BostoniansNotRedSoxOrBaseballFans

There ain’t no ‘we’ in Chokeville

2011-10-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

I am no fan of Howie Carr, but I couldn't have said it better..... he however should have mentioned that this "we" business is also laughable because it implies, I guess, that the fans are also on the teams and play themselves? (don't think so!)

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1369887

There ain’t no ‘we’ in Chokeville

By Howie Carr
Friday, September 30, 2011 - Updated 5 days ago
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What a shocker. I mean, WE were doing so great until Sept. 3. And then THEY had a worse September than Rick Perry.

There is no joy in Shillville.

Worst choke in baseball history, even worse than the Braves this year, the Braves who used to play in Boston, which as someone said yesterday proves that you can take the Braves out of Boston, but you can’t take the Boston out of the Braves.

Everyone chant together, “We’re number three! We’re number three!”

I guess the cream of the Boston sporting press is going to have to find some new rear ends to kiss. “Beanpot Fever Grips Hub!” Prepare for three months of enthralling sports talk.

Host No. 1: “I love Tom Brady [stats].”

Host No. 2: “I love Tom Brady more than you do — I got a lock of his hair when he went to the barbershop!”

Host No. 1: “I got two locks of his hair!”

Host No. 2: “Rah-rah-”

Host No. 1: “Sis-boom-bah.”

But don’t worry. By February, WE’ll have the best team in baseball again. Every jock-sniffer in the city will agree, just like they do every year. Just like the Patriots[team stats] are a dynasty, even though the last time THEY won a Super Bowl was the year George Bush was re-elected.

The clue on the Red Sox [team stats] should have been that the Yankees always have players with nicknames such as “Mr. October.” The Red Sox are full of “Mr. Mays,” and I don’t mean Willie.

You know how much fun it is to go to Fenway when WE’re winning. But it’s horrible to pay $30 to park when THEY start losing. WE were so smart to get Carl Crawford last winter, but now it looks like THEY wasted $142 million.

It was like a morgue in some hotbeds of Red Sox worship yesterday. I know, I’m writing this column from a place where seldom — make that never — is heard a discouraging word about THEM. I would have taken some of the mourners out to lunch, but I was afraid they’d make like their heroes and ... choke.

Now the pom-poms are put away. The fatties are looking for their 3-XL Tom Brady No. 12 sweatshirts. Honestly, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh at these guys living in their moms’ basements, calling the shows at midnight, their voices cracking, demanding that baseball add more wild-card teams so the Red Sox could get in. ...

One sweatshirt you won’t see much of for the next few months — No. 58. That belongs to baseball’s best reliever (according to the Red Sox hagiographers), Jonathan Papelboneinhisthroat.

To everyone in Shillville, I leave you with one thought. WE didn’t lose, THEY did.

Brian McGrory - These Sox not good fit

2011-09-29T07:19:00.001-07:00

McGrory nails it here.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-09-28/news/30213662_1_red-sox-daniel-bard-dustin-pedroia

These Sox not good fit

September 28, 2011|By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist
So I found myself standing on the upper deck of the Tobin Bridge Monday night, the lights not yet dim at Camden Yards after another Red Sox loss to the vaunted Baltimore Orioles, when the oddest question started slipping through my mind.

Am I really that upset?

The rest of the world thinks I should be. Talk radio explodes with callers cursing the gods of baseball for doing this to Boston all over again. The New York Times, owned by my corporate master, is giddily describing Boston’s “hard-luck loser legacy,’’ and I hope they’re not referring to the Globe. Even The Wall Street Journal said that all of Boston is, and I quote, “freaking.’’

There’s just one small problem with all this: I’m not cursing, I’m not “freaking,’’ and I don’t much feel like a loser because this collection of overpaid underachievers hasn’t exactly gotten the job done at Fenway Park. In some ways, in many ways, the epic September collapse is exactly what we needed to realize just how far the Red Sox have gone astray.
Let me put it another way: If you’re whining, moaning, wailing, or crying, get yourself a grip. This store-bought team never reflected Boston. It never paid homage to what the city and the Red Sox have traditionally been. This team, in short, never had a story and never had a narrative arc. If it did, it would read as follows: We should win more games because we spent more money.

