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Cool things about Red Sox: Other thoughts

Submitted by SHNS on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 13:52

The last time the Red Sox were in town, I poked a stick into the beehive that is Red Sox Nation by listing 10 reasons to hate the Red Sox. Why 10?Because we didn't have room to list 20.Anyway, there are a few things about the Red Sox that are okay. So, in the interest of fairness, here are 10 things about the Red Sox and their history that are cool.1. Bill "Spaceman'' Lee. The ace of the Cosmic All-Stars pitching rotation.2. Fenway Park. Still the best digs in baseball.3. Terry Francona. Boston manager seems like a decent enough fella.4. Jerry Remy. One of the better TV analysts in baseball. Should be on Fox's Game of the Week.5. Fans take the game seriously. (Maybe a little too seriously, but at least they go to games.)6. Actually, we're going to have to stop here because that's all we can think of. Sorry.E-MAIL OF THE DAYNFL referee Ed Hochuli is getting bombarded with e-mails from angry Chargers fans after he blew the call on Denver QB Jay Cutler's apparent fumble that helped the Broncos beat San Diego on Sunday. Denver scored a touchdown two plays later then won the game on a two-point conversion.Here's the e-mail Hochuli sent to many of the fans that are writing him to complain:"I'm getting hundreds of e-mails -- hate mail -- but I'm responding to it all. People deserve a response.You can rest assured that nothing anyone can say can make me feel worse than I already feel about my mistake on the fumble play. You have no idea. ... Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection - I failed miserably. Although it does no good to say it, I am very, very sorry.Ed Hochuli''Maybe instead of peppering Hochuli with e-mails, the Chargers fans should be writing their team complaining about losing two games by giving up last-minute touchdowns.DO YOU CARE?This is not to defend the Rays' support this season, or lack thereof. The Tampa Bay market should be embarrassed by this season's attendance.But it still kind of rankles us when outsiders take swipes, such as Steve Buckley, the fine columnist from the Boston Herald, who wrote, "Now it's time for MLB to take care of another disaster: The so-called Tampa-St. Petersburg 'baseball market.' Seriously, if the plucky, exciting Tampa Bay Rays make the playoffs, shouldn't their games be moved to a place where fans actually care about the product?''Maybe Buckley should consider this.Led by rookie sensations Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, the Red Sox made the playoffs in 1975 for the first time in eight years. Know what their average attendance was that season for the plucky, exciting Red Sox? 21,857.Or exactly 9,222 fewer people than attended Tuesday night's Sox-Rays game at Tropicana Field. And was anyone suggesting playoff games be moved out of Fenway in 1975? There are reasons to doubt this market, but let's give it more than one winning season before we start suggesting moving playoff games.WORD OF THE DAYAnd today's word, boys and girls, is "awesomeness.'' That's the word Dale Earnhardt Jr. used to describe what winning NASCAR's Chase for the Cup would mean to him."It would improve my overall awesomeness,'' Junior said.Nice word."Yeah. I worked on greatness for a while, but I tapped it out,'' Junior said.INTERVIEW OF THE DAYRepublican presidential candidate John McCain gave a taped interview with ESPN's Bob Ley that ran on Tuesday morning's SportsCenter and it was interesting, informative and entertaining. McCain, in case you didn't know, is a former boxer and had some strong comments about boxing."I still think it is the sport that needs a union,'' McCain said. "Because these are the people with the shortest spans of participation. They need to have retirement benefits, and they need it as badly or worse than any professional sport."McCain also had some decent things to say about mixed martial arts, at least compared with comments in the past when he compared MMA to "human cockfighting.'' About MMA now, McCain said, "They've cleaned it up. It's not my favorite sport, but I think they're in compliance now with most of the things we would approve of."Apparently, McCain hasn't seen much of that CBS version, Elite XC, which is a mess.The other sports connection with McCain is his running mate: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a former sports TV anchor. Ley asked McCain about that and McCain cracked, "You know what that means, since she was a sportscaster? In America, anything is possible. You can come, Bob, from the depths of America to success.''After a laugh, McCain added, "I'm glad I got that shot in."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)