Call Off the Call to Red.
By Jim Conley • Oct 21st, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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I’m still stunned by the announcement yesterday from the Red Sox exhorting fans to wear red in “support of the team.” Suffering Jaysis, as if an $85 face value ticket isn’t enough to show support.
I was even more stunned to see the numbers who complied with the call to collective color. This is Boston for God’s sake - when someone tells you to wear red, you wear green. Just like when someone hands you a towel to wave en masse you see it as a good thing, only because the vendors in the stands don’t give provide a napkin with the purchase of a Fenway Frank.
Nothing can be more unsettling to those who love independence than to see 47,000 Cleveland fans waving towels and chanting on cue. (Yes, Tim McCarver’s battles with lucidity are disturbing, but for a different reason.)
It’s never a good thing when people in mass assembly conform to the group norm of raising their arms and bellowing against the opposition to “show support” for your side. If they’ll do this when a baseball game is at stake, imagine what can happen in matters of more import.
That’s why fans attending tonight’s game are obligated to wear any color but red.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Back when I used to regularly attend sporting events and concerts, fans would applaud, whistle, yell and scream. The style of the 1960s with the start of raising both arms and applauding overhead has continued to this day. Perhaps this was inspired by underarm deodorant companies to sell more product. But the worst factor is the noise factor.
A couple of months ago for my birthday a son treated me to a Red Sox game. The seats were about halfway up the grandstand between home and first. The noise from the speakers and from the fans was constant, pitching higher and higher at times. I did not leave my seat for the entire game as I do enjoy watching the whole game and the whole field, as well as the fan ballet from their seats to the refreshment stands and back.
I assume all the fans had put on deodorant as the only smell seemed to be that of Fenway Park mustard, both fresh and stale. (Do deodorants come in that essence?) But the noise was just awful, as I was unaccustomed to it. When I complained to my son, he pointed to speakers overhead just under the roof. The game, a night game, featured Rhode Island day and possible the whole state was there, families, with young children. I then recalled having read over the years the damage done to young ears attending rock concerts. So perhaps the ear, nose and throat division of the AMA inspired the yelling, screaming, loudspeakers spouting rock and other tunes to inspire the fans. I wonder if the parents provide their children with ear plugs. The complaint of many parents is that their children do not listen to them. Perhaps it’s because they are hard of hearing.
Perhaps, Jim, the fans should wear nothing at all as the wearing of the green is reserved for St. Paddy’s Day, although a few well-placed shamrocks might help.