Sox Fans in the Bleachers: Do Your Job!

TheoShmeo

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This was noted in the game thread by me and other posters but I think it bears special mention.

In light of Rick Honeycutt's cry baby routine about how close the bleachers are to the guys in the visiting pen, it behooves all Sox fans in the vicinity to be especially vocal. I'm not advocating profanity or anything of the sort. What we need is some old fashioned good razzing, and for Honeycutt's words to make it even tougher on him and his staff.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/world-series-2018-dodgers-pitching-coach-rips-fenway-parks-brutal-bullpens-after-clayton-kershaws-flop/

Kershaw felt the full-on Fenway effect the minute he took to the bullpen mound to warm up for World Series Game 1 Tuesday night.

"Brutal. Pretty brutal," said Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, making his first trip to the Fens since 2010. Not much has changed. The rubber of the pitching mound in the visitors' bullpen is but three feet from the bleacher seats. "What I don't understand is why baseball allows it. You've got the rubber right there and people literally standing over you."
Don't disappoint us, SoSHERs who are out there tonight.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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Oct 31, 2013
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More like Vinegarcutt, amirite?

Good signs/chants for tonight:

Rick is not a treat
Honeycutt cut the honey from his cheerios
We want a pitching coach, not a belly itching coach.
 

brs3

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It seems the folks in the bleachers are doing their job, no? The article explicitly says the fact that the crowd is so close might've played a factor. So perhaps we should be asking them to keep doing what they're doing.
 

The Raccoon

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"Luckily, if we know anything about Red Sox fans, they will undoubtedly be much quieter and more polite during Game 2 on Wednesday now that they know they're bothering the opponent."
That's a fantastic last sentence to the linked CBSsports article...
 

cheekydave

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Flame me, but I LOVE to think that our fans can get under the skin of the other players. As long as they don't throw any objects have at it. It is one of the major fan differences between the east and West Coast. Hope their pitchers in the bullpen have to wear ear plugs tonight.
 

InstaFace

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Flame me, but I LOVE to think that our fans can get under the skin of the other players. As long as they don't throw any objects have at it. It is one of the major fan differences between the east and West Coast. Hope their pitchers in the bullpen have to wear ear plugs tonight.
yeah I don't think anyone here disagrees. That's the essence of what home field advantage should be about, as long as you don't cross the line (throwing things / climbing in there / etc). But verbal abuse and mind games are just as in-bounds for pitchers warming up in the bullpen as they are for hitters standing in the box or on-deck. If they can't tune it out, that's on them.
 

TheoShmeo

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This is why we get bombs mailed to "the opposition".

Totally unnecessary to rouse the rabble
Verbal bombs. Just verbal bombs. And no profanity, either. Kids around and that crosses the line.

This reminds me of LaRussa complaining about the traffic from his hotel in 2004, opposing players crying about the size of the locker rooms at Fenway and Red Auerbach turning up the heat in visiting locker rooms.

If anything, we need more rabble rousing.
 

Kevin Youkulele

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Flame me, but I LOVE to think that our fans can get under the skin of the other players. As long as they don't throw any objects have at it. It is one of the major fan differences between the east and West Coast. Hope their pitchers in the bullpen have to wear ear plugs tonight.
I'd attend Oakland games occasionally when I lived in the Bay Area and they are perhaps a slice of East Coast style fandom on the West Coast. I remember A-Rod in particular being an extreme object of ridicule of the sort I really wouldn't want a kid to hear. But it's a totally different vibe in the SF, LAD, and SD stadiums.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Honeycutt is right, Red Sox fans are so mean and vile, they should be respectful and polite like Dodgers fans always are.

Oh wait:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-men-plead-guilty-to-2011-beating-at-dodger-stadium/

Hopefully the fans in the Fenway bleachers tonight will not do anything stupid or violent or obscene, and hopefully they will also serenade the hell out of the Dodger bullpen with funny comments all night until they make Honeycutt cry.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Verbal bombs. Just verbal bombs. And no profanity, either. Kids around and that crosses the line.

This reminds me of LaRussa complaining about the traffic from his hotel in 2004, opposing players crying about the size of the locker rooms at Fenway and Red Auerbach turning up the heat in visiting locker rooms.

If anything, we need more rabble rousing.
You start by calling for a certain level of interaction but you know that is going to escalate to swearing very quickly. And to who knows from there. Let it happen organically.