That’s not Boston. It’s not who or what we are. New Englanders, by nature, are a thrifty lot, that thriftiness being the byproduct of our Pilgrim heritage or our Irish angst, or maybe both. We don’t like waste. We generally avoid glitz. Rather, we revel in overcoming obstacles, quieting doubters, achieving goals that many people, even ourselves, might have considered out of reach. It’s why this collapse has been far more fascinating than frustrating.

Think about it. We live in a perfectly miserable climate four months of the year, but that weather gives us a greater appreciation for what summer and autumn bring. We toiled in the fields of baseball futility for 86 years hoping the Red Sox would win, and when they finally did, in 2004, it felt all the sweeter for the wait.

But the Red Sox of 2011 is basically a suit that never fit. Beacon Hill doesn’t waste as much money as this team, what with J.D. Drew ($14 million a year), John Lackey ($17 million), Carl Crawford ($20 million), and Daisuke Matsuzaka ($8.7 million plus a $51 million posting fee), and that doesn’t even include the oldies but goodies like Edgar Renteria, Julio Lugo, and Mike Cameron.

Not to press the point, but three basically inconsequential players - Drew, Lackey, and Crawford - make more per year than the entire roster for the Tampa Bay Rays.

What’s frustrating is this team had, in fact, a natural, charismatic core of homegrown talent, between Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, and Daniel Bard, as well as David Ortiz, plucked off the bargain table years ago and now as Boston as the Pru.

But the insatiable appetite for more, bigger, better, ruined it all this year. In our blind zeal for success, we created a monster of a team without any deep or broad appeal, as one blogger noted, “the worst team money can buy.’’

If the players had any adversity to overcome, it was how the imported superstars would manage all that undeserved money in a volatile stock market. Maybe that’s what’s distracted them this month.

The reality is, anything can still happen in these final hours of the regular season, and maybe this self-inflicted crisis is exactly what the players need to rise from the depths and create a memorable October. God knows, they have the talent.

But barring that, these Red Sox, unintentionally and inadvertently, did their fan base an invaluable favor. They reminded us who we are by showing us what we’re not.

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.

Take a tip from LeBron - it's not the real world!

2011-09-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

I'm happy, because every year, I hope that crazed, rabid, identity-lacking Boston fans will develop other interests and find more productive ways to spend all that time, energy and money. Mentor an urban youth. Help clean up parks. Stop spectating and eating carcinogenic hot dogs and sausages and clean up their own acts. Read the REST of the newspaper.

I'm happy, and last night was so unbelievable that I now know the entertainment value of this sport - but I would never gloat. (However, Red Sox fans would if the situation were reversed.)

Why am I happy? Because I hope, every year, that teachers, nurses and first responders might get paid some of those millions instead of primadonna players and managers who jump ship in a minute for more dough to rival teams. They don't care - why do fans so much?
As LeBron James recently said, it is only entertainment and a DISTRACTION FROM THE REAL WORLD and certainly not worth all the emotional investment.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2011/06/18/lebron_jamess_message_to_fans/

So why do Boston fans base their lives on a sport? The environment and economy are crumbling around us. China and India will overtake us in education (already do) and technology. Health care and Americans' health is going down in the unsustainable dumps (hot dogs and sausages, anybody?). There are so many pressing, devastating problems that could be addressed -and we can all make a big difference - but instead, Bostonians never grow up, dress head-to-toe in Red Sox uniforms, pay for the license plates, take on a stupid swagger and aggressive tone of voice when talking about some teams that are bought and imported and not even Bostonians. It's pathetic, and so sad.

Grow up. Take responsibility for your city and your planet. Watch sports for the entertainment value, if you must, but stop identifying with it. You are all better than that.

http://bostoniansnotredsoxorbaseballfans.blogspot.com/

LeBron James’s message to fans

2011-06-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

Another great letter. News to fans in Boston: it isn't the "real world!"

Take it for what it is: entertainment, and a distraction from, as James put it, the “real world.’’

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2011/06/18/lebron_jamess_message_to_fans/

I’M A former Clevelander, and I would agree with Gary Washburn that LeBron James needs a good public relations consultant. But I had a very different interpretation of the quote for which Washburn criticized James (“An expensive distaste for James,’’ Sports, June 14). It sounded less like James was flaunting his wealth and success and more like he was pointing out that basketball is just a game and that whether he wins or loses won’t change anyone’s life. In other words, James was saying that fans need to get some perspective.

