The Red Sox, the Red Sox 2007 Yearbook, and Politics

Yes, I am going to tie those three subjects together. With this being a kind of down time in politics, I thought I would let some of my feelings about the Red Sox front office out. Let me first start by giving you the obligitory “I am a huge Red Sox fan, and have been all my life” disclaimer. I love almost all the changes they have made to the ballpark, with exception to Conigliaro’s Corner, it just doesn’t seem to look right out there. They have put a very competitive product on the field every year, and of course finally won the world series in 2004.

It is after this world series win where the politics of the Red Sox front office first came into play. I don’t know how well known this is outside of New England, the chairman of the Red Sox is Tom Werner, who is a television producer and had a little fling with Katie Couric. The Red Sox ownership group also owns part of the Boston Globe and New York Times, two liberal papers. It is rumored that some Boston Globe employees even received World Series rings.

After the World Series victory, Curt Schilling agreed to go on the campaign trail with George W Bush. But with Schilling being a diehard conservative, and a Christian, and the ownership being liberals, they persuaded him that it would be better for his damaged ankle to rest it. He agreed. I have always believed that Curt’s politics was the real reason behind them telling Schilling not to campaign, and not the injury. The next thing you know, the Red Sox owners are making appearences with John Kerry on the campaign trail. Well, Curt finally went to one event and introduced George Bush to an audience on the campaign trail.

Fast forward to 2007. I bought my son the 2007 Red Sox yearbook. In this new yearbook the Red Sox are embracing multi-culturism. They have all Red Sox players pictures taken in front of their home country. I thought it was a pretty good idea, with the signing of Japanese superstar Dice-K, they have players from seven countries.

So we start flipping through the yearbook and the first picture is the manager, Terry Francona, and he is standing behind the American flag.

BUT, one thing really stands out to me.

The flag is hung backwards. We flip through the pages and every American flag is backwards. I then take a second look at the cover, and behind Jason Varitek the flag is backwards.

Maybe I am over-reacting to this , but I find this unacceptable. I can’t believe that on it’s face the cameramen, producers, ownership, editors, and anyone else involved in this yearbook that no-one realized the flags were backwards. Which led me to believe the move was intentional. This was probably irrational, maybe most people don’t know flag ettiquette, I don’t know. But I still find it hard to believe nobody noticed this. Maybe it was too late in production for them to re-do the yearbook pictures so they went with it anyway, or maybe they are trully ignorant of flag ettiquette. If that’s the case shouldn’t they have inquired about the proper displaying of the flag?

This led me to email the Red Sox, I still have not gotten a reply. My email may have been over the top as I asked them if they were ignorant of flag ettiquette, or if they did this as a protest.

This may be a non issue to many, but when I see a flag hung the wrong way at someone’s house it does kind of irk me, although I know their intention is well meaning and they just don’t know the proper way to display the flag. But when an organization like the Red Sox, who are public relation savvy, have the flag displayed improperly it makes me wonder the intentions.

There are three reasons I can think of for this transgretion:

1: Ignorance of the proper way to display the flag.

2: It was noticed too late in production to change it.

3: It was done as a possible protest.

Out of these three options the one I find most palatable is that it was noticed too late in production. America being a capitolist society, I can understand not wanting to retake all the pictures and halt production for cost reasons.

The other two excuses are inexcusable to me.

As I have said, I have probably over reacted to this but knowing the front office politics of the Red Sox I can’t help but wonder.

Of course I will not let this affect my enjoyment of the product on the field. As long as they are dedicated to winning I will enjoy the Red Sox. But their front office politics sometimes makes me wonder.