And I thought LaRussa in 2004 was pissed that the team was lodged in Quincy.
 

TheoShmeo

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You start by calling for a certain level of interaction but you know that is going to escalate to swearing very quickly. And to who knows from there. Let it happen organically.

And I thought LaRussa in 2004 was pissed that the team was lodged in Quincy.
Yeah, I think this is harmless fun and that really giving it to the Dodgers pitchers is absolutely called for tonight. We can agree to disagree.

As to LaRussa, correct, and he complained about the traffic coming in. This kind of reminds me of that. Another form of home cooking.
 

MakeMineMoxie

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Eff off, Rick. It's called Home Field ADVANTAGE for a reason. Don't like it? Should'a won more games.

Sox bleacher fans, verbally abuse them with your rapier-like wit and thrusts of soul-searing insight.
Don't worry, they won't be able to understand your accents, anyway!
 

HriniakPosterChild

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I'd attend Oakland games occasionally when I lived in the Bay Area and they are perhaps a slice of East Coast style fandom on the West Coast. I remember A-Rod in particular being an extreme object of ridicule of the sort I really wouldn't want a kid to hear. But it's a totally different vibe in the SF, LAD, and SD stadiums.
An Oakland fan went too far several years ago.

During a September 2004 road game against the Oakland Athletics, the Rangers’ bullpen endured the normal merciless heckling from the home fans. The fans allegedly crossed the line, though, when one of them make a crack about Rangers reliever Doug Brocail’s stillborn child, which so enraged Brocail that he rushed to confront the fan. A full-blown melee broke out, and during the fracas the rookie Francisco chucked a folding chair into the stands. The chair hit Jennifer Bueno, whose husband allegedly hurled the disrespectful heckle, in the face, breaking her nose.
https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/baseball-related-legal-disputes/
 

drbretto

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Am I the only one who thinks what sounded like "Yankees suck" was actually "Manny sucks" aimed at Machado?
I thought it was Yankees Suck.

I've never been a fan of that one, either. It's not a very good chant at all and just doesn't make us look good as a group one bit. I don't have a problem with chanting someone's name, though. In fact, I think that's about the best actual fan strategy there is. A player is up there trying to focus on the game and drown out the crowd and by saying their name like that in a way they will pick up could cause the player to lose that focus.
 

CentralMassDad

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May 9, 2018
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I thought it was Yankees Suck.

I've never been a fan of that one, either. It's not a very good chant at all and just doesn't make us look good as a group one bit. I don't have a problem with chanting someone's name, though. In fact, I think that's about the best actual fan strategy there is. A player is up there trying to focus on the game and drown out the crowd and by saying their name like that in a way they will pick up could cause the player to lose that focus.
Doesn't the sing-song name strongly evoke 1986 (Darr-ylll, Darr-ylll)? If this is a thing that was done during the more recent, and successful, runs, I must have blocked it out. I was surprised not to hear more "Beat L.A."
 

drbretto

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Doesn't the sing-song name strongly evoke 1986 (Darr-ylll, Darr-ylll)? If this is a thing that was done during the more recent, and successful, runs, I must have blocked it out. I was surprised not to hear more "Beat L.A."
It is that one. I more strongly remember it as ROH-Gerr, but yeah, same thing. Sox fans have continued to use this for years, including recently (and including last night). I genuinely think this actually works. Your name is something that stands out to you, so hearing 30,000 people chant it, it has a good shot of breaking through and getting your attention.

Edit: Not just get their attention, but also off their game. There's something inherently unsettling about a crowd singling you out. Something intrinsic in our DNA, a survival instinct. Either this group is a threat and therefor should illicit a flight or fight response, or (in situations where this could apply) it could lead to a desire to confirm to the group for safety. This is so ingrained inside us that it has to be hard to ignore.
 
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Ferm Sheller

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Didn’t Larussa whine about the quality of the post game spread or the breakfast at the hotel or something like that during the 2004 Series?
 

brandonchristensen

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Am I the only one who thinks what sounded like "Yankees suck" was actually "Manny sucks" aimed at Machado?
I hope that was it. Yankees Suck has no place in a World Series that the Yankees aren't in.

Manny Sucks would be appropriate, though when he's almost their entire offense last night, seems misinformed.

How about we just let the players play?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Because fans can't see into bullpens in LA?

