddy and I were annoyed that the vendors had stopped serving alcohol six or seven innings ago. Two large Pepsis and the airline bottle of bourbon that was in the bottom of my backpack helped take the edge off. Both the Red Sox and Mariners fans still in attendance in the 19th inning sensed the inevitable about to happen as Fassero trotted in from the bullpen, and he didn't disappoint, giving up a walkoff homer to the first batter he faced.
- 5/13/2005 - The Red Sox play their first game in Seattle as the reigning World Series Champions.
I don't mind the fact that more people are wearing Red Sox hats when the Sox are winning. That happens everywhere. Fans came out of nowhere for the Mariners run in 1995. Safeco field was rocking back in 2001 when the Mariners were a playoff team. After a few years finishing out of the playoffs, you could hear crickets chirping unless the scoreboard was informing fans that it was time to cheer. It happens. If the Red Sox fall apart and miss the playoffs for five straight years, I trust that there would be fewer people at road games wearing Red Sox gear. I'm sure that observant fans noticed more White Sox caps at their road games during the 2006 season. This year? Not so much.
So-called bandwagon fans are fine. You're allowed to cheer even if you couldn't pick JD Drew out of a lineup. Boo now and then if you want to, especially when the umpire blew a call or for lackadaisacal play that costs the team. But there's a line there somewhere. If you want to boo someone in a slump, go ahead but keep in mind that the chances of that booing helping are pretty slim. (In fact, I'm still impressed by whoever started the "Let's go, Lugo" chant just before he broke out of his horrific 0-33 slump.) A "Yankees Suck" chant? I'd like to think that Red Sox fans should be above that now, but I'll admit that I laugh when that chant brings together fans of various teams.
But there was something about the jeering of Youk that really made me cringe. The season was slipping away, but that shouldn't be as heartbreaking after 2004. I think it was the combination of their volume (these guys were loud), their proximity to Youk (I was close enough to see him scowl and mutter at the time) and their sheer ignorance that bothered me. I was embarrassed that people might lump me in with these "fans", not to mention that mean spirited taunting like that for one of your own players could make players want to play for less passionate fan bases.
I still can't believe how Keith Foulke and Mark Bellhorn were treated by fans as their time in Boston came to a close. While I think that Keith Foulke's "Johnny from Burger King" and "I'd be happy to be a normal reliever so long as I can still get paid like a closer" comments didn't enamor him to the Red Sox fan base at a time when he was struggling, I think it's awful that many fans remember him more for those comments than for his heroics in 2004. Bellhorn struggled mightily in 2005. While I had no problem with the Red Sox releasing him, I thought it was sad to see him getting booed at home games less than a year after he played such a key role in the Sox' playoff run.
Remember when Foulke was considering signing with the Sox and somehow the Sox got Bobby Orr to call Foulke and tell him that if he ever helped the Sox win a World Series, he'd be treated like royalty? I don't think Orr was talking about Johnny from Burger King. It bugs me that these guys (and Mirabelli) have taken so much heat from the fans. I don't like the thought of ex-players having such a negative impresssion of the Red Sox fan base. Ex-players don't deserve such venom. Plus, I don't want those players passing those impressions on to potential free agents. For my part, I'll cringe if Pena butchers balls in the outfield but will try not to boo.
Note: I have no problem with Johnny Damon getting booed for signing with the Yankees. It's part of the territory, regardless of whether or not you win a World Series. The booing is louder if you immediately start singing the praises of "the Yankee way" as soon as you sign. It's probably a good way to endear yourself to your new teammates and fans, but expect a tad more heat when you return to Fenway.
The Sox are coming back to town next weekend. I trust the Sox fans will again outnumber and be louder than the M's fans, unless the M's fans try to boo down a "Let's go, Red Sox!" chant. Of course, I'm hoping that the Sox win, but I'm also hoping for less venom from Sox fans directed at the players if they lose. If you're a new fan, it's OK to let others know that you're new. The rest of us will explain that we're not booing the first baseman with the odd facial hair. And if you ask nicely, someone might even explain the heiroglyphic-like markings they're making inside their program.
* - If you ever have the chance to sit in the front row, take a minute or two to notice whether or not your seat is above the playing surface. I reached over to field a foul ball gently rolling directly to me at a game last year, but didn't realize my seat was a foot or so above the field. I never thought that I might have to lean forward and reach past where my feet were in order to touch the playing surface. The ball bounced off the wall and rolled away. *Sniff*
