Sports franchises are all about the shiny clean model these days. They wanted the prettiest, the slickest and the best-looking team.
The 2010s are an age for clean-cut and trendy. It is an era for sabermetrics, efficiency and marketable young stars.
Especially in Major League Baseball, there is little place for scruff.
But the 2013 Boston Red Sox are out to prove that there isn’t anything wrong with a little dirt, a little grime and a little bit of fray at the edges.
After losing 93 games in 2012 as one of the star-laden, fancy and fresh franchises we so love, the Red Sox reinvented themselves.
They brought in guys like Mike Napoli, Johnny Gomes and Shane Victorino.
These players aren’t stars. They aren’t high-flying youngsters who Tweet a lot and make teenage girls swoon. They are veteran guys with chips on their shoulders, beards on their chins and dirt on their jerseys.
With a rough-around-the-edges style reminiscent of the 2004 Idiot days, the Red Sox won the AL East in 2013 and look like the favorites to win the American League pennant.
So in the era where shiny and new is all the rage, the Sox are proving that being a little wild and crazy isn’t a bad thing.
Reach the columnist at icbeck@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @ICBeck21
