Fire
John Farrell. Hire a brand, spanking new manager. And.............dump 'Sweet Caroline'? This final change is advocated by Brighton resident
John Hutchings who has placed a petition on
Change.org to scrap the sappy
Neil Diamond ditty and replace it with the gritty, inspiring 'Won't Back Down' by the late
Tom Petty. Part of Hutchings rationale is that—during Game Three of the ALDS—the Petty tune was played twice to rousing crowd enthusiasm, and Boston won. Say's Hutchings:
"Since 1997, Neil Diamond's legendary 1969 hit song 'Sweet Caroline' has been played during Boston Red Sox home games at Fenway Park. In the early 2000's when the team was competing for World Series titles, the song became synonymous with Fenway Park and Boston in general. However, time has passed and the Red Sox, Boston, and Fenway Park itself are a lot different than in 1997, or 2004, or 2007 or even 2013. It's a new era of Boston Red Sox baseball featuring exciting young players. Therefore it's time to retire 'Sweet Caroline' and move on to something to represent the new era of Red Sox baseball." It's hard to argue with this. We at
FenwayNation have never been fans of the 8th-inning sing-along—especially in games where the team is having it's clocked cleaned. Plus, 'Sweet Caroline' is just too saccharine, too much geared to the casual fans in our midst. Switching to a hard-nosed tune like 'Won't Back Down' makes sense. As Hutchings goes on:
"The song's message is synonymous with the Boston Red Sox long time philosophy of never giving up before the last out." Indeed. You can sign the petition
HERE.