I agree with him. When my friends from Cleveland were bemoaning the fact that he left town for Miami, I told them to get a life. Fan is short for fanatic, and unfortunately fans get too caught up with sports teams and way too emotional about what happens to their hometown club.

Take it for what it is: entertainment, and a distraction from, as James put it, the “real world.’’

Elliott Negin, Washington

Tip o' the White Sox cap to the woman in my building!

2011-06-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today, I ran into a woman who lives in my building and always wears a White Sox cap. We said to her, "We always remember who you are because of the cap." I was quick to add that I like the White Sox; in fact I like any team that isn't the Red Sox. She heartily agreed. I said, "I used to be a huge sports fan when I was a kid, but Boston fans ruined it for me."

She said I was so right, that Boston fans are animals. Hats off to her!

Money buys wins, not heart

2011-06-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Great column in Sunday's Globe!

"We've been monetized.....The Red Sox have become the Yankees. And we have become Yankee fans.....

Without a salary cap in place, baseball has become a game in which the rich get richer, and the uneven playing field tilts another degree or two with each passing year."

And he doesn't even touch upon the shameful, steroid usage scandals behind the 2004 and 2007 "wins"!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/06/26/money_buys_wins_not_heart/

ONCE UPON a time, there were Red Sox fans — our parents and grandparents.

Our forebears were the fans of a long-suffering franchise with just a handful of things to boast of: a lovely old ballpark, a fascinating cast of characters, and a rich tradition built around 86 years of heartbreak.

Our parents and grandparents had Fenway Park. They had Yawkey and Cronin, Ted and Yaz, Pudge and Piersall, Boggs and Clemens. They had Slaughter’s Dash, the Impossible Dream, Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, the Phantom Tag, and Aaron Boone.

They also had a rival — someone to measure themselves against, a “them’’ for our “us.’’ While our Red Sox were always one player short, one strike away, the New York Yankees won championship after championship. They always spent the money; they always had the players. We envied them, we hated them, we turned up our noses at them: the gauche buying of players, the shameful ease of cheering for prohibitive favorites. Their championships were triumphs not of virtue or even luck, but rather the dividends of a well-managed corporation. Yankee fans didn’t know what it was to love, to lose, to suffer. They had no souls.

For eight decades, that’s what it was to be a Red Sox fan. Blame it on John Calvin, but that storyline resonated for New Englanders. It made sense to us, and we embraced it even as we prayed that it might change.

And then it did! The Red Sox broke the so-called Curse, turned the tables on the Yankees, and won their first title in 86 years. Then they won another one!

And although we realized at the time this changed everything, that this would transform what it means to be a Red Sox fan, only now is the long-term impact becoming clear:

The Red Sox have become the Yankees. And we have become Yankee fans.

But let’s not blame the 2004 Red Sox. Winning that championship only confirmed a long-running trend. Over the past 20 years, first the Yawkey Trust and now John Henry’s ownership group figured out how to leverage our enormous passion for this team. We’ve been monetized. As a result, Fenway Park became the most expensive venue in Major League Baseball, with that revenue going to support one of the highest payrolls in the game.

It’s not just a question of making more and spending more. The Red Sox joined the Yankees as the bullies in the playground. They, and the other big-market teams, not only accumulated the resources to dominate the free-agent market and strip the poorer teams of their stars; they discovered that the free-agent draft, supposedly the great equalizer, could be rigged by offering higher bonuses to supposedly “unsignable’’ stars headed off to college. Without a salary cap in place, baseball has become a game in which the rich get richer, and the uneven playing field tilts another degree or two with each passing year.

Like the Yankees, the Red Sox don’t win championships so much as buy them. Like Yankee fans, we dig deep to support our team — and in return, we expect something. Our parents and grandparents expected only to have their hearts broken. We expect to win.

Well, we got what we paid for. But by adopting the Yankees’ methods, we gave away our souls. And we will never recapture them as long as revenue streams are more important than good scouting, hard work, and fair play.

