| Ryan White |
 | 2 Comments |  | 280 Read | Jul 01, 2007 |
Alright so I??ve been in the Boston area for the last three days, and it??s already been interesting to say the least. For example, the first day I was here the Red Sox announced that they were joining marketing forces with NASCAR??s Rousch Racing. If that isn??t brilliant I really don??t know what is. I mean seriously who thought this was a good idea? Did John Henry sit up in his office and go ??oh here??s a plan that just can??t lose?how about I take the most historically racist franchise in all of baseball (Red Sox) and team THAT up with the most racist sporting organization in professional sports (NASCAR)?. What market segment was he trying to reach out to? KKK members that were put off by the God-fearin?? Atlanta Braves? Individuals looking for a reason to wave the ??stars and bars?? at a baseball game? I suppose the sea of white that is the Fenway Park experience (at yesterday??s game of 36,000 people I saw maybe 10 minorities after walking around the ballpark, plus a few workers) fits right in with the NASCAR race day experience ?? well minus the soft core nudity ? for the most part. Honestly do I even have to write my dissertation at this point? I don??t know maybe after speaking with Howard Bryant I had a new outlook on this ownership?ownership that had promised to bring in more minority fans and even a minority owner?ownership that had promised to rid itself of the ??plantation? nickname, and give minorities (particularly African-American??s) a reason to come out to the Fens, yet they team up with NASCAR ?? are you kidding? Anyway why they teamed up with NASCAR needs to be answered, hopefully I??ll get a response in the next few weeks. In the meantime, as Bryant says, they still haven??t changed, and the undercurrent of racism/classism/sexism is still there, the people rooting for the Sox have just learned to hide it, well and/or not so well. Two weeks ago I was in a bar with 3 fans watching the game, one of whom was a minority of perhaps (Middle) Eastern decent, and the other two were white. About ¾ of the way through the game one of the white kids who was talking to me about the dissertation argued that the Sox weren??t racist anymore because they had black people on the team, and that they had so many Latino??s ?? as if this obviously proves that racism doesn??t exist in Boston. This despite the fact that there is no Spanish speaking media member, nor are there many minority beat reporters working for the major Boston papers/television. This despite the fact that not one minority player has left the Red Sox in good standing, while mediocre Trot Nixon is cried over. This despite the fact that Jason Varitek made the Sox pay for him with no hometown discount while nary a word is spoken/written about it in the press. This despite the fact that the same kid who so vehemently argued that racism didn??t exist for the Sox stated, as a matter of fact, that people from India ??have small penises?? while his friend (who may possibly have been Indian or at least, as stated previously, Middle Eastern ?? Asian) had to try to lecture this idiot on the pure stupidity of connecting the amount of darkness your skin has to any physical/mental traits and individual has.
Anyway a few side notes, yesterday I sat at the game and had a nice conversation with the family next to me who was from Connecticut. They get up about 4-5 times a year to watch games and listen to people boo Sammy Sosa and joke ??me no speak English?. Today Sox Appeal, Tommorow Shaughnessy. Between now and then ask yourself ??what??s a dirtdog??
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MLB , Red Sox (MLB), MLB , Braves (MLB) |
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2 Responses to 'July 1st - Red Sox Notes'
Zapsnap says on Sunday, July 1st at 9:00pm
Speaking of Sammy Sosa, Texas had a Sammy Sosa T-shirt day on July 8th. It goes to show that you can be reborn after the steroid scandal. You just have to become irrelevant for a year or so.
Justin says on Sunday, July 1st at 9:00pm
Coming from a Nascar Fan, Fenway-Rousch Racing happened like 6 months ago. It is an extremely savvy move by John Henry. Nascar is the most up and coming sports in America and they now have another place to grow Red Sox Nation.
I think you have a point when looking at it from a minority perspective, but when you look at it from a business perspective it is brilliant.
