When Did You Become a Sox Fan?

[mvp 78]

Serious replies only please. Also, please just chose the time period you first remember being a fan (i.e. while there are pictures of me in diapers and a Sox hat, I'm only counting when I actually went to Fenway, collected cards and watched the Sox on tv).

 

If you also want to provide stories of your earliest memories, that'd be great.

[mvp 78]

My earliest baseball memories surround collecting 1981 Topps cards when I was 4. The first Sox card I ever got was Dick Drago and it was my favorite card for a long time.

 

 

The first time I went to Fenway was the summer of 1984 for an Oil Can Boyd start. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198406300.shtml

 

This was around the same time that I really because super into card collecting and watching Sox games. Jim Rice was basically a super hero to me. I even ended up getting this cool trash can a few years later.

 

[Bellhorn04]

I think it was 1969 that I first started listening to Sox games on the radio.

 

My first official Sox heartbreak was 1972.

 

My first visit to Fenway was 1974.

[illinoisredsox]

The Impossible Dream year of 1967. I was just shy of my 9th birthday and started listening to games on the radio that summer when the family took our annual vacation to Cape Cod.

 

My first visit to Fenway was 2-3 years after that against the White Sox.

[Nick]

I moved to US when I was 12 years old from Japan in June of 1967. I've always been a baseball fan. Not knowing one word of English, I spent the summer watching baseball games on TV on Saturdays. I could have been a Cardinals fan just as easily but I think the nick name Red Sox won me over. My favorite Sox will always be Rico Petrocelli.

 

Living in Indianapolis, I catch quite a bit of grief because of the hatred for the Patriots. (but there are many Celtics fans because of Larry Bird) I don't go into details. I just tell people I'm a Red Sox fan.

 

My original team was Yomiuri Giants (known as Tokyo Giants). They used to be the 'national' team. I think close to 80% of the country rooted for the Giants.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Nick

[Jasonbay44]

2002. I was 8 years old and that was when I really started following baseball, my dad was a die hard fan and I instantly fell in love with the team, and watching the games, especially Pedro, Trot Nixon and Manny.

[dustcover]

I was born a Sox fan. It's in the genes. And my grandfather provided further nurturing by having me memorize the Sox starting lineup before I new the Lord's Prayer. Those were the glorious days of Pesky, DiMaggio, Williams, and Doerr, along with Eddie Pellagrini, Rudy York, Sam Mele, and Hal Wagner.

Edited May 16, 2017 by dustcover

[Wade Boggs]

I remember the Tony Armas days .. But will say 1986

[Spudboy]

In 1966 my parents moved us from Louisville, Ky to Newton, Ma so my Dad could teach Biology at Boston College. I was 10 and had never touched a baseball!

 

My first glove, ball, and bat were Al Kaline models.

 

1967 was a magical year. Games were on TV 38. I would sit in the basement watching fuzzy images on an old GE black and white TV fitted with a UHF converter. I became hooked.

 

Yaz was my favorite player followed closely by the best 1st baseman evah the Boomer, George Scott.

 

I was a huge Harman Killebrew fan for some reason.

 

My first game at Fenway was 1968, I believe. After that I would do chores to get enough money to go to as many games as possible. Usually as much as 30-40 games each year until I was 16 or so. Going to games alone was no big deal for me even though I was yet to eclipse 5 feet. In fact, my small size helped me get 1/2 fare on the trolley from Newton Corner to Kenmore Square. Bleacher seats were $1.00 and after the 3rd inning they would open the gate to right field and charge $.75 to gain access to any unoccupied seat in the park.

 

My favorite experiences at Fenway were smoking cigars with the Baltimore bullpen when I was 13 and 14, having my hair catch on fire while lighting a pipe behind home plate in a season opener with Cleveland, and seeing Vida Blue face Sonny Siebert in a long rain delay game. Of course talking with Rogelio Moret with Carlton Fisk translating was cool too.

[SoxHop]

My grandfather was an immigrant, he couldn't speak much English. But my earliest years I remember about the Sox were him listening to them on the radio anytime they were on. My father watched every game he could.

 

I made it to Fenway for the first time when was about 10. So 1982. I got to meet Luis Tiant and got an autograph. My sister who was there just couldn't beleive what a nice and personable person he was.

 

I started collecting cards when I was young. At first I didn't care about any other teams players, the goal of the year would be to collect the entire Sox team cards.

 

I remember the exact moment when my Dad told me George Scott was traded........ I cried like crazy.....

