The Pink Hats are Taking Over, Part I
Remember when being a Red Sox fan was a noble pursuit? You not only knew every player, but every kid in Pawtucket, Portland, and Lowell. You remembered not just Carlton Fisk, but Tom Brunansky’s catch against Toronto. You went to Fenway (didn’t need to save up for a StubHub purchase, either) and scored every pitch and talked baseball with the people in your section. Sure, the whole 1918 fixation drove you crazy because that’s not how you defined yourself, but the national identity of the Sox fan was one of loyalty, intelligence, and even a dash of sarcastic wit. And now? Now it is the Pink Hat.
We have lived with the Pink Hat Phenomenon for the last few years and it has been called out again and again. However, it has now gone national. The pink Red Sox hat has become the unfortunate national shorthand for obnoxious bandwagon Red Sox fans around the country, and this is a problem.
And yet it’s been surreal to watch the Sox evolve into a bandwagon superpower like the 1970s Cowboys, one of those successful ubercontenders that everyone in Boston has always despised. Home games have been overrun by pseudo fans, cute females and families in green jerseys and pink caps.
From comments: Nevermind the “President of Red Sox Nation” being stupid. The whole idea of a “Red Sox Nation” is fucking pointless to begin with.
The purpose “Red Sox Nation” serves is to make the “Pink Hats” feel more special.
There is even a great site called, appropriately enough, Pink Hat Hell, that chronicles the dreadful Sox Appeal among other topics. We asked Will Leitch, the brains behind Deadspin about the ‘Pink Hat thing,’ and this what he said: “I think the “Pink Hat” phenomenon is something that frustrates, from my perception, the hardcore Red Sox fans more than anybody else.”
True, but that hasn’t stopped the Pink Hat brigade from making serious inroads. In this multi-part Boston Daily special we will investigate the origins of the Pink Hat phenomenon, its impact on Red Sox fans and what can be done to stop it.
Tomorrow: Sowing the seeds: the fan-friendly Sox.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Fuck that. That’s a stupid elitist, lazy, grouchy, ‘when I was a kid’ bullshit concept. I saw a woman with a pink hat at a cookout last weekend. Some smug idiot called her out as a ‘pink hat.’ She wiped the floor with him in Sox knowledge. I know it’s not strictly about the color of the hat, but the people bellyaching about it are more annoying than the trendy fans. Lighten the fuck up and find some other cliche to fall back on.
September 6th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Chooch - how about you calm the fuck down instead of telling Paul to lighten the fuck up? You give your argument a zero net by claiming that Paul’s post is elitist by admitting that it’s what the hats represent, rather than their color.
The reason to hate the pink hats and what they stand for is that they ruin the entire fan experience for those of us who have been following the team for their entire lives.
It’s finally become cool to be a Red Sox fan — and since everyone in the world secretly wants to be cool, it’s now become near-impossible to simply enjoy the game of baseball in front of us (ironically the uncool part of it all). You can’t just decide to head down to Fenway on any old night and buy a couple bleacher seats — you now have to line up at the asscrack of dawn THE DAY BEFORE “Christmas at Fenway”. You have to endure ridiculous commercials for Sox Appeal and promos for Red Sox Nation.
Pink hats are fine — hell, the more fans, the merrier, I say — but when the team is blanket marketing to everyone in the universe with such great success, it’s the group that never needed the marketing in the first place that suffers.
September 7th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Not to nitpick here, but a “longtime” Sox fan would remember that their AA team wasn’t always in Portland, hasn’t been there for very long, and would have more accurately referenced either Trenton or New Britain. The Sox AA affiliate moved up to Maine in 2003, only one short year before the World Series win and the proliferation of the Pink Hat Brigade.
September 7th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Fornya, that’s a very good point and a careless mistake on my part. Go Rock Cats. And yes I know they were the New Britain Red Sox back then.
September 11th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I understand that many women that wear pink are diehards that just happen to like pink. It’s also obvious with the bandwagon effect illustrated by the likes of Fox Sports’ Julie Zaleski so eagerly referring to Chicago’s team during the 2005 Playoffs as White Sox Nation, ESPN bringing out Sports Nation and General Mills foods declaring their cereals as part of Whole Foods Nation that the marketing powers that be have watered down our Red Sox Nation into a generic catch phrase that steals away the passion behind the origins of “Red Sox Nation”. Used to be two passionate fan bases that had this insider feel to them- Raider Nation and Red Sox Nation. Bandwagon fans want to be a part of something special, perhaps just to look cute and stylish, maybe attract men in their pink shirts and hats. Again, I’ve met many women and girls that know how to keep a boxscore and still wear pink, but it’s generally agreed Real Fans wear their team colors. So, I created a shirt for SupahFans that adds to the debate: Real Fans Don’t Wear Pink. Discuss.
September 11th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Good points, Kevin. And just so no one misinterprets the meaning of the Pink Hat series: It’s not a slam on female fans. Lord knows there are a great number of smart female fans, and just as many moronic male counterparts. It’s not the hat, it’s the hyper-aggressive marketing that plays to the casual fan at the expense of the die-hards, of which there are many, female and male.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Grab yourself a pink hat there superfan. Tom Brunansky’s great diving catch in the last game of the 1990 regular season (as any real Red Sox fan would know), was against the White Sox, not Toronto. It was a line drive down the right field line off the bat of current White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:27 am
As a die-hard Red Sox fan, I have to say I hated the Pink Hat when it first showed up. I thought that every girl who wore won was just trying to be a Sox fan. But an aunt of my die-hard Yankee fan husband gave me one as a joke to welcome me into the family in 2004 (she’s also a Sox fan). I wore it every day during the 2004 playoffs and look what happened. I still attribute our win to the Pink Hat - so maybe it’s not so bad after all. But even that experience didn’t convert me to a Pink Hat girl…it only comes out of the closet for the playoffs.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Pink hats = $$$ = Manny = Ring. “Die hard fans” never got us anything except second place.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
You’re right Mike. What’s with this idea you need to earn your right to be a fan of a team? It’s a damn baseball game and if someone wants to watch one game a year, buy a pink hat, and sit there and text her boyfriend the whole game that’s her problem.
I don’t think we run a risk of losing out our die hard fans because the Red Sox has started exploited more sources of revenue. Hell, I embrace it. The more money, the better.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
The real trivia behind the Brunansky catch of Ozzie Guillen’s fly ball is not what happened on the last game of 1990 regular season but the fact that the night before the same situation was at hand. 2 on and 2 out with Ozzie at the bat. Ozzie hit a fly ball to the same exact spot in right field which dropped in for a double scoring the two runs for Chicago who went on to win the game. I was there and was so bummed out feeling cheated that I did not see them win the East that the next night I snuck in by flashing my wallet at Gate B at 5PM as if I worked there then for 2 hours waking around with a cardboard box as if I were working. I sat in the fifth row at the Redsox batting circle the entire game and never saw the Brunansky catch as the right field corner kinks in and the view is obstructed up the line. My memory is of the look on Wade Boggs face after the catch was made. God Bless the Pink hats. The too much Testosterone, all talk, Gerry Callahan, never got bloody knuckles pussies can make them out to be some sort of fad but the ladies of Red Sox nation are the pride of Boston.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
It is hilarious that people are so outraged. Why are some hats blue with a red B? I know they are “traditional” but blue isn’t one of our colors?
I agree hats should be worn in team colors, but women haven’t been wearing hats that long anyway, and the pink ones are made to fit our heads……………
Anyway, we should be happy we are winning again.