I was under the impression that it isn't that fans are yelling things at the Dodger bullpen, it's that they're sooooooo close to them when they're doing it. The space in the pen is small as it is, but with the fans right on top of them (far closer than in Dodger Stadium), it just exacerbates the claustrophobic nature of being there.

The Dodgers are trotting out the excuses today. Not only is Honeycutt bitching about the fans near the pen, you got Madson blaming the cold for their pitching performance (or lack thereof). Even Roberts pulled the old "we're not making excuses" but proceeded to say that his team was affected by the cold temps.
 

bankshot1

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When I heard Honeycutt's whinig I laughed. He never saw a game at Fenway? Ever? Never talked to guys who pitched there? Its not like this is a new phenomena.

Fenway is like a lovefest compared to the '70s, when the real shit-bums and low-lifes could afford a ticket. Someone should interview Goose Gossage for his take.

and for clarity for broadcast TV, I'd go with a simple:

Eat shit, Ricky

clap, clap, clapclapclap.
 

joyofsox

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Didn’t Larussa whine about the quality of the post game spread or the breakfast at the hotel or something like that during the 2004 Series?
Globe, October 26, 2004
Call them the St. Louis Crabs. In a story in the Post-Dispatch yesterday, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa characterized his team's accommodations during its visit to Boston as embarrassing and ''a real bummer." (Because many area hotels had been booked for months for the Head of the Charles, the Redbirds were shunted 12 miles south of Fenway Park, into the lovely Quincy Marriott.) ''For most of these guys, this is their first World Series experience, right?" La Russa said. ''When the game is over, if you're [in Boston] there are all kind of restaurants here. In Quincy, there wasn't anything except for the hotel that stayed open for us. We shouldn't have had this problem." What, the Egg & I on Hancock Street wasn't good enough for you? To be fair, although the hotel's room service shut down at 11:30 p.m., it did provide an after-hours spread of bar food for the team and its traveling party. And, really, does Larry Walker eat anything but bar food? La Russa said he considered returning the favor by booking the Sox into a hotel in Jefferson City, Mo., but he can't -- they're already in at the Adam's Mark in St. Louis.
 

gedman211

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Where are the true patriots who got Jim eisenreich institutionalized in the '80s?
 

Jordu

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I was standing with a mass of badly behaved bleacher fans in 1988 at the bullpen fence when Dave Stewart of the A’s was warming up before the game. Some of us were loudy and repeatedly taunting Stewart about his arrest on charges of picking up a cross-dressing hooker.

Stewart never looked at us, but he let loose a fastball straight into bullpen fence. Everybody jumped back.
 

DJnVa

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When I heard Honeycutt's whinig I laughed. He never saw a game at Fenway? Ever? Never talked to guys who pitched there? Its not like this is a new phenomena.

Fenway is like a lovefest compared to the '70s, when the real shit-bums and low-lifes could afford a ticket. Someone should interview Goose Gossage for his take.

and for clarity for broadcast TV, I'd go with a simple:

Eat shit, Ricky

clap, clap, clapclapclap.

Honeycutt pitched 18 games in Fenway, 14 in relief. I think this was a misguided attempt to shift the attention from his pitchers, but it likely did the opposite.
 

DJnVa

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WE ARE STEALING SIGNS
WE ARE STEALING SIGNS
WE ARE STEALING SIGNS
 

geoflin

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Honeycutt was talking about the fans being too close and mentioned "3 feet away." He was clearly referring to RF Box 1 where the fans are just a bit more than 3 feet away from any pitcher warming up.
 

Orel Miraculous

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Am I the only one who remembers the 2003 ALDS against the A’s, when the bench incited the crowd by lining up in the dugout with LI - L - LY taped on their backs? In retrospect, I’m shocked that MLB players would do that to one of their own. And further, I think if this happened today it would be a scandal that would consume the national media for a week.
 

InstaFace

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I was standing with a mass of badly behaved bleacher fans in 1988 at the bullpen fence when Dave Stewart of the A’s was warming up before the game. Some of us were loudy and repeatedly taunting Stewart about his arrest on charges of picking up a cross-dressing hooker.

Stewart never looked at us, but he let loose a fastball straight into bullpen fence. Everybody jumped back.
This is the kind of story I read SoSH for.

As for the 1999 ALCS, what I remember is post- Clemens being relieved:

WHERE IS RAH-JAH
clap clap clapclapclap
IN THA SHAH-WAH
clap clap clapclapclap

Somewhere deep in the SoSH archives we have that video, and it is glorious.