[S5Dewey]

It's all my mother's fault. My earliest memories regarding the Sox - except maybe for one which I'll get to later - my earliest memories are of getting off the school bus, going into the house and my mom having the Sox on the radio - and I couldn't tear myself away. It must have been the mid-1950's at the time and I still can't tell you who was broadcasting. Curt Gowdy, maybe?

 

When they started playing night games I'd stay up as late as I dared, keeping a score book. I've always been a bit of a geek, I guess. But back in those days I knew every player on every team in the AL. I knew why the manager didn't change pitchers - because the opposing team had ____ on the bench, a left handed hitter, and that would take away the lefty-righty matchup. Sometimes I think it was a lot easier to be a fan back then.

 

My first venture to Fenway Park was about that time too. My dad and a friend of his took their sons to Fenway for an afternoon game (naturally). It's funny the things we remember. We drove down from Maine in a 1956 Ford - but I have no idea who the Sox were playing that day or who won. What I do remember is walking up the ramp as (maybe) a 10-year old for the first time and looking out at alll thatttt greennnn. It was breathtaking. And small. Much smaller than it appeared on television.

 

Keep in mind now, in those days I-95 only went as far north as Augusta and it was a toll road so we took Rt.1 all the way to avoid the tolls. We stopped to eat someplace in north Mass. and didn't get home until after midnight.

 

It's all my mom's fault. If she'd turner the radio off maybe I'd be normal.

[Kimmi]

I was born a Sox fan - there was no way around it. I have those pictures you speak of in your opening post of me in diapers and a Sox hat. My first trip to Fenway was when I was 5, though I don't remember much about it. Baseball (and other Boston sports) were always on our tv when I was growing up. I would watch games often enough, but was never a true die hard fan when I was a kid. I actually had a life back then.

 

Probably the heartbreak of 1986 was when I started to understand the emotional attachment to the team. Roger Clemens was my first baseball idol and crush.

 

Oddly enough, it wasn't until I moved out of the area and got the Extra Innings Package that I started watching EVERY game of the season.

[SoxHop]

You all should try living in time zones where watching a Sox game is almost impossible unless you are a vampire. Especiallly a decade ago before MLB TV or internet had recaps of b-ball................ or even living and working and talking with people who couldn't care less about anything you say about the Sox and how they are doing.......

[oldtimer]

My dad was a newspaper man in Boston. He lived an Cambridge in 1896 and remembered some of the oldest days of the Sox and the Braves. Kind of a knothole gang kid. I was sorry he didn't get to see the later days when the Sox finally won after so long a drought. He passed in 1978. At any rate, we listened to the Sox on the radio and we scored the games.In my case I started listening in 1946 and it was a great year as the team was excellent, but of course couldn't quite get it done. We finally got a car in the early 50's and TV came in the late 50's. My dad could get sky box seats on occasion and it wwas a great treat to visit the park for us. Much later in my college days I could walk over and sit in the bleechers for day games. It was inexpensive then.

[cp176]

My grandfather was a very very good player back in the 20's and 30's when towns had teams - very good teams. Pomfret CT. my family moved to Maine in the 40's and my Mom stuck a Sox hat on my head in 1955 - I was 4- Red Sox for lifer. We spent our summers in Ct. where my Aunt (Hebron Ct.) and Grandparents attempted to civilize us. My first and only trip to Fenway until the 70's came in 1960. I did get to see Ted play. My most cherished memories are of listening to afternoon games with my Gramps on summer afternoons in the barn before he went out to do the chores. Life was really a lot simpler then and maybe even better.

[SoxHop]

My dad was a newspaper man in Boston. He lived an Cambridge in 1896 and remembered some of the oldest days of the Sox and the Braves. Kind of a knothole gang kid. I was sorry he didn't get to see the later days when the Sox finally won after so long a drought. He passed in 1978. At any rate, we listened to the Sox on the radio and we scored the games.In my case I started listening in 1946 and it was a great year as the team was excellent, but of course couldn't quite get it done. We finally got a car in the early 50's and TV came in the late 50's. My dad could get sky box seats on occasion and it wwas a great treat to visit the park for us. Much later in my college days I could walk over and sit in the bleechers for day games. It was inexpensive then.

 

Favorite player and why?

[SoxHop]

My grandfather was a very very good player back in the 20's and 30's when towns had teams - very good teams. Pomfret CT. my family moved to Maine in the 40's and my Mom stuck a Sox hat on my head in 1955 - I was 4- Red Sox for lifer. We spent our summers in Ct. where my Aunt (Hebron Ct.) and Grandparents attempted to civilize us. My first and only trip to Fenway until the 70's came in 1960. I did get to see Ted play. My most cherished memories are of listening to afternoon games with my Gramps on summer afternoons in the barn before he went out to do the chores. Life was really a lot simpler then and maybe even better.

