Saturday, December 29, 2012

FN Contest Winner Is Sox Blogger From Ukraine

We talk all the time about how the Red Sox have a world-wide following. FenwayNation alone routinely attracts visitors from over 100 countries. Today's Trivia Contest is another reminder of how truly global our "Red Sox Thing" really is. The contest winner was Vitaly Vinar of Ukraine. I asked Vitaly if it was OK for us to share his story of how he became a Red Sox fan. He agreed. Here is his story:

"I was a common guy in Ukraine who didn't know anything about baseball, but baseball always fascinated me. I don't know why, but that's true. I loved to read Stephen King's books, and when I read "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", I bought video game "MVP Baseball 2005" and that's how I learned the simple rules of baseball. Of course, I was playing for the Red Sox, but I still didn't know much about baseball. Then, in 2007 I bought the book "Faithful" by King and O'Nan, and that's when I started to follow baseball. The Red Sox won their second World Series, I finally got speedy and cheap Internet in my home, and my love to baseball started. Later I found torrent trackers and was able to watch some baseball games. In 2010, I started my own Red Sox blog. In 2011, I subscribed to MLB.TV and from that time I watched most games live, even though most of them start at 2 AM here (7:10 PM ET = 2:10 AM our time). My blog is growing and now I post not only some game recaps, as early, I make analysis of every transaction and all important news. Sometimes I write historical articles and now I'm working on 2nd number of my Red Sox journal . To follow Red Sox that close, I read many Red Sox and MLB-related sites. As for my favourite players - I adore Pedro Martinez (his biography was my first article in my journal) and Nomar. Now, I like Pedey and Daniel Nava (for his unbelievable story), but my really favourite player is Pedro. I loved Ichiro, even if he didn't played for the Sox, and was very sad when he was traded to Yankees. Also I cried when Johnny Pesky passed - he was a great person, even if he was guilty in Enos Slaughter's deciding run in 1946 WS. My favourite moment? Of course, the Sox 2004 playoff run, I watch the highlights from it every time. I love to watch Pedro's gems - 1999 All-Star game, 17K game vs. Yankees and so on. And Nava's first pitch granny against Joe Blanton which I was able to see live, not in replays."

Amazing. This is why we love this team—all over the world.