Unfortunately, dear readers, I regret to inform you that one of the writers' whose own site inspired this one has sold out to the man. Ken Tremendous has moved out of his parents' basement and into a penthouse apartment in North End, Boston.
If you pick up the latest issue of SI - dated 8/13 - you'll see a column by Ken Tremendous of the other FJM - yes, he the author is listed exactly as such. The article is called "A Wicked Awesome Moment: An open letter to Boston's Newest Stars". Unfortunately, KT strays from his usual evisceration of idiot-journalists format (which works well for him) and into the why-fans-from-Boston-are-different-than-other-fans (which does not really work well for him at all). He still has a characteristic flair, but it's just not the same.
If there were a nuclear war in Asia and Jabar Gaffney happened to be vacationing in Singapore, the front-page headline in The Boston Globe would be: PATS' WR INJURED IN BLAST.
Gee, Ken. You Boston fans are sure better than fans in other cities. I can't believe your newspaper would put one sports star over thousands of dead Asians! That sure shows how much you Bostonians love your sports teams!
Also it's done in a weird question-and-answer type style, which seems stilted since he's asking himself questions and then answering them. I don't know why he did that. For example:
What do you expect from [the Celtics] this year?
82-0
Surely you can't...
82-0. End of discussion.
Really hilarious stuff here, Ken. You Boston fans sure are uniquely passionate about your various sports franchises! Maybe that is why media outlets like SI spend an inordinate amount of time publishing articles about you crazies!
Also he claims that Boston fans have a "somewhat justified" reputation as being "well-informed". I call bullshit. Red Sox fans are not even in the top half of most-informed baseball fans.
In sum, Ken, I like your site a lot. I love to see big-time media recognizing your acumen. But stick to what makes you great: solid analysis of arguments about baseball. Don't do puff pieces about Boston sports fandom.
say it ain't so!
ReplyDeletebut since it is so, first of all, let me confirm for you that his article is fucking lame as hell.
second, if a major sports network offered me a chance to sell out i would take it... and then the day after my first article was published i would mock myself on this very blog. it would be so postmodern.
I was at one of the rockies/yankees games at coors field, and this mid-30s self proclaimed "die-hard" red sox fan from boston was in our section (I'm not sure why he was at this game but whatever).
ReplyDeleteIn the second inning, as my friends and i were talking about todd helton, he was like "who the hell is this guy?"
I call bullshit as well on their fan knowledge, although I will admit bostonians are dedicated baseball fans, even if they are a bit slow. They are godawful football fans however, and if there's a city that doesn't deserve such a recently successful NFL franchise, it's Boston
anecDOTal
ReplyDeletelol
eriz -
ReplyDeleteThat's a silly conclusion to reach on a sample size of 1 - from a guy at a Rockies game.
Try that in Boston.
jesus christ, it's just an illustration of how I feel about Boston fans. Sorry I don't have emperical data on the matter, adjusted for era, race, age and gender.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not saying "hey I saw this one Boston guy being stupid, so they are all dumb..." it's just an amusing anecdote.
And yes, my feelings on Boston Sports fans completely relies on my personal experiences. Dan-Bob did the exact same thing at the end of this piece, I was just agreeing with him.
It is silly of all parties here to make sweeping comments about the sports knowledge of a fan base.
ReplyDeletehave you ever met anybody from Boston? Just curious
ReplyDeletehave you ever met anybody from Boston? Just curious
ReplyDeleteI grew up 30 minutes north of Boston.
ReplyDeletethis is definitely a worthy topic of conversation guys...
ReplyDeleteI'm from Boston, I probably know more about baseball, football, and basketball than Eriz. And because of that, whatever team he follows, it's sports fans know nothing of any sports.
ReplyDeletethanks for adding to it, anonymous.
ReplyDeleteWow...dammit KT.
ReplyDeleteI and two other long-time baseball/Orioles fans just spent three days sitting among Boston's finest as they invaded Camden Yards...on two of those days we heard more blithering nonsense from Red Sox fans than any other fan base I've ever experienced. Really dumb and uninformed stuff about their own club, the standings, sabermetrics, matchups, you name it. I don't know who would anoit them as especially knowledgable fans...I was stunned by the breadth and scope of the ignorance...but LET'S GO RED SOX!
ReplyDeleteThey've got that down, anyway.
Oh I take it back. Boston fans are idiots. You didn't have Rob Neyer and Keith Law espousing good commentary over your shoulder.
ReplyDeleteI've been to Camden too, to watch the Red Sox. I'd comment on the Orioles fans but it was mostly Red Sox fans.
I was at Mets game this weekend. The group of 4 had 2 of the dumbest people I've ever heard sitting behind me. I will not extrapolate that onto the entire Mets fanbase though, because I'm not retarded.