 

Favorite player and why?

[cp176]

yaz - easy for me. i remember him when he made it to the big club. Obviously, his 1967 year had a deep impact on me. i used to carry a radio with me so i could listen to the day games regardless of where i was. it was an unprecedented year for all of us living where i lived. something we just weren't used to i guess. A young team led by a left fielder who just did things that we had not seen before. As the years progressed, so did he. i don't know where people place captain Carl with respect to their personal greatest evers but for me it really is kind of easy. you can't compare eras i get that. Ted Williams will continue to be the greatest hitter that really I have ever seen - David Ortiz (don't need to say anything about what he meant to us all) - but yup - Yaz - for me there is and probably never will be a question. In all honesty, maybe it is due primarily to what he did during that 67 season. So be it - I'm happy that I was alive to see it. thank you for asking and being interested. i love threads like this.

[moonslav59]

October 10, 1971

 

My family had just moved from Milwaukee to Portland, ME. We had lived 2 blocks from the old County Stadium, where the Brewers played.

 

Tommy Harper was my favorite player having had a 30+ HR and 30+ SB season (the first ever?).

 

October 10, 1971: the Brewers traded Tommy, Marty Pattin & Lew Krausse for George Scott, Jim Lonborg, Ken Brett, Billy Conigliaro and Joe Lahoud

 

I switched my loyalty to the Red Sox.

 

Note: I'm still a Packer fan (saw Bart Starr) and a Bucks fan (saw Lew Alcindor).

[oldtimer]

Favorite player and why?

 

When i was a youngster, I remember how I idolized Ted Williams. I remember scoring a game where the were way behind in the ninth and they scored something like 7 runs to win it. Williams of course has a big hit in that run. That kind of thing stays with a kid. Even recently I read his little book on hitting and found it interesting. The guy was my hero even though I realize today he wasn't the best fielder. On the other hand, I was in the sky box seats with my dad when Yaz and Smith came up back to back and struck out with men on and maybe one run behind. It looked to me that they were both trying to be heros with their overswings. Yaz was a greaat player but i didn't think of him the same way as Ted.

[Thunder]

I remember talking to my kindergarten teacher about the ALCS comeback in 2004, although I don't remember watching any of those games or the World Series. The first games I remember watching/listening to are the 2005 playoffs.

[Slasher9]

early 80's for me. everyone around me was yankees or mets and i just couldn't. would follow them everyday in the newspaper box score. spent 5 years of college in Southern New Hampshire so i was able to watch them on TV. 1999 was the first year for my MLB Extra Innings subscription and i have watched just about every game since.....

[Maxbialystock]

1949 when I was 8. I'd been born in Boston (Fort Banks), but left with my mom 6 months later. But that summer (1949) we visited Boston relatives on the way to Germany, and I can remember looking at Sox box scores--more than 24 hours after the fact of course--in the Stars and Strikes in Germany and especially Ted Williams's numbers. 4 years later we lived in West Springfield while my dad served 14 months in Korea, and I listened to Curt Gowdy call the games both summers, '53 and '54. And collected Topps baseball cards of course. But my Sox fandom waxed and waned subsequently because we never lived where we could get Sox games--ditto when I went into the service. 1967 is blank because of where I was and what we were doing. Everything changed after I retired and my wife and I finally settled in N. Virginia and circa 2004, maybe earlier, we got a TV package including out of area games. Since then I've watched an insane number of games.

 

My first time in Fenway was about 10 years ago on a business trip. Terrible experience because of the execrable sight lines down the right field line. I went one more time, had the same experience, and am sure I will never go back. Fenway looks great on TV, but is easily the worst MLB ballpark I've been in. I've been to the Phillies ballpark (1961), the Royals (1986-89) (very nice, but really hot in the summer), the Orioles (2000-2015) (Camden is easily the best ballpark I've been in), and the Nationals (not as pretty as Camden, but excellent sight lines). Also Griffith Stadium (Washington Senators, 1955).

[cp176]

Fenway might be one of those acquired tastes people sometimes talk about.

