Are The Red Sox Fun?

I'm honestly asking

Maybe it’s this newsletter, maybe it’s just that I’m shut in all the time thanks to the pandemic, maybe it’s something else entirely, but I’m really looking forward to the 2021 Red Sox season. The coming baseball season is always exciting, as the winter turns to spring, the players show up in Florida and I get to watch warm weather and know that, as ballplayers play catch with palm trees swaying in the background, the summer and Red Sox baseball games are coming soon.

But last year was such an interminable slog, so exceptionally unpleasant in almost all aspects, that many Red Sox fans don’t share my anticipation. I get that, sincerely. The stink from the Mookie Betts trade may never fully dissipate, like the time the dog threw up in the way back of the old Volvo wagon and from then on, no matter how much you scrubbed and deep cleaned, there was always a hint of dog barf in the air when you got in. That might just be the case here. It would be sad if so, but those were the decisions made by others. The front office are the ones who fed the dog a bunch of cheese then drove quickly around corners. If it smells, it smells. That’s just a fact.

I was on Twitter yesterday when the topic of whether or not this Red Sox team will be fun came up. My excitement for the baseball season colors my view on this, while the Betts and now Benintendi deals have other fans feeling differently. Knowing my biases, I tried to think about this for a while. What makes a baseball team fun? I came to the conclusion that there are a few things.

Being good is fun. Fun players are frequently good players and good players are frequently fun players. It’s not a one-to-one relationship, but it’s darn close. The 2018 Red Sox were fun for numerous reasons, but ultimately what made them so much fun for me was that they were so damn good. They won all the time. They were a really good team, probably the best I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, which is sadly saying something. That was what made them fun, most of all. “Win, dance, repeat” was fun, but it wouldn’t have been nearly so fun had it been just “dance, repeat.”

The 2004 team was also fun because they won. There were more oddballs on that team, like Manny Ramirez, a young and unstoppable David Ortiz, Trot Nixon, Johnny Damon, and Pedro Martinez. That individuality was fun, but let’s be honest, it wouldn’t have meant nearly as much to us as fans if they hadn’t won. That 2003 team was pretty damn fun too but nobody gives a crap about it because the didn’t win, and ultimately that failure was so un-fun that it spoiled the all the rest. The 2004 team won. Winning is fun. Ergo, the 2004 team was fun.

But it wasn’t all winning. There was also individual play that was fun. Manny and Big Papi hitting back to back was fun. Johnny Damon’s defense was fun (if maybe not as great as I thought at the time). So was Damon’s base running. Stealing is fun, especially when you know the guy is going and there’s nothing the opposing team can do to stop it. Pedro’s pitching was fun because it was so great but also because he was so demonstrative and so engaging, even if that 2004 season was the first one after his peak ended. So it’s not just winning, but it’s how you win, or who you win with that makes a team fun.

The 2013 team is maybe the most fun I can remember having watching a baseball team. Why? The element of surprise, I think, played a big part of it. Getting surprised in a good way is lots of fun. Following the 2012 debacle of a season, the 2013 Red Sox were clearly a completely new breed. The guys we loved from the 2012 team were (mostly) still around, guys we had connections with and loved already, like Dustin Pedroia, Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Jon Lester were all there and all played well. But there were also a bunch of new guys that we collectively fell hard for, like Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli, and Koji Uehara. Those guys brought their own individuality to the team. Ultimately though it was the group that was so much fun, the way they supported one another, played with one another, and just generally enjoyed each other’s company. We saw they were having fun, smiling, hugging, and playing pranks on each other, and that kind of thing draws you in, it’s catching, and it calls on you, the fan, to join in the fun.

Then there was the other aspect of the 2013 season, the Boston Marathon bombings. In the wake of that horrible event, the city came together, and the Red Sox got to be an instrument of that togetherness. Their play helped a wounded city come out again, it gave a grieving city something positive to focus on, something that could bring everyone together. While the event that proceeded it was anything but, that togetherness was fun, that sense of purpose greater than one’s self was fun, and that team gave the city of Boston and all of New England an avenue to heal.

Thinking about that time though, it occurs to me what was missing last year and what will likely be missing for most of the 2021 season as well are the fans. Fans are fun! Fans amplify moments, they raise the energy in the park and around the team. Comedians often say they never really know if a joke is funny until they’ve told it in front of an audience. In a way, baseball is the same. Without fans, it’s just a baseball game. With them, it can be more than that, it can be a connection between the players and the city they play for. Without the fans, things don’t feel right, or maybe more accurately, things don’t feel at all. There’s just a dull thud instead of an eruption after a big home run. This is true not just for being there, but for watching on TV and listening on the radio. Most fans can’t attend every game, but “the fans” at Fenway Park are always there, and that institutional memory exists, and is built over a season, and over careers.

This is not an argument for bringing fans back before it’s safe to do so. Please don’t misunderstand me. Fans are vital, but I don’t want anyone to get sick, so fans should stay home until experts deem it safe to attend a game again. But that doesn’t change the magnitude of their loss. Fans are fun, and without fans, baseball games, Red Sox games, are much less fun.

But getting back to it, this is where the 2021 Red Sox maybe fall a bit short, where I can see the perception that this isn’t a fun team most clearly. They do have some players we know and love, like Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and Christian Vazquez, but it’s not a huge list. Many of the guys who were thought to be long-term Red Sox, faces of the franchise, are gone, replaced by other guys who we might know a bit, but not nearly as well as the guys they’re replacing. That relationship takes time to build, and with nobody there to watch, well, it’s damn near impossible to create it in the abstract.

That all said, I do think there are some fun players who can start to help repair that relationship. Alex Verdugo is one guy whose style is akin to Pedroia’s, and there’s nothing Red Sox fans love more than a guy laying it all on the line. Franchy Cordero came over in the Benintendi deal and could develop that kind of relationship with the fans as well if he can ever stay healthy. Enrique Hernandez is like Brock Holt in more ways than just the number of positions he plays, he’s also energetic and enthusiastic and, dare I say it, fun.

I do think this 2021 Red Sox team could be fun to watch. They have some talent, they have some very good players, they have some guys who have individuality. And, maybe most importantly, I think they can win some games. They likely won’t challenge for a World Series title (then again, nobody thought the 2013 team would either), but they do have talent and skill and, I think, the ability to surprise some folks.

If they do win, if they have health and a bit of luck on their side, this could be a fun team to watch. It’s going to be different though, because of COVID-19, and that relationship between the fans and the team is just not going to be able to be the same. It’s just impossible. So, no, this won’t be the same, it can’t be for lots of reasons. And so, despite all the optimism above, this will be a tough sell. Following last season, following the Betts deal, with the pandemic, this might even be an impossible sell. This team might be damned from the beginning. Or they could somehow overcome it all and bring us some joy this summer. I don’t know. I’m trying to keep an open mind.