Chad Finn, On The Boston Media's Deep-Seated Need For Chronic Negativity

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe wrote an essay on the Boston Red Sox for 2019's Baseball Prospectus Annual. It was republished at Deadspin.

It Shouldn't Be So Hard To Enjoy The Red Sox's Glory Days

The culture of Red Sox fandom was going to change for the so-much-better after the affirming events of October 2004. Hell yeah, it was. How could it not? Though so many sunny summers that inevitably chilled to anguished autumns during the franchise's 86-season World Series championship drought, the daydream of what life as a Boston baseball fan would be like if—no, when, for there was always at least a frayed thread of authentic hope—the Red Sox won a World Series was a constant one.

The years when all the Boston faithful had were dreams provided a vivid idea of what winning would be like, how catharsis and pure, life-changing joy would feel, before it finally and at last came to be. ... Also, we would definitely stop bitching about every minute thing that went wrong, or even hinted that it might. Man, were we ever master pre-bitchers. No more of that. ...

Yes sir, that's how it was supposed to go, those 15 years ago, after the 2004 Red Sox—a united, supremely talented, oblivious-to-pressure squad, or one possessing every attribute necessary to exorcise all perceived ghosts and lame narratives—showed us what a seemingly impossible dream looked like once fulfilled. It has not gone that way, despite three more Red Sox champions since, and eight more among New England's other major professional sports teams since the turn of the century. ...

As exasperating as it can be, and as much as we should be accountable for our own actions as fans, I should stop suggesting that this is entirely on a vocal, negative segment the fanbase because it is not entirely all their fault. It's the media culture that perpetrates it, shapes a bitter narrative, finds the negative needle in a haystack of positives, conjures some negative conjecture when there is no real negative to be found, and then processes into hot takes for easy consumption.

In retrospect, the '18 Red Sox played as close to a drama-free season of baseball excellence as there can be. They had the best record in spring training, sprinted out to a 17-2 regular-season start, never lost more than three games in a row, never won fewer than 15 games in a month, captured the American League East title by eight games, collected a franchise-record 108 regular season wins, and tore through the postseason, going 11-3 in the playoffs and World Series while wiping out the Yankees, Astros, and Dodgers along the way. ...

History will remember the 2018 Red Sox as one of the greatest teams ever. But few high-profile opinion makers in Boston—particularly in the aural cesspool that is sports radio—acknowledged it in real time. The most consistent talking points during the regular season weren't about Betts's all-around brilliance on a daily basis, rookie manager Alex Cora's charming candor and informed tactical boldness, or how J.D. Martinez was in every way the replacement for David Ortiz they so desperately lacked in 2017. No, they howled about Dave Dombrowski's checkered history of bullpen construction and his perceived failures to bolster the roster at the trade deadline. They told us time and time again that the regular season meant nothing, as if it were foolish and even wrong to enjoy the Red Sox' daily feats. ...

I've often thought David Ortiz is the best thing ever to happen to the Red Sox; he delivered the big hits that all the legends before him could not. But [David] Price, with his talent, defensiveness, flaws, and salary, might have been the greatest gift to happen to the Boston media. ... [I]t's the first time I can recall seeing a dominating team also have a scapegoat.

The sports radio banshees didn't care to acknowledge that the Red Sox were cutting a path to history for a simple reason: preaching misery is lucrative. Negativity is proven to earn massive ratings in sports radio's targeted men 25-54 demographic in Boston ...

A host on [one Boston] station said during the World Series that he's tired of hearing about Dave Roberts's history-altering steal in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. Two days after Mookie Betts—as admirable a person as he is a ballplayer—won the American League Most Valuable Player award, the same host was yelping that the Red Sox should trade him now because he could leave as a free agent after 2020. This show has been rated No. 1 in its time-slot for six consecutive years. ...

Sports radio brainwashes too many fans into believing optimism makes you a Pollyanna. Too many fans are willing to go along with it without any critical thinking. It's not just that they're chicken littles, telling you that the sky is falling. They tell you the sky was never that great, never especially bright or blue, in the first place. ...

In the final episode of the American version of The Office, the character Andy Bernard says, "I wish there was a way to tell you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." It's a sweet, sentimental line, but the reality is that there is a way to know—all it requires is a conscious effort and willingness to appreciate the good stuff as it is happening. I wish more Red Sox fans knew, or cared to do, this.