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Looks Like the 2024 Season for the Boston Red Sox is Going to be a Swing and a Miss!

April 15th, 2024 by Kenneth Abrahams

There is no better time of the year than early Spring for a baseball fan. Hope springs eternal as the slate is reset and every team starts 0-0 with, in theory, the chance to be doused in Champaign and hoist the World Series Trophy in October. Many Red Sox fans suffer through the cold, dreary winter months just waiting for the obligatory photo of the truck being loaded outside of Fenway Park ready to head to the warm confines of JetBlue Park, the team’s spring training home. This year felt different. At the end of last season, the Sox parted ways with their General Manager and brought back an individual that had played with the team years earlier. With the new leadership there were promises that the team was going to spend money and put a quality product on the field. Days became weeks, which soon turned into months, and except for a few minor changes, it looked like the team was going to go into the season banking on the youth of the organization to carry them. In fact, they let some veterans that had contributed in 2023 walk away or traded them for some affordable utility pieces. To be sure, the fan base was not happy.

Spring Training produced a better-than-expected record and the first 10 games, all on the road, were a pleasant surprise. A four-game split with the Seattle Mariners, a three-game sweep against the Oakland Athletics, followed by 2 – 1 series win in Anaheim against the Angels put the Sox in second place, just a game behind the dreaded Yankees. On that road trip their pitching, especially starting pitching, was outstanding and they played good defense, areas of concern before the start of the season. They came home and after an emotional Opening Day pre-game ceremony honoring the curse breaking team of 2004 and remembering Tim Wakefield, they lost 7-1 to the Orioles and then proceeded to lose 3 more in a row. Defense and pitching became the problems that many fans and sportswriters predicted. Along with the losses that they suffered on the scoreboard, star third baseman Rafael Devers, often injured shortstop Trevor Story, and workhorse pitcher Nick Pivetta all went down with injuries. Story is out for the season. Perhaps all those last place finish projections are going to be realized.

Fans in Boston want winners, or at the very least competitive teams. After years of putting money into the team and getting outstanding free agents along with developing top notch young talent, this current ownership group seems to be putting time, effort, and money into other projects. Fenway Sports Group now owns a racing team, a large share of the Pittsburg Penguins hockey team, the Liverpool Football Club (soccer), and is part of a group that just invested 3 billion dollars in the PGA tour. The Red Sox faithful are wondering where the love for their beloved baseball team has gone. Over the last handful of years, they have finished last more often than making it to the playoffs.

How is this any way to run a business? It seems as if this is a business that doesn’t really care about their fans or more importantly their customers. What if other businesses ran this way? Imagine if you will, you go into a high-end retail store like a Nieman Marcus, Lord and Taylor, or Macy’s and the store is laid out and filled with the type and quality of merchandise that you would find in a Dollar Store or Five Below but at the prices you would expect to see at a Nieman Marcus et al. How many times would you shop there? Would you pay Gordon Ramsey prices if the executive chefs only experience was spending 2 weeks as a fry cook at McDonalds and the quality of the food reflected that. If you are a traveler, are you willing to pay Ritz-Carlton prices to stay at a hotel with the quality and amenities of a Motel 6? We all want to get value when we plunk down our hard-earned dollars.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, they are the only major league baseball team not just in town but in all of New England. They continue to charge not only major league prices for putting an inferior product on the field, but some of the highest prices in all of major league baseball. Three of the last four years, the Sox have been in the bottom of their division. After their dismal season last year, fans were promised a full throttle off season and yet despite having a number of glaring holes in their lineup, little money was spent. It would be easy to blame the players or the manager, but this is clearly owner malfeasance. Despite the neglect by the owners, the fans continue to show up.

As a business, FUN Enterprises would not be so lucky if we treated our clients the way the Sox have treated their fans. Unlike the Sox, we are in a highly competitive environment and our clients expect, as well as deserve, the very best. We cannot show up with untested or damaged equipment and hope for the best. Our staff, like the Red Sox players, make errors, but unlike the Sox we are held accountable by our clients and ourselves. Recently, we had a client respond to our request for a review of a program that we had done. They responded and pulled no punches as they were not 100% satisfied with what we had provided. Now mind you, we provided exactly what the contract required but this client had a problem with the attitude of one staff member and the quality of work with a second program. Our first response was to apologize. As a team we felt badly that we had let this particular client down. It is something that we never want to have happen. People and organizations hire us to elevate their events and not detract from them. We apologized but also felt that wasn’t enough. On top of the apology, we refunded the client a portion of what they had paid. Imagine the Red Sox offering an apology to their fans and providing a refund or some sort of compensation for putting a subpar product on the field.

When the Red Sox were in Oakland, they played 3 games to very sparse crowds. When they came back to the friendly confines of Fenway Park, their performances were witnessed by full or near capacity crowds. What makes this more maddening is that the Sox have a very knowledgeable, loyal, dedicated fan base that supports this team through thick and thin. As a business owner, I can’t think of taking that trust or loyalty for granted.

Yep, it looks like it is going to be a long season for the 2024 Red Sox and their fans. Despite not putting a quality product on the field, and hanging their players, manager, and coaches out to dry, the owners of the team will reap financial rewards as fans still flock to the ballpark. Hopefully, at some point the owners will do the right thing and again invest in this team. From those of us at FUN, we just want to let all of you know that we truly appreciate you and if you ever have a problem with the service that we have provided, or with one of our staff that worked at your event, let us know because we want to make it right.

About the author

Ken Abrahams grew up in South Bend Indiana where he was a Chicago Cubs fan. When he moved to Boston, he switched to being a Red Sox fan. It was easy in those days going from one long suffering snake bitten team to another. Growing up, both college and professional sports were important to him, but that passion has waned over time as money has corrupted sports at all levels.

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