In late January of 2000, mere months after the Red Sox had lost another ALCS to the Empire (4 games to 1), a group of Red Sox fans grew tired of lamenting over the Olde Towne Team in a low-tech mode. There's just so much angst you can unload at the office water cooler. The times demanded another vehicle to express our obsession with the Red Sox. Thankfully, years before saving the planet from climate catastrophe, Al Gore had the foresight to create the Internet! [Editor's note: We're trying real hard, Ringo, not to let our political biases show here. We can't, however, resist our penchant for obscure Pulp Fiction references].
So, two of these fans, Ernie Paicopolos and Ric Glaub, set out to put together a website that would offer a virtual water cooler for our fellow Sox-obsessed buddies. And, for the first several months, that's all FenwayNation was. Then, somewhere around the time that Al Gore failed to carry his own home state and lost the presidential election, the site shape-shifted into a "one-stop-shopping" venue for all things Red Sox. We started writing scathing commentaries and game summaries, posting reader polls, listing valuable links to media and other Sox-related sites. Then, the "hits" just kept on coming. The site steadily grew in popularity. Now, we routinely get visitors from over 100 countries around the world. I guess this "Nation" thing is for real. We look forward to many more years of service to our loyal readers.
Ernie Paicopolos grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts—precisely 5.49 miles from Fenway Park (you could look it up!). He attended his first Red Sox game just three days shy of his 5th birthday on Saturday, July 8th, 1956. The Red Sox swept the Baltimore Orioles that day in a double-header, and his Section 19, Row 4, Seat 18 grandstand ticket set his Dad back a whopping $1.90 (He still has the actual ticket framed in his office). Ernie lived through the horrific 1950's Red Sox teams—when the only shining lights were Williams, Malzone, and Jensen. A pennant (let alone a World Series title) was a complete and total impossibility. His despair was so deep that he briefly flirted with rooting for another team (those self-same Orioles from his first game). Ironically, his one year of fanhood resulted in the Birds winning the 1966 World Series in a sweep of the Dodgers. Guilt-ridden, he decided to re-apply his loyalty to the Red Sox in 1967. 'Nuff ced. Oh, and by the way, if you really prod him, he might tell you about the RBI he got off Luis Tiant at Red Sox Fantasy Camp in 1992. Anyway, the angst of the Sox championship drought undoubtedly shaped his generally pessimistic attitude toward the Olde Towne Team, so the 2004 win was almost too much to bear. The 2007 crown was, for him, the fulfillment of the New Order. He expects many more titles in his lifetime. Or else. (Ernie is a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association Of America—IBWAA)
Richard Glaub was born just after the turn of the past half century in Boise, Idaho - a place bereft of major league baseball. His first brush with the major leagues was at the age of eight, when the Milwaukee Braves came to Boise to play an exhibition game with the Boise Braves, of the Class C Pioneer League (for two seasons the Boise Yankees were a Yankees farm team, before affiliating with the Braves). It was a thrilling day as Richard was able to get Warren Spahn's autograph. Catching for the Boise nine that day was a young prospect named Joe Torre. A year later, Richard became a strong Pittsburgh Pirates fan because an Idaho-born pitcher named Vern Law helped lead the Pirates to a thrilling World Series win in 1960. It was then that Richard began to hate the Yankees. The Pirates thing didn't really take root and Richard became a free agent major league fan, flirting with such teams as the L.A. Dodgers and later the Seattle Mariners. That all ended on a shiny day in 1983 when he first walked through a tunnel at Fenway Park to see a twi-night double header and was presented with the emerald green Sox playing field and the Green Monster. Richard was smitten on that day and has been a loyal, naturalized Red Sox fan ever since. While there are those who consider Richard suspect, as he has only been a Red Sox fan for 29 years, he points out that he has hated the Yankees for over 50 years, and that anyone who stayed loyal through the ’86 season should be cut some slack. He now resides in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he continues to follow and report on the Carmine Hose.
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