Nuf Ced...

Forget Jerry Remy, Michael "Nuf Ced" McGreevey was the original President of Red Sox Nation. Back in the day, before Fenway Park and the Great Bambino, back when the Olde Towne Team was referred to as the Boston Americans, McGreevey owned the original sports bar in the greatest sports town in America: Third Base Saloon, named so because "it was the last place you stopped before home." McGreevey was the founder of the Royal Rooters, the first organized baseball fan club in the world, and was the most intensely loyal fan the team ever had.

Most modern day fans have only heard of Michael McGreevey because of the tremendously popular "Tessie" by the Dropkick Murphys:

Tessie, Nuf Ced McGreevey shouted

We're not here to mess around

Boston, you know we love you madly

"Tessie," was a Broadway song that was the rallying cry of McGreevey's Royal Rooters, and was most famously sung so boisterously by the troupe during the first World Series in 1903 that it distracted the opposing Pittsburgh Pirates enough for Boston's team to rally and take the series.

Now, McGreevey and his Rooters lived in a golden age of Boston Baseball - the Americans/Red Sox won the World Series in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918 - but you can bet he'd be ashamed to see the fairweather fans of today.

Today's loss was hard to take [understatement of the year]. After the final out, I got up, called my dogs, walked them down to the river, and sat there for more than an hour. When I had collected myself [and gotten uncomfortably cold], I returned to my house and made fudge [coping mechanism]. There are as many ways to cope as there are fans, but those who malign the Angels are poor sports at best. The Angels did their jobs. The Red Sox did not. As heartbreaking as that is, it's the truth: our closer had a meltdown at a critical moment, after proving his mettle in countless high-pressure situations.

Nuf Ced would roll over in his grave to see so-called diehards behaving this way. You always cheer on your team, but should also applaud worthy opponents. Just because we have dispatched the Angels in quick fashion in recent October memory does not mean it is our birthright.

This loss was hard to stomach, but some of the reactions are even worse: Sox fans are acting like spoiled children who feel they deserve October glory. If you want to behave in that manner, go cheer for the Yankees - Red Sox Nation doesn't need you.