A Question For The Bostonites

[101Walterton]

Your team has won the NBA and in recent years has won the World Series baseball and NFL. If you are from Boston do you automatically follow all three teams or do you just stick to the sport you follow. Trying to guage whether it is regional support of whether you just support the franchise of one team ???

[Wolter]

I'm not a Bostonite, but it seems like all those Massholes stick together on teams.

[Dr. Medulla]

It's all part of that Irish mafia thing.

[101Walterton]

Is it the same in other cities ? do you automatically support the local baseball, basketball and football team ?

[Wolter]

Is it the same in other cities ? do you automatically support the local baseball, basketball and football team ?

Not automatically. And in baseball, some cities have more than one team. Like Chicago. And supporting one Chicago team almost always precludes supporting the other.

[eumaas]

not just boston but most of new england supports those teams

[tepista]

If you are from Boston do you ......................

...move to Los Angeles, flaunt your accent and baseballcap, and hope Martin Scorcese casts you in his next movie

[noyield]

Not from Boston, but am a New Englander. I didn't give a crap about the Patriots until Tom Brady took over. I was a fan from then on (so that was early into their first Super Bowl season). I've always liked the Celtics, but never watched more than a couple games a year before this season. This year I watch a bunch of games. The Red Sox... been a fan since probably 2001. I was a Mariners fan, but after Griffey left, I didn't care for them much anymore. So I followed the Sox. And the Bruins... what are they again?

[BostonBeaneater]

I think I can speak to this one a little bit. I love all the teams but I have to admit it comes to season alliances. I am a baseball by summer, hoops by winter guy.

Red Sox Baseball:
Generally speaking, everyone from around here is emotionally tied to the Red Sox. Even if you don't like baseball the Sox are so in your face that you'd have to be self-punishing to not like 'em. I was raised on the team from childhood. My father worked for the Boston Globe and he'd score good seats 3-4 times a summer. It's interesting, he was a fan for sure, but he was still hurt from the Braves leaving. It's been good lately but we used to be like Cubs fans with worse attitude. There was a lore of loserdom. The 1946 loss to the cards, the 1967 loss to the Cards again, the Reds in 1975 defeat, NYY's Bucky Dent homer in 1978, Buckner in 1986, and then another 17 years getting jerked around culminating in the 2003 NYY Boone homer in game #7 of the ALCS. 2004's win was more a relief than anything, like finding out that the cancer won't kill you. The Red Sox are still the sports soul of the town, they've been at it for a century. Winning it all only brought out the bandwagoneers, the seats would be full if they lost game 4 in the 2004 ALCS.

Celtics Basketball:
The Celtics were the most dependable team in town from 1957 until they fell apart between 1986-1993, with Lenny Bias' death, Reggie Lewis' death, and the rapid decline of the Big Three. We learned to deal with the Sox, but the sad fading of the Green put the local sports scene into a deep malaise for a decade. This big win for the C's has, I dare say, been the sweetest win for the city in the new century (with the 2001 Patriots a near tie). Like I said, the Sox own the town, but they brought so much hurt to people around here that them winning is more a relief than anything. Back to the Celtics, they are all about mojo and swagger. Them winning again has given the city a huge emotional boost and, to quote the local TV station, A return to glory. It's been beautiful. Basketball was invented around here (Springfield, MA) and is subtly woven into the culture. Folks might not watch the NBA because of, um, cultural differences they have with most of the top players, but there are basketball hoops on most garages and are also often on the telephone polls too. The Celtic Pride thing, shitty movie aside, is real. The Celtics always delivered and the last 20 years or so they were sick and fading. The win was gigantic for the town. Huge.

The Patriots:
Their modern popularity dates to Bill Parcells coaching tenure of 1993-1997. Prior to that, the Pats were a wirking man's passion, the hardhat set were the only ones into it. They pretty much either sucked or couldn't get over the hump until the late 1990s. Parcells was a nationally known guy and, even though he didn't stick around to reap the rewards of the titles, was the spark that brought the team to national attention. I can't not mention the local ownership of the Kraft family who save the team from moving to LA or St. Louis. Like my dad, Bob Kraft was a Boston Braves fan. He was rich as hell and couldn't bare to see another team fly the coop. Bless him. This family turned a half rate sports club with a history of failure into America's Team, ripping off Dallas in the process. I love the Pats. The 2001 season and Super Bowl win were something else indeed. Wow. America had a lump from the Hajjis of 9-11 and the Pats really captured the angsty guile that I personally associate with all that is good about America. It sounds corny, but it's true. The Pats faced a superior foe and smacked the poo out of their colon, picked it up, and shoved it in the Rams mouth. Oh the glory. Shit, the Adam V. field goal is probably the single greatest life moment of every 23-40 year old males in all of New England. People will go and tell you that their kid being born was the greatest day of their lives. Bullshit. The field goal as time expired to win the first local championship since the 1986 Celtics was fucking top.

