Boston is not exactly raring with excitement about the return of the Red Sox.
With about a week to go until MLB Opening Day, the NBC affiliate in Boston did a whole segment about how much nobody cares.
The segment was introduced with the anchor saying that “nobody seems to be talking about the Red Sox”, and that reporter Mary Markos was on the scene around Fenway to “find out if anyone cares.”
Of the sample respondents, the answer was a resounding no.
“Not only are they unaware of Opening Day, many of them can’t even name a current Red Sox player,” Markos said soberly.
The first young woman interviewed in the clip couldn’t name anybody, then a young man asked, “Current? [Rafael] Devers. That’s probably it.”
Another man said, “Damn, I’m blanking right now!”
Samantha Perez, described in the chyron as living by Fenway, said, “Usually other years I kind of hear about it or people are talking about it. But this year, I didn’t even know that they were starting. I had no idea.”
Markos noted that bleacher tickets were going on the secondary market for as little as $11, a discount previously unheard of.
Local sportscaster John Tomase put the onus on the ownership group led by John Henry, noting that they “haven’t spent money to put a representative team on the field, and that’s how you wind up with this sort of apathy that we’re talking about a week or two ahead of Opening Day.”
The Red Sox finished last season at 78-84, last in the AL East, and 23 games behind the first-place Orioles.
The team’s biggest free-agent acquisition this offseason, Lucas Giolito, who signed a two-year deal worth about $38 million, might miss the entire season with an elbow injury.
The Sox also made a rare trade with their rival Yankees, sending outfielder Alex Verdugo to the Bronx for reliever Greg Weissert and two minor league pitchers, Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice.
Compounding local non-interest for the Red Sox is the silver lining for die-hard sports fans in New England that the Celtics and Bruins are championship contenders.