WEEI and Pink Hats
When I’m driving, I have a tendency to listen to sports radio. That is until the men just start shouting and talking over each other and it becomes too much noise to bear. Recently, I have heard them talking very disparagingly about the fans in the pink hats. It seems that the guys on WEEI believe that the people that wear pink hats are all new bandwagon fans.
Over the past couple weeks I have heard the pink hats brought up more than once and I never really gave it much thought. Then it struck me. They are actually labeling the new bandwagon fans as only women, since you don’t see men at Fenway wearing pink hats.
As I sat watching the game yesterday, that was delayed by five hours; I noticed many pink hats in the stands. Women and young girls that had toughed out the horrific weather to get a chance to see the Red Sox play. Are these the bandwagon fans that WEEI are referring to? The mothers and grandmothers with their kids and grandchildren, the little girls with their Wally’s clutched in their hands? .
I was born into Red Sox Nation in Hartford, Connecticut. In the early 60’s it certainly wasn’t easy to be a Red Sox fan in Hartford, but I didn’t have a choice. My mother raised her four daughters and one son to be diehard Red Sox fans. Yes, my dad liked baseball and the Sox as well, but it was my mother that instilled us with the baseball bug. I can recall her deciding one nice summer weekday that it would be a great day to see a ball game. As luck would have it, the Red Sox were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. She wrote a note for my dad, and piled all the kids into the station wagon and off we went to Yankee Stadium for the day. I mention my mother, because if she was still alive, I can imagine her sitting in the stands sporting a pink Red Sox visor to shade out the sun. Pink hat maybe, but bandwagon fan…NEVER!
Back to the game yesterday, it occurs to me that non-traditional Red Sox head gear seems to be more prevalent than the traditional navy wool regulation caps. I spy many of the St. Patrick’s Day green caps in the home plate area. Now maybe those are acceptable, since the Red Sox do actually wear them on the field one day year. Then there are the locker room World Series caps that come in three different colors, the Wild Card caps and the ever popular light weight navy and denim caps that are so much cooler to wear in the heat of summer. Nope I haven’t heard any of these hats singled out by WEEI so they must all be fine. The bandwagon fans seem to be in the pink hats.
Well the more I think about these pink hat comments the angrier I get as a Red Sox fan and a woman. I personally don’t have a pink hat but I have diehard friends that do have them and they certainly aren’t bandwagon fans. As a matter of fact most of the women I know don’t even like to wear hats, but when you’re at the ball park it is a necessity if one is to be protected from the elements.
WEEI needs to take another look at all the hat styles at Fenway these days and should stop generalizing the bandwagon fans as the females in the pink hats. If they have a problem with non-traditional baseball caps and believe those that wear them are not “real” fans, than say that. It is a ridiculous theory in my book, as we all know you can’t judge a book by its cover or a “real” fan by their hat.
Over the past couple weeks I have heard the pink hats brought up more than once and I never really gave it much thought. Then it struck me. They are actually labeling the new bandwagon fans as only women, since you don’t see men at Fenway wearing pink hats.
As I sat watching the game yesterday, that was delayed by five hours; I noticed many pink hats in the stands. Women and young girls that had toughed out the horrific weather to get a chance to see the Red Sox play. Are these the bandwagon fans that WEEI are referring to? The mothers and grandmothers with their kids and grandchildren, the little girls with their Wally’s clutched in their hands? .
I was born into Red Sox Nation in Hartford, Connecticut. In the early 60’s it certainly wasn’t easy to be a Red Sox fan in Hartford, but I didn’t have a choice. My mother raised her four daughters and one son to be diehard Red Sox fans. Yes, my dad liked baseball and the Sox as well, but it was my mother that instilled us with the baseball bug. I can recall her deciding one nice summer weekday that it would be a great day to see a ball game. As luck would have it, the Red Sox were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. She wrote a note for my dad, and piled all the kids into the station wagon and off we went to Yankee Stadium for the day. I mention my mother, because if she was still alive, I can imagine her sitting in the stands sporting a pink Red Sox visor to shade out the sun. Pink hat maybe, but bandwagon fan…NEVER!
Back to the game yesterday, it occurs to me that non-traditional Red Sox head gear seems to be more prevalent than the traditional navy wool regulation caps. I spy many of the St. Patrick’s Day green caps in the home plate area. Now maybe those are acceptable, since the Red Sox do actually wear them on the field one day year. Then there are the locker room World Series caps that come in three different colors, the Wild Card caps and the ever popular light weight navy and denim caps that are so much cooler to wear in the heat of summer. Nope I haven’t heard any of these hats singled out by WEEI so they must all be fine. The bandwagon fans seem to be in the pink hats.
Well the more I think about these pink hat comments the angrier I get as a Red Sox fan and a woman. I personally don’t have a pink hat but I have diehard friends that do have them and they certainly aren’t bandwagon fans. As a matter of fact most of the women I know don’t even like to wear hats, but when you’re at the ball park it is a necessity if one is to be protected from the elements.
WEEI needs to take another look at all the hat styles at Fenway these days and should stop generalizing the bandwagon fans as the females in the pink hats. If they have a problem with non-traditional baseball caps and believe those that wear them are not “real” fans, than say that. It is a ridiculous theory in my book, as we all know you can’t judge a book by its cover or a “real” fan by their hat.