This newfound kinship with our former rivals became clear to me earlier this season, as I sat in the grandstand and listened to the so-called Fenway Faithful booing Carl Crawford. The team’s new left fielder was three weeks into a seven-year, $142 million contract, and he’d had the misfortune to get off to a slow start. Nobody was more upset about this than Crawford — a terrific athlete, a hard worker, a standup guy — but the crowd was pitiless.

And what else could we expect? A family of four sitting in the Monster seats could easily drop $800 taking in a ballgame. We expect bang for our bucks.

On that October night in 2003 when Aaron Boone homered off Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox trudged off the field for the 85th consecutive year, many New Englanders must have wondered: what it would be like to win these games? To beat the Yankees? To win the World Series?

A year later, we knew the answer. Eight years later, we see the price that we have paid.

Was it worth paying?

Go ask your parents.

Michael Rutstein is publisher of Boston Baseball

My letter in June 11's Boston Herald

2011-06-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/letters/view/20110613hub_misconduct/

Here's my letter in today's Herald. But they left out the first part, so here it is in its entirety:

50's segregation alive alive and well in North Station

I could not believe what I was reading in "Bar Wars!" (June 8, p. 5)
about Hurricane O'Reilly's barring of Canucks fans. Decrepit schools,
high unemployment, corruption at the top in politics, lethal weather
disasters and other pressing concerns facing our city and state aside,
such fanaticm over sports exists in Boston that here we have a barroom
that brings us right back to Jim Crow South.
Is Boston a Third World country where people cannot enjoy a drink? Is
this Syria, Lebanon, the Sudan, Northern Ireland not so long ago, or
other bastions of secterian violence? Are we Shiites versus Sunnis, or
North Americans (which includes Canadians) patronizing establisments
along Causeway Street?
Is the ignorance of the bar owners or the hooliganism of hockey fans
to blame? Isn't it time to re-examine our uber-obsession with sports
in this city when Bruins fans are squirting mustard at C's fans inside
the Garden (another local daily also reports that an Indian-Canadian
woman was repeatedly called a "terrorist" there)?
You can only blame drunken, rowdy, uncivilized elements so far, when
they must be able to somewhat still afford ticket prices in the
thousands. But now we must also blame the greedy owners of
concessions and teams for fermenting every last profitable drop out of
these minions, so cultishly brainwashed that they now lose the
distinction between simple fanhood and brutal, racist and potentially
disastrous behavior.
How does this make our great city of Boston look to the rest of the
country, if not the world?
SUSIE DAVIDSON
Brookline

OH YEAH

2009-10-11T13:38:00.001-07:00

Hubris and swagger are gone today in Boston. Fans now need to get lives and find something more worthwhile to spend all their money, time and emotional energy on. Will they? Will they find something to do that actually helps make the world a better place? Find role models who are actual role models, not steroid taking wife beaters (many, not all of course)????? Who jump ship at a moment's notice for other teams if they can make more money? Will social workers, pediatric nurses and first responders start getting paid more and egotistic, primadonna athletes less?This all remains to be seen but in the meantime, I'm getting together with like-minded friends to celebrate! Then we are getting back to our causes and lives.

Some newer published letters

2008-08-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some newer published letters.

Thanks all!

Susie

Brookline Tab, Oct. 31, 2007:

Seceding from Red Sox Nation
With all due respect to Roberta D. Miller [“How about those Sox?” Oct. 25], I don’t feel that perseverance, hard work, commitment or being “true champions” brought about the Red Sox’ win, as much as their unfairly high payroll advantage. The numbers don’t lie and while a three-times higher payroll does not guarantee success, and didn’t for the Yankees, it certainly represents a formidable head start.
Allow me to thusly state some grievances felt by my non-Red Sox Nation friends and I:
We liked the ’67 Sox, but are disgusted with what the game, like the music industry (barring the Pearl Jams and Radioheads) has devolved to. We abhor the worship of Big Money and idols. We’re sick of reading and hearing about these managers and players like they created the Heavens and the Earth (we laugh at “player loyalty” when these idols quickly jump ship for more millions to “rival” teams).
We understand that the team with the best players money can buy is usually the one that wins — ably demonstrated by the $143 million Red Sox vs. the $54 million Colorado payroll.
We believe that the environment, health care, education, global genocide and so many other problems could really benefit from the time, energy and money expended by these fans who likely haven’t played the game themselves in decades. The nationwide image is of them swearing drunkenly about the Yankees in front of kids, littering, decked out with $900 worth of Red Sox clothing, $700 tickets and $10 junky sausages, their cars parked at $50 lots.
We deplore that children are growing up believing that only Number One matters, and Two or Three are shameful. This is highly destructive to their future self-esteem and character development.
We feel that teachers, social workers, pediatric nurses, community organizers and first responders should get the millions. We love being in other states where there is not a Red Sox cap to be seen.
Who beats who means nothing in the grand scheme of things, and this massive time, energy, idol-worship and monetary expenditure does not contribute an iota to the fragile and increasingly finite world we live in.
Susie Davidson

