Good vibrations?

The Red Sox are having what is, so far, a PA season. As in pretty abysmal. 

I've been in person to two games so far. (Both losses called in by a pretty dispirited team.) And that's going to be it for a while. 

I almost got a last minute ticket last week - a weekday afternoon game on a pleasant spring day - but the Red Sox are so god-awful that I decided not to throw anymore good money at these bad boys, so I stayed home. 

Good thing. The Olde Towne Team got clobbered.

I'm sure I'll be back at Fenway for another game or two, but I sure wish that they were more fun to watch. And I also wish that, when they are sucking big time, the front office would lower ticket prices or throw in a free Fenway Frank or bobblehead. (I'm sure they've got some old Mookie Betts bobbleheads somewhere, squirreled away in a cupboard gathering 1912 commemorative dust.)

It's too bad, as I very much enjoy watching baseball, especially in person.

While the Red Sox have been busy putting a truly lackluster team on the field, they've been upping their entertainment game.   

In the old days, the only music was organ music. Which I was fine with.

Then they started interspersing organ music with pop songs, often oldies, which makes sense given the demographic that most closely follows baseball. (I.e, mine.) That and pep songs like the Dropkick Murphys' Shipping Up to Boston. Oh, and, of course, Sweet Caroline midway through the 8th inning. They also played a recording of the Standells' Dirty Water (I did mention Boomer-era oldies, did I not?) whenever the Sox won. So I haven't heard that one in a while. 

For the most part, the only current, up-to-date music you heard was the choices selected by the batters when they come up to bat, which - depending on the player - tend to be salsa, country, or heavy metal. 

This season, presumably in an effort to woo younger fans to the park, the Sox have brought on DJ Kahleil Blair, who plays tune from the likes of Dua Lipa - and performers I've never heard of, like Owl City. Which means that:

At Fenway Park, there's been a very noticeable vibe shift. For more than a decade, the electric guitar riff of "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band blared before first pitch -- but the times are changing on Jersey Street...

The gravelly voice of Springsteen still makes its appearances, along with other Fenway favorites, but in between there is the sound of a new generation of Bostonians, including tracks from more contemporary musicians like "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, "Butter" by K-pop megagroup BTS or "DÁKITI" by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny. (Source: ESPN)

I'm fine with the new musical approach. Frankly, in the games I've been to, I didn't really notice it, but music that's more diverse and inclusive: okay by me.  And with the high percentage of Latin players in the bigs, if more Latin music makes the players happy, and if more Hispanic fans are coming out, that's great. Life ain't all Elton John and the Beachboys.

But is hipper music really going to get younger folks, who're not exactly big baseball fans, to come out to the park? 

Red Sox SVP of fan services and entertainment Sarah McKenna apparently thinks so.  

To account for the changing face of the city, the team needed to make changes, and as the music played at Fenway Park trended younger and more diverse, so too, the Red Sox hoped, would the fans at the ballpark, said McKenna.

"We wanted Fenway to be a more dancier place, to feel more diverse and present. Those were our two goals," McKenna said. "We want it to be more inclusive and more of a dance place. There are still people that are coming to watch a baseball game, so it's finding that balance."

Making Fenway a "more dancier place"? 

Although I'm tsk-tsking in my mind of minds, I'll overlook that grammar and laser in on making Fenway "dancier." Sure, there's the mildly amusing dance-off contest - I think the winner gets sneakers - but making Fenway "more of a dance place"? WT almighty F? As fun as it is to see concerts there - and I've seen James Taylor, Zac Brown, Billy Joel, The Boss - Fenway Park is a ballpark. 

And I'm pretty sure that when people come to Fenway, more than a few of the are actually "coming to watch a baseball game." 

But maybe I'm wrong.

Over the past couple of decades, in the modern Red Sox era, when the team has often contended and have even won four World Series
(since 2004), they've certainly had seasons when coming to Fenway became an "it" thing. A lot of the fans weren't fans. They were Pink Hats who didn't know baseball from foosball, and who may have even thought that the team colors were pink and white. 

It was annoying to have to vie for tickets with those who just wanted to see and be seen. But, fortunately, that sems to have calmed down, and it's now easy enough to get tickets. I suppose it helps that the team is terrible...

I know that while plenty of us are diehards, there are also plenty of folks who aren't rabid baseball fans who still like to come to a game occasionally. But, seriously, why pay the big bucks - and the Red Sox have one of the highest ticket prices in major league baseball (if not the highest) - if all you're doing is coming to dance?

Makes no sense to me.

That said, bring on the dancier music. I'm probably not going to get up and dance, but cool.

I'd rather have them pay a bit more attention to the team they're putting on the field. A better team is the sort of good vibration I want to vibe on. 

But, hey, K-pop and Dua Lipa. I'm down with that, too.