[Kimmi]

1949 when I was 8. I'd been born in Boston (Fort Banks), but left with my mom 6 months later. But that summer (1949) we visited Boston relatives on the way to Germany, and I can remember looking at Sox box scores--more than 24 hours after the fact of course--in the Stars and Strikes in Germany and especially Ted Williams's numbers. 4 years later we lived in West Springfield while my dad served 14 months in Korea, and I listened to Curt Gowdy call the games both summers, '53 and '54. And collected Topps baseball cards of course. But my Sox fandom waxed and waned subsequently because we never lived where we could get Sox games--ditto when I went into the service. 1967 is blank because of where I was and what we were doing. Everything changed after I retired and my wife and I finally settled in N. Virginia and circa 2004, maybe earlier, we got a TV package including out of area games. Since then I've watched an insane number of games.

 

My first time in Fenway was about 10 years ago on a business trip. Terrible experience because of the execrable sight lines down the right field line. I went one more time, had the same experience, and am sure I will never go back. Fenway looks great on TV, but is easily the worst MLB ballpark I've been in. I've been to the Phillies ballpark (1961), the Royals (1986-89) (very nice, but really hot in the summer), the Orioles (2000-2015) (Camden is easily the best ballpark I've been in), and the Nationals (not as pretty as Camden, but excellent sight lines). Also Griffith Stadium (Washington Senators, 1955).

 

Going to the Camden this Saturday to see the Os/Jays game (free tickets). It is a nice park, but good gracious the traffic is horrendous.

[Spudboy]

Fenway might be one of those acquired tastes people sometimes talk about.

 

I find just about any criticism of Femwy is legit.

 

They have put a s*** ton of make-up on the pig as it were but the place is cramped and uncomfortable unless you are in a luxury seat.

 

Still, when you walk up a ramp ( I'm thinking right field bowl ) and see that huge mass of green and you just look around. Well, you know you are someplace special.

[Spudboy]

Going to the Camden this Saturday to see the Os/Jays game (free tickets). It is a nice park, but good gracious the traffic is horrendous.

 

Boy am I jelly. I have never been there. Everyone I know who has been there says that it is an awesome place to see a game.

 

Have fun Kimmi.

[SoxHop]

yaz - easy for me. i remember him when he made it to the big club. Obviously, his 1967 year had a deep impact on me. i used to carry a radio with me so i could listen to the day games regardless of where i was. it was an unprecedented year for all of us living where i lived. something we just weren't used to i guess. A young team led by a left fielder who just did things that we had not seen before. As the years progressed, so did he. i don't know where people place captain Carl with respect to their personal greatest evers but for me it really is kind of easy. you can't compare eras i get that. Ted Williams will continue to be the greatest hitter that really I have ever seen - David Ortiz (don't need to say anything about what he meant to us all) - but yup - Yaz - for me there is and probably never will be a question. In all honesty, maybe it is due primarily to what he did during that 67 season. So be it - I'm happy that I was alive to see it. thank you for asking and being interested. i love threads like this.

 

I love this stuff too. It's great hearing the history of the Sox from people who have been there.

 

I was born in 72. So when 2004 rolled around I had lived through a bunch of heartache. But I don't think I can imagine what 2004 was for you guys who saw Ted and Yaz.

[S5Dewey]

Boy am I jelly. I have never been there. Everyone I know who has been there says that it is an awesome place to see a game.

 

Have fun Kimmi.

 

It is an awesome place to see a game, and the inner harbor is a great place to hang out, too. I was there for a O's/Sox weekend series a few years ago and I liked everything about the park. There are lots of good places to eat and the people are friendly. Even to someone wearing a Sox cap. :-)

 

Sidebar here: It was blistering hot while I was there - temps in triple figures - and the O's organization set out these huge trays of ice with bottled water for the fans for free. I thought that was classy.

[jad]

When i was a youngster, I remember how I idolized Ted Williams. I remember scoring a game where the were way behind in the ninth and they scored something like 7 runs to win it. Williams of course has a big hit in that run. That kind of thing stays with a kid. Even recently I read his little book on hitting and found it interesting. The guy was my hero even though I realize today he wasn't the best fielder. On the other hand, I was in the sky box seats with my dad when Yaz and Smith came up back to back and struck out with men on and maybe one run behind. It looked to me that they were both trying to be heros with their overswings. Yaz was a greaat player but i didn't think of him the same way as Ted.

 

I wonder if I'm remembering the same game. We lived in a two story house, and for some reason, there was a bell hooked up from the downstairs bedroom up. Every time the RS scored in that inning, my father would ring the bell, knowing that my brother and I were also listening to the game. Was it against the Yankees? For some reason, I associate Earl Wilson with that memory--but obviously he wouldn't have been pitching that late in the game (unless that was his no-hitter, which it wasn't!)