Just putting things into current scope, most Red Sox fans at the Trop are obnoxious, both directly and indirectly. There are two forms of ‘obnoxious’ in this situation. First, there is the individual obnoxiousness of the fan who roots for the Sox. Rooting for the Sox is fine, but that’s not enough for him. On top of that, he proceeds to say things about how the Rays fans ‘need’ his Sawx fans to sell out the Trop, how real baseball is played in outdoor stadiums on real grass, and how his Sawx are time and battle tested, playoff proven, etc etc and so on. This is the obnoxiousness of the Sawx fan that we all know and love to hate, and they take care of themselves; eventually they get too obnoxious, they pick a fight with the wrong person, get a black eye or a bloody nose, and get escorted from the stadium with instructions to not return.

Then, there’s the other obnoxiousness, that being the obnoxiousness of the fan collective that shows up at the Trop for Sox games, and this was very clearly illustrated in Game 2 of the CS. Red Sox fans were sparse in Game 1. Of the 35,000 fans there, there were probably at the most, 2500 at the game and most of them were sitting between the 3rd base dugout and the visitor’s bullpen. Some of them were die-hard Sox fans who will never turn and that’s fine. Some of them came from Boston, and that’s fine as well, and yet still there were a handful of dopes who root for the Sox because their friend who lived in Boston rooted for the Sox and so they do too even though they’ve never lived in or even seen Boston.

If I had this mentality, I’d still be rooting for the Dodgers since that was the very first little-league team I ever played for, or the Indians because my aunt and uncle were diehard Indians fans and I lived in Lorain for 2 years.

When I was 3.

Then the Red Sox won game 1 and wouldn’t you know, suddenly it seems like the number of Sox fans tripled for game 2. Now they are running down the entire 3rd base line, both lower and upper deck. Maybe a few more of them flew in from Boston, but my guess is that most of them were straight-up sell-outs who, between the Sox and the Rays, are only going to root for whoever wins the series. While the crowd was still clearly partisan towards the Rays, game 2 was more of a 3/1 split where game 1 was more like 10/1. Most of these fans by themselves aren’t rude or mean-spirited, but as a group they’re both insluting and discraceful. These are the worst kind of bandwagoners, and the only real way to get rid of them is to make them feel unwanted and uncomfortable by any means available.

By and large, the White Sox fans I saw in the ALDS individually were much more rude and obnoxious then the Red Sox fans I saw (and met) at the ALCS. Hell, I even bought a Red Sox fan a beer in game 1, a guy who was down from Boston. But I also ‘spilled’ ice on a Sox fan in Game 2 and helped a lost Boston hat get down to the lower deck after some mouthbreather got it snatched off his head forefeited his allegience after his team lost.

You may think this is the wrong way to do this, but look at it this way: how many opposing teams fans do you see at Raider games?