I think we Red Sox fans, particularly those lucky (?) enough to get to Fenway this year should take a page from the brilliant Irish fans at the World Cup. Despite being eliminated early, they spent their last few minutes at Euro 2012 singing “The Fields of Athenry”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOLgXjplfh4 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vemnEAuaKfg

It was a testament to the fans of that Irish squad who traveled so far to watch their team simply get run over by some of the world heavy weights. They showed sheer class — something I’d love to see from the fan bases of which I consider myself a part.

Sure, we’re paying high prices for the tickets and concessions, and sure, the players, managers, owner, media, are all getting their piece of the pie and maybe not showing the same passion for the team that some of us have fostered over years and years of agonizing over the fate of this team; maybe we feel betrayed that this team can’t quite live up to the lofty, sometimes unrealistic expectations and pure *hunger* for a winning, magical team (like those in 2004 and 2007… heck, like the spurt of Morgan Magic in the summer of ’88 and even 1986 up until the end, and the list could go on). But that’s out of our hands. The winning and losing and sort of caring that’s going to affect the outcome of the game at hand is not in our control. What is in our control is showing our passion for this team, in most cases this season the years of supporting this year.

What I propose is that, if the Sox are down at the 8th inning stretch, instead of singing along with Sweet Caroline the fan take up the Fields of Athenry as our anthem. It isn’t “Shipping up to Boston”, or “Tessie”, or “Sweet Caroline”, it would be something from the fans, for the fans, and I can’t think of anything more haunting or powerful than that Irish serenade.

If the crotchety old Fenway speaker system is too loud and drowns us out, how about we take over another inning, then? Following the 8th inning, heading into the 9th?

I realize what I’m proposing is cheering, regardless of outcome and effort on the field, for a team which is, for all intents and purposes (actually, in fact), a corporation. A corporation making a good deal of money off of our long term love for the Red Sox. So feel free to boo as lustily as you like, the rest of the game, let’s just try and show a bit of class, like the lasting impression left by the Irish fans at Euro 2012.