Since I attended the Boston Red Sox series against the A's in many people have asked me why I am a Red Sox fan. (It happened twice today.) In no particular order, my reasons for being a part of the Red Sox Nation.

1. Pedro Martinez. He is currently my favorite pitcher in the big leagues (Turk is currently not on a major league roster). The numbers he put up this season aren't as dominating as his Cy Young years, but he's still darn good. He isn't scared of anyone and he drills batters who piss him off. Let's not forget also that he tossed Don Zimmer like a rag doll.

2. Fenway Park. I've never been there, but I've seen it on tv many times. The Green Monster looks really cool and was one of the original quirky ballpark features before this age of flagpoles in center field (Houston) and ridiculous bleachers sticking out on the field (San Diego) crap. It only seats about 36,000 fans, but they sold out every single home game this season.

3. They play in Boston. Boston is one of the few cities I would actually consider living in if I ever left California. (The others are St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Washington DC) Boston has the Red Sox, the Celtics, maybe the Bruins. It's by the water and I hear they have great tea parties there.

4. Since the infamous Black Sox scandal in 1919, I cannot root for the White Sox. So I chose instead to root for their natural arch-enemies, the Red Sox.

5. Manny Ramirez. I never knew how good of a hitter this guy was when he played for the Indians. He looks like he's having fun out there. I like that in a ballplayer. (If the Giants weren't such cheap bastards and just picked up the 20 million dollars a year salary the past offseason, could you imagine Bonds and Manny in the same lineup? Bonds would be at 794 career HR's by now.)

6. RBI Baseball. This was the first game I ever got for the old 8-bit Nintendo. I played with the Red Sox back then even though my favorite team was the Giants. This was back around 1987, when the BoSox had Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Darrell Evans, Marty Barrett, and a guy named Spike Owens playing shortstop. (Spike was all field, no hit)

7. The history of the Red Sox. Yes, they haven't won a World Series since the invention of the wheel, but I was fascinated by the players who have put on the Boston uniform. Carl Yastrzemski was cool because his name was impossible to spell right and he was the last man to win baseball's Triple Crown (lead league in HR, RBI, and BA). Ted Williams was the last man to hit over .400 (.406). Those were some of the early things about baseball I learned as a kid and those names just stuck with me.

8. Baseball cards. In my younger days of card collecting, some of my friend's older brothers would rip me off with baseball card trades, giving me Will Clark rookies for vintage cards of Willie McCovey or Pete Rose. (Those bastards!!) This was before the days of autograph refractors and packs that cost $150. Somehow, one of the aforementioned bastard older brothers was convinced that Red Sox outfielder Mike Greenwell was going to be a superstar, and he had alot of his cards, so I went out and got a bunch of his cards also. Today, those cards have a combined value of $1.45. That's counting the plastic sleeve that holds the cards. (I've got a bunch of the Royals' Kevin Seitzer rookies as well.)


As much as I love the Red Sox, the San Francisco Giants still rank number 1 on my baseball list. I can't wait to see the Giants play at Fenway this year.