Who wants to watch nice guys playing when you can have Johnny Damon running his mouth?

Well, you could have Damon until his Red Sox were swept out of the playoffs by the Chicago White Sox on Friday.

How about the way television kept showing those dejected Boston fans in the stands at Fenway Park? They focused so much attention on those dejected poets and songwriters that it was easy to forget there'd been a winner.

Are those poor people still sitting in those box seats weeping for their Sawx? Send them doughnuts and coffee. Tell them spring training is only four months away.

There won't be many crowd shots after the Astros and Braves finish this series. In Atlanta and Houston, they'll watch the game, cheer for their teams and then get on with their lives.

There's not likely to be a single book or movie deal come out of the series. It's sport as sport. What a concept.

Come on now, everybody! Sing it loud.

"Sweeeeet Caro-line! Whoa, whoa, whoa!''

Apologies to all you Boston Red Sox eighth-inning opera divas, but it really was "So good! So good! So good!''

There's not likely to be a single book or movie deal come out of the series. It's sport as sport. What a concept.

"Life on the Run:  A Writer's Journey to Avoid Red Sox Fans After Painting them as Lifeless Losers" by Richard Justice.

Early reviews are in:

"Wonderful!"
-Dan Shaughnessy
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Not only is Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle writer, bitter but his diatribe against Red Sox fans is unfocused and kind of creepy. From today's issue:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bb/3387612

Win, Atlanta, win.
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He should be more specific.
In Atlanta, fans dress as empty seats, watch the game, chop when they are told to, and then get on with their lives.
In Houston, they come to Enron/MinuteMaid Whatever Memorial Stadium, say "hey, I thought the Texans were playing? What sport is this? It don't look like football. Wanna stick around? Maybe they sell nachos here," cheer for their team - which is apparently called the Astros, and then get on with their lives.

Jeez, Mr. Justice. So, kill us for giving a damn.
Incidentally, here is the headline from the knuckleheads at my local paper (It's like last year never happened):

Wait 'til 2090?
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Listen, I can take my lumps as well as anyone, and this is especially true since we won it last year and as Binaca said, we're insufferable winners now. But what these columnists are doing is basically blaming the fans for the media shoving the "Curse" and "Lovable Loser" storylines down the public's throat for more than two decades.

My only wish is that these hacks could express their thoughts a bit more intellectually. You need only be a raving idiot these days to get a columnist job in some places. I'd could take a thousand jabs from Thomas Boswell rather than a tiny prick from Dan Shaughnessy. (That's, um, a metaphor.)
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Which sportswriter from out-of-town will write the first "Belichick Not Such a Genius" column?

Edit: Oops, Google shows that some dude writing for the Henderson Community College "Hill" is already on this angle:

Wait until next year to crown Belichick a genius 
by Tristan Mishell
Sports Reporter

Is Patriots Coach Bill Belichick a Genius?

No, not yet.

http://www.hencc.kctcs.edu/thehill/02-04-0...0a%20genius.htm
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Dude, when your name's Tristan, calling others names is all you've got, I guess.

As for Shaughnessy, yes, he writes well, and sometimes he hits the mark, but he relentlessly pounded the Curse angle for years and years, encouraging entities like Fox to do the same. He's not as bad as people like to portray, but he's not completely unresponsible for the torturous Curse bullshit that was foisted on us for years.
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Just as a result:

http://www.progressiveboink.com/dugout/arc...out10-09-05.htm

www.wordupthome.com is an amusing site.
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Haha Justice - You stupid idiot which one is it? I like the Astros roster - but if they lose it may be worth it just to send this d'bag some coffee and donuts with tickets to spring training.
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Yeah, but you know what? If SOME people at least didn't believe it, he never would have made a dime.  It takes two to tango.  And anyone who thinks that it was only the national media that loved that angle is lying to themselves, plenty of Red Sox fans, though they never may now admit it, believed and bought those books.

I like Dan too. He's part of the scene here.  Some people really get hot and bothered by him, to them I say, simply, 'don't read him.'  He can be colossally wrong, but he's a sports columnist, so really, so what?  His job is to entertain.

To many we are obnoxious fans who have become rather insufferable, but I'd still take that over fairweather fans who barely show up and don't understand the game.
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This is an article by Caple of ESPN.  

Astros, Whitesox deserve this?

