In Defense of the "Pink Hats"
It has become fashionable to bash the "Pink Hats", whom I will define as the "bandwagon class" of Red Sox Nation.
According to Kate Jackson "Next to Yankees caps and Giants jerseys, the pink Red Sox cap has become the most polarizing piece of clothing a Bostonian can wear." She argues that the pink hat generation simply hasn't suffered enough.
That reasoning pervades many arenas. Old time physicians who took call every second or third evening and who worked 100 hour weeks in training argue that younger trainees don't pay the dues that they did. Some military veterans argue that the armed forces have watered down recruit training (boot camp) to accommodate the younger generation. Even my children lament the reading, long hours, and tests challenging them in college? Who knew? I don't remember studying hard or taking tests in college?
Maybe people have forgotten the old saying "Baseball is too much of a game to be a business, and too much of a business to be a game." For professional sports owners, merchandising team loyalty is a dollars and sense business. Surely not every Red Sox fan is a Fever Pitch Ben Wrightman clone, but many of us own Red Sox jackets, hats, sweat shirts, T-shirts, wastebaskets, and more. Don't we?
"Victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan." Right? The Red Sox success has spawned its own literature in the wake of the conversion of the franchise from bedraggled to champion that began in 1967 with Carl Yastrzemski and "The Impossible Dream". The Red Sox streak of 388 consecutive Fenway sellouts coming into 2008 is proof enough of that conversion.
For me, the Pink Hats only represent another means of telling the world "I am part of something bigger than myself." They also symbolize a shared passion throughout the region. Whose food doesn't taste better and water cooler conversation go better than after a Sox win. Heck, you could even get a free iced coffee or tea at Double D's after a win.
For those indignant at the Pink Hats, how much suffering is enough? Did you hear the Red Sox games during middle school on the intercom? Did you watch Lou Brock run wild against the 1967 Sox and see Jim Lonborg never stand so tall? Did you have to watch the seventh game loss to the Big Red Machine after Fisk's Fair Pole shot? Do you have Bill Buckner's picture tacked onto your dart board, or a Grady Little voodoo doll? Have you ever heard of Don Buddin, Bob Tillman, or John Wyatt? Who died and made you King Fan?
The Pink Hats are simply part of the evolution of Red Sox Nation from the dark days antedating the tectonic shift of 1967 to the Apocalypse of 2004. Their loyalty and their dollars fueled the Sox' championship crowning achievement only made possible through combining Big Market royalties with smaller market smarts. The Pink Hats help the Red Sox 'overpay' for vital cogs in the machine while transitioning to accelerating player development with younger players with critical contribution at 'bargain' prices.
Pink may make you see red, but be sure that Sox ownership sees not pink, but green.
According to Kate Jackson "Next to Yankees caps and Giants jerseys, the pink Red Sox cap has become the most polarizing piece of clothing a Bostonian can wear." She argues that the pink hat generation simply hasn't suffered enough.
That reasoning pervades many arenas. Old time physicians who took call every second or third evening and who worked 100 hour weeks in training argue that younger trainees don't pay the dues that they did. Some military veterans argue that the armed forces have watered down recruit training (boot camp) to accommodate the younger generation. Even my children lament the reading, long hours, and tests challenging them in college? Who knew? I don't remember studying hard or taking tests in college?
Maybe people have forgotten the old saying "Baseball is too much of a game to be a business, and too much of a business to be a game." For professional sports owners, merchandising team loyalty is a dollars and sense business. Surely not every Red Sox fan is a Fever Pitch Ben Wrightman clone, but many of us own Red Sox jackets, hats, sweat shirts, T-shirts, wastebaskets, and more. Don't we?
"Victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan." Right? The Red Sox success has spawned its own literature in the wake of the conversion of the franchise from bedraggled to champion that began in 1967 with Carl Yastrzemski and "The Impossible Dream". The Red Sox streak of 388 consecutive Fenway sellouts coming into 2008 is proof enough of that conversion.
For me, the Pink Hats only represent another means of telling the world "I am part of something bigger than myself." They also symbolize a shared passion throughout the region. Whose food doesn't taste better and water cooler conversation go better than after a Sox win. Heck, you could even get a free iced coffee or tea at Double D's after a win.
For those indignant at the Pink Hats, how much suffering is enough? Did you hear the Red Sox games during middle school on the intercom? Did you watch Lou Brock run wild against the 1967 Sox and see Jim Lonborg never stand so tall? Did you have to watch the seventh game loss to the Big Red Machine after Fisk's Fair Pole shot? Do you have Bill Buckner's picture tacked onto your dart board, or a Grady Little voodoo doll? Have you ever heard of Don Buddin, Bob Tillman, or John Wyatt? Who died and made you King Fan?
The Pink Hats are simply part of the evolution of Red Sox Nation from the dark days antedating the tectonic shift of 1967 to the Apocalypse of 2004. Their loyalty and their dollars fueled the Sox' championship crowning achievement only made possible through combining Big Market royalties with smaller market smarts. The Pink Hats help the Red Sox 'overpay' for vital cogs in the machine while transitioning to accelerating player development with younger players with critical contribution at 'bargain' prices.
Pink may make you see red, but be sure that Sox ownership sees not pink, but green.
Comments
Identities are often formed by carving out an Other. Having vanquished the yankees and won rings, Sox fans can no longer define themselves by contradistinction to the Evil Empire. Fearing becoming smug entitled yankee fans, they disinguish, however artificially, between the suffering iniates who deserved those championships, and those who don't.
But of course the business end of the team makes no such distinction; every dollar has paid it's dues, as far as they're concerned.
Looking at the 'pink hat' crowd is like looking at a casual, arrogant Yankee fan circa 2000.
Seeing that in our own fans is what drives us mad. Alas, it was inevitable.
I get a new hat every year (sometimes several when we are in the playoffs and series) and this year it's a red hat with the regular B. Not regulation, but not offensive. As a big Sox fan in NJ. I'm glad to see any Red Sox hat instead of a Yankees hat.
Go Sox!
Even high school teams understand the concept of team colors. The school is decorated in the team colors for homecoming. The varsity jackets are in the team's color. You paint your face with the team's colors. The cover of the yearbook often the teams colors.
It's a simple concept that carries some tradition. By wearing a pink hat it gives the impression that you are new to these simple concepts that any sports fan should be able to understand.
What a contradiction !! I find the green RS gear more offensive than pink to be honest.
Actually, I don't think this whole discussion has anything to do with colors, but as someone already stated, the term 'pink hat' refers to those less than hardcore fans who give the rest of us a bad name.
"Where are our seats"?
"Behind home plate".
"Will we be on TV? I'll have to call EVERYONE I know, so they can SEE me!!! Who is playing?"
"Baltimore".
"Against who, silly....."?
I hate it when fans don't know about the history of the Sox. They can't tell me why theres a lone red seat, or who the old guy is in the dug out and why thats his pole.
Those are the days I miss.
The only benefit of these people is that they fund the team spending with their ridiculous spending; but as soon as the team loses its panache, they'll be gone.....true fans will wait outlast them......any more series like the disgrace of this Rays series will lose some of them......
BTW: I needed a cap for pheasant hunting and I found a blaze orange hat and put The B on it. The day I started wearing it when the Sox were down 2 games to none to the Yanks in '04. It has since become my fav of all hats
If you don't understand why those statements are incorrect you are a Pink Sox fan, just like Orsillo.