Who are the Red Sox?

A thought has been rattling around in my mind the last several weeks. Before I go any further, let me backtrack to the glory days of Pedro, and the not so glory days of the Red Sox.
In 1999, Year One of Pedro’s utter dominance, the Red Sox ranked third highest in the division, fifth in the AL and 10th in the majors in payroll. The payroll was a staggering … $59 million. We were an above-average market with an above-average team who always wanted that World Series and came out to the neglected park in droves and won the wild card, winning 94 games.
In 2000, that payroll jumped to $77 million, good enough for seventh in the majors but we missed the playoffs, winning only 85 games. Despite dropping down to 82 wins the next year, the payroll skyrocketed (Hello, Manny Ramirez) to $109 million. The payroll dipped in 2002 by one million and we won 93 games. In 2003, the payroll went down to $96 million and we won 95 games.
2004 rolled around, and Red Sox hysteria was at its height, all thanks to the Impossible Dream of 1976 and Carlton Fisk. Winning the World Series after nabbing 98 wins the year after one of the most crushing playoff losses in baseball history, it happened with a $127 million payroll. In 2005, the team won 95 games with a $123 million payroll. In 2006, the payroll again decreased to $120 million, but the team stumbled badly to 86 wins. With all the moves this year (and moves still to be done, hopefully) the payroll should at least approach the luxury tax of $148 million.
(As an aside, I’ve realized I shouldn’t care that we’re spending so much money. Ticket prices will always rise no matter what – payroll dipped and they still rose. Plus, it’s foolhardy for the Red Sox to cut payroll right now. When they can, I definitely would love them to. But we can’t afford to cut payroll and contend right now. Such is the nature of playing in the division with financial behemoth New York, revived Toronto, and slumbering Baltimore.)
So essentially, in 1999, we were a team rich in history with long-suffering and devout fans, but devoid of the commercialization of ‘Red Sox Nation’ (I love ‘Tessie’ by the Dropkick Murphys, I like the movie Fever Pitch, but let’s admit it: it’s at disgusting levels). 2003 was the start of the commercialized Red Sox Nation with rabid fans and another playoff devastation to add to our list. After the sheer joy of winning it all in 2004, the following only grew and now the Red Sox are easily the second (if not the first, but we’ll just give it to the Yankees, mainly because I do not want the pleasure of being first) most well-known, followed and covered baseball teams with movies being made, songs being made, dirt being sold (okay, I have one, but it was a present – I didn’t buy it!) … this baseball club is not a baseball club as it was in the days of 1999, but an economically-driven entertainment machine.
I don’t like it, but that’s how baseball clubs and other sports teams are operating. I love the revisions to Fenway, I love the better product on the field, but I don’t like the commercialization. Even though the Green Monster seats were a great idea, sometimes I look at a picture of Fenway from the 1990s and smile to myself, missing it. Which brings me to my question. Who are the Red Sox? Some answers:

So, as always, the Red Sox will be talented, flawed and a high-upside work in progress. JAYSON STARK

Most teams have a distinct character, built up over the decades, a personality that persists almost without regard for actual record. The Twins will always be dependable Midwest farmers getting by on hard work, good soil and solid team fundamentals rather than stunning payrolls. The Athletics will always be West Coast free spirits going about the game their own way (whether that’s drawing walks or drawing tattoos). The Yankees will always be pin-striped Gotham storm troopers dispatching opponents with cold corporate efficiency. The White Sox will always be the South Side blue-collar workers playing in the shadow of their yuppie northern neighbors. And for decades the Red Sox were the Calvinist, heroic underdogs always destined to fail tragically in the end. JIM CAPLE

However, of course, we are no longer that, right? Now, we are simply viewed as the New York Yankees, just in Boston. Oh, and with a different name. And really, what’s the difference, people say. They’re the same team, and the Red Sox could probably get a $200 million payroll if they wanted. As Caple says in that same article, “the Red Sox are finally on par with their hated rival and are delighted about it. … The Sox knocking off the Yankees in 2004 didn’t rid baseball of a menace. It simply meant there was another nuclear power in the ever-escalating arms race.”
I can’t really deny that. I think it would be silly for us to deny that. We have smart general managers, owner(s) who want to win, rabid and loyal fan bases, money, and excellent players on the team. One difference is that the Red Sox are content to field very good players, while the Yankees have an insatiable need to fill it with All-Stars. But really, the Red Sox have quite an assortment of players as do the Yankees, and we certainly have them beat on the pitching side every which way save for a closer.
Except that I think we’re still the “Calvinist, heroic underdogs.” I just don’t think we’re “always destined to fail tragically in the end” anymore. The Yankees are baseball’s most successful franchise (sports’, too) and have won 26 World Series rings. They have won the last nine division titles in a row, and a crazy four out of five World Series in a span from 1996 to 2000. It’s pretty much awe-inspiring. They’re the top, the glitterati, the glitz. Even in ‘The Scout‘ when the Yankees were sneered at as a lousy team with no chance of getting to the World Series (they were bad once, you know!) … they had that appeal of being a Yankee. That’s why Steve Nebraska signed with the Yankees after the Yankees posted a $55 million bid for Nebraska, a young, unproven pitcher who was considered the best in the world. (Oh, the similarities…)
We did eliminate a chant of ‘1918’ but the Yankees came up with the ’26 Rings’ chant instead. While we are at least on the same level as them, and were on top for a while in terms of bragging rights and there’s no inferiority complex anymore, a struggle with the Yankees always seems like a David (Red Sox) versus Goliath (Yankees) affair. As Alex Belth at Bronx Banter said this past August about the Boston Massacre II: “This is the best that Yankee fans have felt about themselves vis a vis the rivalry with the Sox since Boston’s historic playoff run in 2004.”
Ah, but Belth also says: “Yankee fans have adopted a sense of entitlement when it comes to winning over the past decade…the most disturbing part of this attitude is that often prevented fans from appreciating just how difficult it is to win, no matter what kind of wild competetive advantages the Yankees have.”
The Yankees still feel entitled. In October, the fans wanted the 2005 MVP run out of town and the owner, George Stienbrenner, wanted to fire one of the most successful managers in baseball history.
They finished in first place and made the playoffs. The Red Sox finished third, missed the playoffs, and did not call for Curt Schilling to be run out of town (he’s the best comparison to A-Rod I can make: big acquisition that both teams dueled for, integral to the team’s playoff chances, high-profile) and we did not ask for Terry Francona to be fired.
So in summation, no matter the commercialization, the hordes of Red Sox fans, the rising ticket prices, the “new” Fenway (which is definitely better than the old Fenway, don’t get me wrong), the rising payroll, the media coverage, the New York Yankees comparisons … the Red Sox are still the “Calvinist, heroic underdogs.” Feel entitled to a win? Never. The Red Sox, the Red Sox fans … cherish wins. They know how few and far in-between they come. They know how losses can ravage not only your day, your year, but your existence. (I never thought the pain of 2003 would abate. If 2004 had not happened, it would still be ravaging my insides.) That’s who the Red Sox are. We may be financially on par with the Yankees, and that’s how you have to survive in the American League East.
But we are not the Yankees. Not by far.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, Happy Hannukah to those that celebrate it, Happy Kwanzaa to those who celebrate it, Happy Holidays to those in the holiday spirit.