JT the Brick

There is a love affair going on between Major League Baseball and the Boston Red Sox. It should be obvious to everyone after the last few weeks of seeing the Red Sox logo in print and on television more than ever before.

I will never call their fan base “Red Sox Nation” because I believe they stole this term from Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders a few years ago. Red Sox Nation did not exist when Bucky Dent hit a three-run home run over the Green Monster in a one-game playoff in 1978. The Nation was non-existent when Bill Buckner let a slow roller go between his legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series and gave the New York Mets new life before they went on to win Game 7.

Even the famous Boston movie stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon never uttered the term “Red Sox Nation” as they walked the streets of Cambridge as young boys. That being said, the Red Sox have a tremendous fan base and they deserve to bask in the glory of winning two of the past four World Series. Millions of these die-hard fans had waited patiently to finally win their first championship in 2004 after a long, painful drought that had lasted since 1918. Generations of “The Faithful” were only experts in the experience of losing and looking up in the standings to the New York Yankees.

That brings us to the media buildup heading into the start of the 2008 season, and what I have witnessed over the past two weeks. The Red Sox deserved to open the season with a two-game series on the global stage in Japan. They paid more than $51 million to purchase that rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Seibu Lions in November of 2006 after he was selected as MVP of the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the powers that be at Major League Baseball and the Red Sox felt obligated to return to Tokyo and thank every  Japanese Red Sox fan for their new-found loyal support. Bud Selig loved everything about this “Good Will Tour” for the Red Sox because he knew that the World Series champions would get tremendous media coverage in Japan and fans would spend millions of dollars in merchandise while helping MLB hide the fact that its sport has been embarrassed by the on-going steroid scandal.

After the Red Sox left Japan, they traveled to Los Angeles to play three exhibition games against the Dodgers. I was part of the 115,300 fans who attended the March 29 game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of the largest crowd to ever see a baseball game. The Red Sox were once again showcased on the global stage as the Dodgers celebrated their 50^th anniversary. I guess the Los Angeles Angels were busy that night.