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Bandwagoning. It is a simple term, simple idea, a hated term, a hated idea. But it happens. And it happens a lot. "Oh boy," I can hear all the Yankees fans thinking, "not again - not another Sox fan about to rant and rave about how people only like the Yankees because they win." Hate to dissapoint you, but no, this is not that kind of rant. Sure the Yankees are more infamous than any other team for its bandwagoning fans, but in case no one told them, the Yankees have not won in five years.
What I'm talking about is two types of bandwagoning that have been bothering me a lot lately.

1. The Red Sox Bandwagoning
2. Anti-Yankee Bandwagoning

First, don't get me wrong, I like my team to have fans and nothing excites me more than seeing someone enjoy the Red Sox, but they don't know what it's really like to suffer. Sure I'm only 18 and haven't suffered like many Red Sox fans, but after Aaron Bleeping Boone I have every right to say I am a true fan. After being born in 1986 and dispising it, I have every right to say I am a true fan.

But these days, everyone is a "true" fan. I have never seen so many brand new Boston hats in my life - and those people wearing them don't even know who Bronson Arroyo is -- pathetic. Being a Red Sox fan is about wearing more than a hat. It's about loving no matter what. It's about knowing that a six run lead is not enough. It's about knowing the Devil Rays could come back in the ninth.

Oh but the curse is over. Hate to break it to everyone -- there was no curse -- just a five lettered word.

We last won the World Series before 2004 in 1918 as every human being knows, but didn't trade Ruth until 1920 -- someone tell me how those 2 years = curse of the Bambino??? If we traded him right after I would understand but NO WE WAITED 2 YEARS! GET OVER IT!!! As Trot Nixon said, "Any time you don a Red Sox uniform, you have to talk about the history of this team and not having a World Series championship since 1918. Sooner or later, that hex had to stop. Everybody thought it was a curse, but to use it was just a five-letter word."

Things go deeper than just baseball, because as Mike Barnicle from the Boston globe said in 1977, “Baseball isn’t a life-and-death matter, but the Red Sox are.”

Wearing a Red Sox cap isn't just for anyone, it means a life of heartache and a life of joy. As they said in Fever Pitch, it is loving under the best and worst conditions, it's a rollercoaster ride. Being a Red Sox fan doesn't make you cool, it doesn't make you right, it wont make me like you. Red Sox hats should be banned from anyone who can not name the starting line up and the record of the team. This World Series was great but now it is disheartening because we have become just like everyone else. I want to see the Boston Spirit back.

Sure, some of these "new guys" may be true fans and may stick with the Red Sox, but why are they Red Sox fans -- you ask them and get these answers:

• "The Red Sox rock man!" -- Ooookayyy, Why not give me something with more substance than this???
• "Well the (misc. team of old fandom) suck and you guys are cool and won the World Series" -- LAME!
• "The Red Sox beat the Yankees!!!" -- Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere - people are liking the Red Sox for the sole reason that they AREN'T THE YANKEES!!!

This brings me to my second complaint, which coincides with the first -- Anti-Yankee bandwagoning.

Just because I'm a Sox fan doesn't mean I hate the Yankees and their fans, because honestly, what fun would baseball be without both teams, do you really think something like Baltimore - Boston is as such an exciting match up??? Real Boston fans don't hate the Yankees - they love them because without them there would be no meaning to being a Red Sox fan. Without the Yankees, Johnny "Caveman" Damon's hair wouldn't be as cool.

All being a Red Sox fan means is that you want the Yankees to lose. Yet, if the Red Sox lose too, the day still isn't good! I'm sick of hearing "Well it's okay we lost because the Yankees lost too." That's absolute crap! If you really care about your team be happy when they win, love them when they are down, love them when they are up, but don't be pleased because it is okay that we lost when the Yankees do -- because it is OK if we lose when the Yankees win too. If it isn't, find another team because IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. And what kind of fan are you who only is OK with the playing when it is only either a win or a loss when the Yankees lost too. Love your team regardless and don't write off losses based on other games. And shut up about the Yankees already because you are becoming worse than their bandwagon fans.

On that note I will leave you with a few memorable quotes over the years to remind you of what Red Sox Nation is all about:

“An almost inexorable baseball law: A Red Sox ship with a single leak will always find a way to sink ... No team is worshipped with such a perverse sense of fatality.” -- Thomas Boswell, How Life Imitates the World Series, 1982

“Boston has two seasons: August and winter.” -- Billy Herman, Red Sox manager, 1965

“The Red Sox are a religion. Every year we re-enact the agony and the temptation in the Garden. Baseball child’s play? Hell, up here in Boston it’s a passion play.” -- George V. Higgins, Time, 1980

As Yankees fans always say, Boston is still down 6 to 26 in the World Series count. Do you really think they want to make it 7 to 26? I don't think so; it is only going to get harder from now on, but at least we have the monkey off our backs.

Finally, when it comes down to it, one more World Series championship, as great a meaning it had and forever will, doesn't change the most important thing and I'm glad it doesn't. Because in the end of the day I have more pride in the fact that we are the Boston Red Sox than in any ALCS or World Series victory. If you have more pride in those victorys in 2004 than in the actual team, I will personally take your Boston hat into my posession and offer to buy you a hat of any other team of your choice.