Enough with the Bandwagon

Apparently I’m not allowed to be a Bruin’s fan. Last night I found myself weeding through some of the comments Dan Shaughnessy’s readers left him after his hockey article, “Welcome Signs were Everywhere”. To basically sum up the general consensus, check out what bruins0809 wrote:

“So, let me get this straight... Shaughnessy needs an 11-game winning streak at the Garden and number one Eastern Conference play in order to get himself to a Bruins game? Disgusting. The Globe's coverage of the best hockey team in the East is disgraceful. And this column is just Shaughnessy bandwagon-jumping. Miserable.”

Oh come on. Really? Maybe you don’t like the guy as a writer or you wish the globe would focus a little more oh the Bruins, (which by the way, he acknowledges in the beginning of the piece that he hadn’t been to a game all season) but a little press from one of the most read sports writers in all of New England (whether you like it or not) should be looked at as a glimmer of hope, not the sign of a bandwagon-jumper.

In my mind, the only way you can call someone that is if they literally hopped off the coat tails of one team and climbed aboard the decks of another - simply because one isn’t winning any more and the other is. My buddy Adam did this literally in the middle of Super Bowl XXXI. After Desmond Howard’s 99-yard kick-off return, he went to the bathroom and washed off his red and blue face paint and replaced it with green and yellow. Now that, my friends, is a bandwagon jumper.

It’s not like those of us (including myself) who are just sitting up and starting to turn on NESN right now are hiding our Montreal jerseys and sneaking on a Bruins sweater. We just haven’t been paying attention. And do you blame us?

People who say Boston has just recently become cocky and developed a, “Win or Don’t Talk to me” mentality about our sports teams are wrong. Hate to break it to ya, but we’ve always been like that. Before the Pats made themselves useful by winning a few championships, they hardly saw the light of day. In the mid sixties, before the “Impossible Dream”, Fenway often resembled a 2003 Tropicana field. Even the Celtics during the early seventies were snubbed by the fans, who ironically cared more about Orr and Esposito.

Chucking the team who isn’t winning onto the back burner and enjoying the success of the others has been the Boston way forever. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like we’re washing our face paint off and replacing it. We’re just focusing on the team that brings us the most wins and excitement, and not following the others as intently. Sometimes, as has been in the past, that team we follow doesn’t necessarily win championships, and it’s at that time you can separate the fans from the die-hards.

Die-hards stick with the team through thick and thin. The 2006 Celtics fans, the 1992 Red Sox fans, the pre-2001 Patriot fans, and 2005 Bruins fans. If you followed any of these teams and made an honest effort to catch all of their games, you’re a die-hard.

If not – you can still be a fan. I didn’t follow the Bruins in 2005, and I know I’m not the only one (in fact, I only know two of my friends who did). So according to some of Shaughnessy’s commentators, I shouldn’t even bother following them this year? That’s just ridiculous. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know everything there is to know about hockey - but I know enough. And for those seasons I wasn’t watching the Bruins, it wasn’t because I was following Detroit. I was just putting the sport on the back burner.

I’m a die-hard Sox fan, and a fan of all other Boston teams (minus BC...but we can talk about that later). I’d never think about rooting against them, and if they’re winning and fun to watch I’ll follow them with all my heart. I missed only a handful of Celtics games last season, and I’m realizing right now that for the five years before that, I probably hadn’t even watched as many as I just missed. Does that make me a bandwagon jumper? I should hope not.

Look - I can understand some of Boston’s sensitivity towards posers. I was just as sick as everyone else after 2004 when the Sox became the “hip” team to follow. It burnt me right up when people looked at me like a follower rather than one of the original fans when I wore a Sox hat out of town. It became hard to sort through the die-hards from newbies. But that’s OK – because as cheesy as it sounds, I know I was there through thick and thin.

But for those who weren’t, it’s unfair to disqualify them as a potential fan. Everyone needs to start somewhere, and not all of us are brought up in a family of big fans. So what if I’ve only been watching the Bruins intently since I saw them nearly rock the Canadiens out of the playoffs last year? They played with such intensity and were so much fun to watch, that I began falling in love for the first time with watching hockey. I give props to those who sat and watched through the tough times, and I could never feel the same enjoyment they do about this team’s success. Winning is always sweeter when you’ve lost for so freakin’ long. I know. Like I said, I’m a die-hard Sox fan.

One of my best buddies Bear has been following hockey for years, and the guy bleeds black and gold. He’s a great guy to watch the game with because he knows I don’t know as much as he does, but he could care less. He knows I wasn’t there sitting next to him three years ago, but that doesn’seem to matter to him. I think he’s happy we’re all on board and that there’s a Bruin’s buzz humming through the city. Now that’s the right mentality.

So what’s so wrong with letting everyone else enjoy it too? Do these die-hards want it all to themselves? Because if they do they can have it…but good luck giving the home-town boys an advantage at the Garden with more Canadien fans in attendance than locals. Talk about embarrassing.

Like I said earlier, everyone needs to start somewhere. These nuts like the ones commenting on Shaughnessy’s column need to shut their trap and let the rest of us in to enjoy the ride. Isn’t the goal of the team to excite and bring up ticket sales? Well they’re doing it, and if bruins0809 wants there to be a professional hockey team in Boston, he better shut up and let the fan-base grow. Taunting Shaughnessy won’t do that, but showing support will get him to write about the B’s even more. And I don’t care whether you like what he has to say or not, you can respectfully disagree, but any press is good press – especially in the NHL.