Brookline Tab, July 10, 2008 -

Where are our priorities?

With regard to Roberta Miller’s admonition that Boston is quite a city because of the three teams she cites, I would respond that obviously, the nonchampionship Bruins mean little (and as I recall, it wasn’t too long ago that they had to reduce seats to $10 for Celtics games to get anyone to go), and thus once again, only winning matters.

Leaving aside the question of what kind of message that is to instill in children in this sports-obsessed city, I would like to throw out that the day after the parade, 20 people would have been a large turnout at Olympic sponsor Boston Volkswagen for a worldwide Darfur protest. Entertainment? I guess. But in moderation. Not so Boston, where spectator sports is the bane of existence for too many. Our priorities are skewed, and while Bostonians continue to idol-worship these teams to the point where it has replaced religion, the world’s ever-escalating problems are far worse off for all that time and funding that go elsewhere.

Susie Davidson

Brookline

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/letters/view/2008_06_19_The_real_score/

By Frank Levine
Thursday, June 19, 2008 -

As I hear the inevitable shrieking and the screeching of tires outside, I can’t help but recall that it was not long ago when the Celtics [team stats] were selling $10 tickets. I guess everybody loves a winner, and I guess only a winner, but is this only-winning-counts a good message for our children? These fans may worship the Celtics now, but they’re also fair weather.

To me, they are teenagers their whole lives, and I’m glad I’m not bitten by this bug. I have more important things to do, and more interesting hobbies than spending half my life and money as a spectator. I have no hope that all these hordes will read the rest of the newspaper, work to save the environment or even praise those who guard our safety or who work to improve education and health care.

With the way our priorities are going, we’ll all be losers.

- Frank Levine, Malden

Friday, July 4, 2008

Let me get this straight. My environmental group is having trouble recruiting volunteers to help nonprofits green their operations, and the American Jewish World Service, Dream for Darfur and the Save Darfur Coalition would have been happy to get 30 people at the nationwide protest against Olympic corporate sponsors on the Darfur crisis at Boston Volkswagen on June 20 (the day after the Celtics parade). But Red Sox fans are in an uproar over the color of fans' hats (if I may be the Emporer With no Clothes observer, I think those caps look dumb on anyone who is not wearing them for health reasons, no matter what color they are.)
And you grant valuable Letters page space to Mark Pogorzelski's July 3 inane, rambling rant about the roots of his fandom, the numbers he inscribes on his car with which he tests others' devotion over (a bumper sticker that says "Get a Life" comes to mind as a better option), with a teenager-level comment about 50-year-old fat guys in Red Sox T-shirts (I guess Pogorzelski doesn't grasp that most sports fans are idle spectators).
"Names" (and too-occasional front-page) celebrity and sports idol-worship are insufferable enough, but now you grant precious space to disputes over hat colors, not knowing intricate statistics, and ageism and body shapes.
Will it take anything short of a crushing energy, environmental and humanitarian crisis for these bozos to realize life is not overwhelmingly about juvenile entertainment and idol worship?
Susie Davidson

Boston Globe Magazine, Aug. 10, 2008

SOX FATIGUE
I can appreciate the fact that Bostonians have no real identity outside of their connection with the Red Sox. It's bad enough that you can't go anywhere in the region without having to listen to or watch the game whenever it's on.
But as shocking as it may seem, there are lots of people here who couldn't care less about the Red Sox. So, please, enough is enough: No more cloying stories about supposedly precious children blurting out insipid things like "Go Sox" or "Youk!" Every week in "Tales From the City," you print at least one story about some child who says something cute about the Sox or some player. No more! There have to be other things going on in this city that have nothing to do with baseball.
RICHARD SMITH
Acton

Why do we need a Bostonians Who are Not Red Sox or Baseball Fans Blog?