Bruins Hockey:
I believe this still exists but have not seen it in years. Very sad, hockey going to Florida.

More here, my new venture...
http://bostonbeaneater.blogspot.com/

[BostonBeaneater]

And, we are Bostonians.

[Flex]

Beaneater just wrote the book in the above posts. I can add that for myself, the Red Sox are the team I'm wrapped up in, but I'd call myself a fan of the other beantown teams. I usually try and at least casually follow each team every season - and I usually end up watching pretty much every Pats game. I guess I'm a bandwagoneer because I don't really get into the Celtics or Bruins unless they're doing (reasonably) well, but I don't switch around my allegiances like some dirty fucking fair weather scumbag.

Side note, my uncle in law's family used to have ownership stakes in the Bruins so I do have a personal family connection for cheering for the black and gold.

In general, us New England types (I'm a transplant several times over) will support all the local teams, even if we only follow a couple of them closely. Which I think is a cool camaraderie you don't see everywhere.

[Rat Patrol]

Well, I'm from Western CT so grew up Yankee fan in their farcial 1980's years. But Sox were also pretty irrelevant save for '86 so only thing I hate about them are the universe-revolves-around-us fans, both in the woe-is-me days and the too-big-for-britches days. Yankee fans at least go to other pursuits in the offseason because there's no shortage of other things to follow in NYC. Lot of Sox fans in CT too...maybe a 50-40-10 Yanks-Sox-Mets split in the hallways at school. Western MA, especially in the Springfield area, tends to align with Connecticut a little more anyway so you also get lots of mixing west of Worcester.

Hate the Bruins with a passion because I was a mega Hartford Whalers fan (RIP...and Ron Francis is the most underrated player in NHL history). Generally don't give a shit about the Pats because I don't like the oblong-type football, but hate the Krafts because of the way they dicked Hartford around for a stadium in the late-90's. And I did have a lot of schadenfreude over 18-1 this year just on general principle for their arrogance, but so did everyone who wasn't a direct fan.

I am a big Celtics fan. For the last 15 or so years of old Boston Garden the Celtics would get out of their shithole facilities there and play about 5 real, bona fide regular season games at the Hartford Civic Center, billed "home away from home" games. Basically a clever marketing ploy to extend the fan base thru Western New England (they had the world's shittiest lease at the old Garden because the Bruins owned the building, so it also was a convenient way to get some much-needed revenue). Hottest ticket in town, and I got to watch a bunch of games at the peak of the Bird era. Most of the team loved playing there because the locker rooms were actually modern non-deathtraps, but Bird himself for some reason thought it was blasphemy they played anywhere else. One of those famous "Holy shit!" plays of his on all the career highlight reels (I think it might've been the behind-the-basket Hail Mary shot) was in Hartford...because they're wearing home jerseys on a non-parquet floor that's clearly not in the Garden.

I watched the whole Celtics parade yesterday from the 6th floor window at work when it went right by. Garnett was holding the trophy and just screaming into the air the whole time...I don't think he's stopped doing that to take a breath since the 4th quarter of that game. Nice bright neon "Kobe is golfing today" sign some fan hung on the fence. I could've done without Glen 'Big Baby' Davis dancing with his shirt off, man-titties swinging for the world to see. Ray Allen has the shiniest shaved head I've ever seen...he must've had it buffed or something, because it was reflecting all the sunlight. And the 'White Boys Can't Jump' boat with Scott Pollard and Brian Scalabrine trying to dance like only doofy whiteys can dance was great unintentional entertainment. Great time...all the players had their kids on the duck boats, loud music. People were running right up to the caravan and shaking Doc Rivers' hands. And every single person walking around town had a green #5 or #34 shirt on...even the Sox parades didn't have quite that many player laundry on-hand. Might not have been as big as the Sox or Pats parades, but somehow seemed a lot more festive and block-party like...and the players were definitely in a more adorably joyous mood. Good day. I was even heartened that the cops piled on some asshole and clubbed the shit out of him right up against the ground-floor restaurant windows of my office building...put a nice bow on it all.

[tepista]

Most notable things about the Pats before the turn of the century: When Zeke Mowatt waived his dick in the lady's face, and the owner sold women's razors.

[Wolter]

Most notable things about the Pats before the turn of the century: When Zeke Mowatt waived his dick in the lady's face, and the owner sold women's razors.

Don't forget being mollywhomped by the '85 Bears.

[Flex]

Most notable things about the Pats before the turn of the century: When Zeke Mowatt waived his dick in the lady's face, and the owner sold women's razors.

Don't forget being mollywhomped by the '85 Bears.

Year I was born. I will never forget that loss