why i still root for the redsox...

i am one who usually pulls for the underdog, especially when there are two teams playing each other that i have no emotional investment in. everyone loves the worst-to-first, cinderella story and i am no exception. anybody that follows baseball knows that the feel-good story of the year is the tampa bay rays (minus the "devil" this year). i get that they are a bunch of young rag-tag no names who overachieved this year, i happen to think their manager, joe maddon is a baseball genius, and they have several players who are ex twins, a team that i do have an emotional attachment to. i also get that tampa bay is not necessarily considered a baseball town as evident by the fact that they didn't sell out their tropicana dome until their winning the division was eminent (i guess i can't really blame floridians for not wanting to go indoors on a perfect summer day to watch a historically fledgling team). it's always easier to observe from a distance and then jump on the bandwagon once your team starts to achieve some success. that said, i also understand that the redsox over the past few years have transitioned into a yankees step-brother evil empire equivalent, what with their bloated payrolls, and their ability to recognize a need and then be able to go out and acquire the best option at that position regardless of the price tag (part of me is jealous that my home team is able, but not willing to do that). they also have notoriously over-zealous fans, who are up and down with the team through it's peaks and valley's over the course of the season. they are what i like to call - passionate. having fans get after their teams for not performing up to par is a good thing and should be recognized as "caring", as in, the fans still have an interest. same thing can be said when the team is performing well - they should be proud and be able to gloat a little. i have no problem with either of these scenarios. i think having apathy is worse than having passion, even if the passion means voicing your opinion at times. the redsox, like the cardinals, yankees, and cubs, have legions of baseball fans all over the country. people who know the game and have lived and died by their team since childhood, and even sometimes travel with their team on the road, (which may signal an unhealthy obsession but that's another debate). growing up as a boy in the mid-seventies in the boston area, my first baseball experience was with following the likes of carlton fisk, fred lynn, yaz, and jim rice at good 'ol fenway park. doesn't mean i can't like other teams too, because i do, but the sox will always hold a special place for me, it's nothing i have consciously decided, it's just how it is. they may very well get beat in the a.l.c.s. by a tampa team that is out-playing them in every aspect of the game at the moment, and i'm ok with that. a part of me would be happy to see the cinderella story go down, but a bigger part of me wants the sox to do well, to dust themselves off, and get after it. the cinderella story works better for me when it's not at my teams expense.