2007-10-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

Why this blog?

Because some of us need support, too.
We abhor the worship of Big Money and idols that sports has become. We understand that quite simply, the team with the best players money can buy is usually the one that wins. We liked the '67 Sox, but are disgusted with what the game, like a lot of the music industry, has devolved into.
We believe that the environment, health care, education, global genocide and so many other problems could really benefit from the time and energy (and money!) expended by these buffoons who haven't actually played the game themselves in decades, decked out in $900 worth of Red Sox clothing, armed with $700 tickets and $10 junky hot dogs, with their cars parked at $50 lots.
We laugh at "player loyalty" when their idols jump ship for more millions in a flash, even to "rival" teams.
We are sick to death of reading and hearing about these managers and players like they created the Heavens and the Earth.
We feel that teachers, social workers, pediatric nurses, community organizers and first responders should be the ones being paid millions.
We actually become Yankees fans by default, even though we never pay attention to their own games. We love being in New York and other states where there is not a Red Sox cap to be seen.
Shall I go on? Please post and join in! Send this blog to other sites like Boston.com!

Following is a saga of two letters on this topic I had published last year in the Globe and the Herald.

Here is my letter published August 23, 2006 in the Globe, following the delicious 5-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees last summer:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2006/08/23/greetings_from_a_joyless_mudville/

Maybe now that the lowest of the low has occurred for Red Sox fans, they might think long and hard about their obsessive devotion to the team and the game.

For years, I've bemoaned the fact that probably 90 percent of the people in Boston live and die for the Red Sox and worship their players and management like icons, while teachers, human services staff, health care providers, social workers and other admirable contributors to society barely make a living wage. I've decried the vast amounts of energy and time that go into watching, talking and reading about the Red Sox when there are so many, many critical problems facing our planet and its people, locally and globally.

But if their most sacred and beloved idols Pedro and Johnny jumping ship for more dough at a moment's notice didn't affect Red Sox Nation, when a spiralling cost of $300 and up for family tickets didn't affect Red Sox Nation, then I don't hold out much hope that these lofty aims will.

Instead, they'll ignore the fact that the team with the best players money can buy is the one that wins, they'll condemn anything that is less than a championship finish, and they'll begin waiting for next year.

SUSIE DAVIDSON

Brookline

Here is another letter of mine that was published in the Jan. 24 Herald. (I knew it was published when Jeremy of WZLX called me to be on the air - but my boyfriend, perhaps the only guy from the Northwest section of Boston who is not a sports fan, forbade me to do it, saying they would rip me apart - anyway, the show was on too early in the morning for me.)

http://news.bostonherald.com/letters/view.bg?articleid=178799

Winning by losing

By Susie DavidsonLetter

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

I’m sure I’m one of few Bostonians happy over the results of the Patriots [team stats]-Colts game (Jan. 22). I’m happy there was no post-victory rioting or needless deaths, and I’m happy that a haughty coach and legions of hubris-driven, swaggering fans have been humbled. Mostly, I’m glad to know that there will be free time available to these obsessed minions that will hopefully be used toward a more conscientious purpose in our world than sports obsession. Maybe they’ll even have time to check out the true heroes - health care and human services workers, teachers and the like - and worship them instead of billionaire, profit-driven megalomanagers and men who happen to know how to toss pigskin around.

- Susie Davidson, Brookline

Here is a response to my letter that was published in the Herald: http://news.bostonherald.com/letters/view.bg?articleid=179704

Pats’ Nation mourns

By Peter Robb

Letters Monday, January 29, 2007

Alan Lupo’s column really spoke to the disappointment in Patriots [team stats] Nation and helped put the game in perspective (“Be not grieving over the gridiron,” Jan. 24). Meanwhile an angry writer from Brookline misses the point. She pronounces that you cannot simultaneously cheer the home team and appreciate everyday heroes like teachers, firefighters, the police and nurses. That’s utter nonsense and reflects her worldview, if not her sense of superiority. We love our Patriots and we love our police, firefighters, nurses, teachers and soldiers. I invite her to attend the Patriots training camp in August. It’s fun and inspiring. Peter Robb, Holliston