I couldn't get past the first sentence.  Now everytime I hear the phrase "WhiteSox Fans"  I can't help but laugh.      Its really quite ludicrous.  I've yet to meet one.  They must be like a unicorns or sasquatch.
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You know, it's all just words to fill a page to earn a paycheck.

And the Red Sox were the champs last year, did have a long championship drought, and now we have the White Sox and Astros with well over 100 years of championship drought between them.

So there are parallels. And where there aren't parallels, writers will invent them. That's what they do.

That said:

1. Why did the Red Sox "curse" get so much more attention than the White Sox and their many years without a title? BECAUSE THE TWO ARE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT. Where are the repeated instances of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory in White Sox history? Where are those dramatic Game 7s? Where are the years of great not being good enough because the hated rival a few hundred miles away was greater?

Oh. That's right. THEY DON'T EXIST. The White Sox just flat out haven't been very good for the past 90 years. Yes, that futility makes their fans "long suffering." But it is different.

It's not different because I'm a Red Sox fan and I'm so special. It's different because the way the story has played out is, undeniably, substantively different. In that respect, the team in this World Series that parallels the Red Sox most closely is not the White Sox, 88 years be damned. It's the Astros, who came so close in '86. It's the Astros who, incidentally, have spent more time in the postseason since 1980 than the White Sox have since 1917.

So to say that White Sox fans have suffered as much as Red Sox fans, and it's a travesty that we haven't been talking about 1917 all these years: No. You're wrong. It's not a travesty. The White Sox have been a travesty. But I can tell you from having experienced it both ways, it hurts so much more to come close and fail than it does to simply fail. The White Sox have simply failed. That doesn't breed heartbreak. It breeds apathy. And so:

2. You want to complain about how much more attention was given to 1918? Well, why don't you start by pointing the finger at Fox, which can't get four seconds into a Red Sox broadcast without bringing it up (even still). Then point the finger at ESPN, which passes four seconds...but can't pass fifteen. Then blame MLB, who decided it would be good for the Red Sox to start and end the season against the Yankees.

Then blame yourselves, who apparently would rather write about the Red Sox than this year's World Series.

And why is that? Search your heart. You know the answer: IT'S BECAUSE NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE WHITE SOX. And not very many people care about the Astros. I am not better than a White Sox fan because I root for the Red Sox. But Red Sox fans as a whole ARE better than White Sox fans. Why? Because we exist. And so do Yankees fans, by the way.

That's why 1918 got so much more attention than even the droughts of teams who actually have experienced some heartbreak along the way, like the Astros, or the Angels until a few years ago. Because we exist, and we care. And our enemies exist, and they care.

So get over the whole comparing the White Sox to the Red Sox. There is no comparison. Write about what's happening right now. Scott Podsednik has more home runs in the World Series than he did in the regular season. That might be a story, right there. 1917, though? Really, who cares? Seven people in Chicago?
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Yeesh, our skin is thinner than I would have thought after a world series championship...
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You also have to remember that the Red Sox have a rival in New York, and the White Sox don't. Believe me, we'd hear nothing but "1917" if the Yankees had the White Sox as a rival.

Absolutely. That was part of my point. I suppose maybe Twins fans like to chant "1917" when the White Sox come to town. But probably not.

Nah, not thin skinned after a championship. More like, "even more sick of it now than I was 3 years ago." If someone wants to bring up 1918 and the Red Sox, and show some semblance of actually having half a clue what it's all about, then great.

And I have nothing wrong with negative press, either, if it's warranted.

But I'm so, so, so sick of national media hype from a bunch of hacks who don't even know what they are talking about. I have had more than enough of Fox and ESPN. I've had more than enough of the Red Sox being a metaphor for everything, and everything being a metaphor for the Red Sox. It's not Red Sox fans who blow it all out of proportion, it's a bunch of outsiders who are too lazy to find an interesting story anywhere else in baseball.

I was sick of it long before the Sox won the World Series. And, f**k it, everybody has been writing about the Yankees for years without having a clue, so I suppose it's a mark of success and we should all be glad for the national media overkill. But it's tiring. It steals some of my fun and enjoyment of the game. So I'm all too happy to fly off the handle and overreact, at least until such time as I'm allowed an amateur cage match with members of the media. 

(Plus, typing is never as much fun as it is when ranting incoherently!)

EDIT:
Absolutely. That was part of my point. I suppose maybe Twins fans like to chant "1917" when the White Sox come to town. But probably not.
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