I know this room, I've walked this floor...

I've discovered that there's an immense difference between a Red Sox fan and a baseball fan who roots for the Red Sox. I happen to be the latter. Basically, a Red Sox fan is someone who only knows a little about the team, and couldn't care less about what happens elsewhere in the league. A baseball fan appreciates good play, even that of a rival. Obviously, this also applies to the Yankees, and probably in more extreme cases. Some examples:

A Red Sox fan wears a green Red Sox cap, and for the ladies, a baby blue Sox cap.

A baseball fan wears an extremely faded, traditional cap that was once blue, but has degraded to a color with no name. (People who know me can recognize my Walter Zenga hat as a good example of this.)

A Red Sox fan could name all nine players on any given day if you spot them Mark Bellhorn.

A baseball fan could name all twenty-five men on the playoff roster, and tell you in what situations they're best used.

A Red Sox fan recognizes three of the five retired Red Sox players' names: Yastrzemski, Williams, and Fisk.

A baseball fan knows that Doerr was the best second baseman who ever lived, and Cronin was one of the last player-managers.

A Red Sox fan thinks the team won the World Series for people like him.

A baseball fan knows that the team did it for the players and fans of old, like Pesky, Petrocelli, Lynn, and all our grandparents who never got to see this happen.

Get the point? Red Sox fans piss me off. At the first sign of trouble, they'll bolt, their green and pink hats stashed in a distant closet until the team can pull themselves out of the slump. Baseball fans wear their hat regardless of the previous night's result.

Short entry, but it got a point across.