Response sent Jan. 29: letterstotheeditor@bostonherald.com

My response to Mr. Robb:

With regard to Peter Robb's letter of Jan. 29, I never meant to imply that those who obsess about the Patriots and sports teams cannot or do not also appreciate teachers, first responders, health care and human services workers and their worthy ilk. My point was that these people barely make a living wage, while sports figures across the board rake in obscene salaries and are idolized to an incomparably greater extent (I have not heard about any cheering throngs in front of pediatric wards of late). It is not a "sense of superiority" but rather a concern for equality for these valuable workers in our society that is the motivation on my part. I never said that I was in their league, no pun intended, so I don't see how I can be labeled as feeling superior. Superiority, to me, is reflected in believing that only first-place finishes matter, predicting that "our" team will crush its opponents into ruin, pronouncing and creating attire stating that competing teams (that familiar four-letter word), and in other such braggadocio-flavored attitudes. Furthermore, I was not angry - I said repeatedly in my letter that I was very happy with the results. And sorry, but I can think of thousands of more worthwhile things to do with my time than attending a sports training camp. Susie Davidson, Brookline

Comments of a friend of mine which were sent to the Herald:

From: richard.kohn@verizon.net

Me thinks the letter writer doth protest too much. How many parades has Mr. Robb attended for the teachers etc. and what stadium with what overdone amenities has been errected for the firefighters etc he claims equal allegiance to??? And why should playing a game like baseball, football, etc., no matter how well played, be valued the same as someone risking their lives to save others, let alone more valued. I do think that the writer has a point about training camp as inspiration. It inspires a bunch of kids to think education is unimportant because they might be able to earn millions playing sports. Oh yeh, inspiration to take steroids as well. A regular family event that training camp. Meanwhile: a Google search showed that this guy Peter Robb constantly writes letters and is himself an angry, right-wing crank. Figures! Here are a few of his gems:

http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/vq/vqspring04/letters.html Office Politics
I was troubled to read in your winter issue that President Fogel surrendered his office in Waterman to Dr. Dean and Dan Rather. Does this mean UVM is leaning leftwards to back the Dean campaign? Can Mrs. Clinton and Rev. Sharpton be far behind?If so, this gives a whole new meaning to “liberal” education.
Peter Robb ’82Holliston, Massachusetts

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2006/09/10/letters/ Your interview with Maria Elena Letona ("First Person," August 20) highlights how big the problem of illegal immigration is. We have lost control of our borders, and the costs to our schools, hospitals, etc. are mounting. Studies show that supposed cheap foreign labor actually costs us tens of millions of dollars every year when you figure in services given out.
PETER ROBB
Holliston

http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=165485
Graham welcome
By Peter Robb/ LettersFriday, November 3, 2006 Thank you, thank you for running the recent columns by Michael Graham in your paper (“Who’s the real flunky?” Nov. 1). He is whip-smart, funny and very engaging. His radio program is a must listen every day.
Peter Robb, Holliston

My friend Robyn Su found more letters from this nut:
http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=175226

Together, they canI am shocked, shocked to learn that Gov.-elect Patrick’s inaugural has been funded by “huge corporations and labor groups.” Iguess he really means all-inclusive (“Big Biz, labor fund party for Patrick,” Dec. 30). I’m afraid I will miss Deval’s coronation, I mean inauguration, with its huge TV screens set up on the Common and “platinum” guests cheering. Hold on citizens, we are in for some rough sledding. Makes me sentimental for the Romney years.
Peter Robb, Holliston

http://www.uvm.edu/vtquarterly/vqsummer04/letters.html

Thumb down, thumb upThe very issue you publish my letter suggesting that UVM is leaning toward the left, your primary story is about two student volunteers for Dean. What irony! Does this reflect your bias or are the majority of students Democrats? (Bill O’Reilly noted a study that showed over 90% of college professors vote Democrat. Hmmmm.)I was pleasantly surprised by the letter you published from Cpt. Lydia Battey, ’99 who is stationed over in Mosul, Iraq. We need more stories like this, frankly. But you left out her email address so that friends and alums can write her our thanks and support. Can you do that for all alums stationed overseas? Now that’s a real service you can provide.
Peter Robb ’82
Holliston, Massachusetts

This is a submission for an opinion piece or article.

741 words: Why I am happy about the Patriots loss
Susie Davidson
I received many emails and phone calls following the recent appearance of my letter in the Boston Herald applauding the Patriots’ recent loss to the Colts. (These included an invitation to appear on a major shock-jock show, the benefits of which I am still pondering.) Many were surprisingly supportive. Yes, I’ve hired a bodyguard.
I'm not against sports per se. I'm against the skyrocketing prices of tickets, parking, food and memorabilia, the obscene player salaries, and the misplaced idol worship among fans who expend untold time and energy on sports when there are innumerable, critical challenges facing the human race, both locally and globally. In these historically volatile times, I invariably see people only reading the sports page and nothing else.
No longer simple family entertainment or healthy outlet, sports has devolved into an obsession. And an unaffordable one. An article in the same day’s Herald decried new Boston College ticket and parking policies that literally price people out of attendance. Fans must now “donate” $5000 for preferred parking, and longtime season ticket holders, $1000 more per seat. Apparently, B.C.’s collaboration with Fenway Sports Group, formed by Red Sox executives, costs fans $894 per game.
There are myriad other ways to contribute to the economy that would actually make a difference to our world. $7 hot dogs only feed the profits of the stadium owner. But many fans will willingly cough up $3000 for a ticket, while they won't see a doctor or go back to school because of the costs.
Amid audible commercials, ESPN.com reports that Manny Ramirez makes $18,279,238. Curt Schilling? $13,000,000. J.D. Drew, $11,400.000. The team total: $120,100,524. Despite an NFL salary cap, FOX Sports lists Tom Brady’s salary as $15,654,180, Matt Light’s, $7,503,740, and Mike Vrabel’s, $6,850,660. Pediatric nurses, social workers, hospice staff, family farmers, teachers, first responders, soldiers - these are the people who should be making that type of money. Instead, Americans are starstruck, and idol worship of fat-cat, surly managers and uncooperative players is the unfortunate norm.
What about talent, you might ask. Shouldn’t it be rewarded? Unfortunately, talent is relative in this country, with the particular gifts of great writers and artists requiring too much study and reflection for most Americans. If people think they can't help the world anyway, you may posit, then why bother? Because any contribution is worthwhile.
Many widespread movements began with one idea - the PanMass Challenge, City Year, the many walks for hunger and diseases. Doesn’t this go on in most other arenas, such as music? Yes, the music industry has become a corporation as well. But its adherents are still somewhat specialized, whereas, sports has more power to engulf the average Joe, cutting across the entire age and social spectrum.
Don’t owners, managers and players contribute large sums to charitable efforts? Those who make the most money should give the most. It's an economic principle, or it should be. And it’s still disproportionate. Aren’t sports a panacea for current obesity concerns? Check out your nearest couch potato. Enough said. And while it’s vital that kids get exercise, when a middle-class family can't afford to take their kids to sporting events, something is wrong with the equation.
Isn’t the situation the same all over? Maybe the fans in other cities are just as bad, but I live here, so I don't want to hear the moronic rioting from my Brookline balcony, or be surrounded by the mass neurosis. Also, CNN reports that the Red Sox have the title of the most expensive average ticket price in Major League Baseball. The Patriots likewise command the highest ticket prices in the NFL, and while they are merely “up there” for salaries at 15th out of 32, NFL.com says that 2007 may well be an uncapped year.
As a journalist and author, I’ve long tried to promote what I believe to be worthy. I wrote two books on the Holocaust and genocide awareness, and have penned numerous articles on environmental and social concerns. I’ve demonstrated, organized and committee-d. I have little hope that substituting diehard sports addiction and idol worship with far-reaching good works will fly, let alone do much to assuage dejected Patriots fans. For legions in Boston and elsewhere, nothing short of championship status will accomplish that. But if there is a shred of hope for change, as the late folksinger Phil Ochs said, “If I’ve got something to say, Sir, I’m gonna say it now.”

Susie Davidson, a published poet and author of “I Refused To Die: Stories of Local Holocaust Survivors and Soldiers who Liberated the Concentration Camps of World War II” and “Jewish Life in Germany Today,” has written extensively for several Boston weeklies and other local media.

SUSIE DAVIDSON
Brookline