
Lessons in Red Sox fandom, courtesy of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In an effort to avoid the Big Mess that is the Red Sox, I’ve been learning more about hockey recently, which was a sport I eschewed for most of my life, despite Boston’s very storied hockey history, and despite the fact that the Bruins aren’t in the hockey postseason this year. Specifically, I’ve been learning about the lore of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I first watched UrinatingTree’s Leafs Half Century of Failure video about a year ago (VERY worth the watch, it is both informative and funny) and the Leafs history has fascinated me every since. They’re the perennial playoff chokers, and that includes this year, when they lost in Game 7 again. They have not even made it to the Stanley Cup finals since the last year they won, which was 1967.
For those of you who don’t know, the Leafs, their fanbase, and the media all have a very complicated relationship. The fans love the Leafs. The Leafs do not love the fans. The media does not love the fans. The Leafs do not love the media. The media feels whatever they feel they’re supposed to feel about the Leafs. And from what I’ve seen, time and time again, every time the Leafs don’t advance in the playoffs beyond the first or second round, the media and the Leafs blame the fans. The Maple Leaf fans are colloquially called “The Noise”, or sometimes “The Pressure”. The idea is that the fans are so “noisy” and the pressure they put on the Leafs is “so great” that the Leafs buckle under and fail. The Leafs, who are the actual players on the ice doing badly, receive less blame for losing than the people who pay money to watch the Leafs. There’s a notion that the Leafs would do better without The Noise (literal or figurative), but what would that would mean? Nobody shows up? Even when nobody could show up during the pandemic, the Leafs still didn’t succeed in the playoffs.
Crazy, right? Try imagining that kind of mindset with any baseball franchise. With the Worst Seasons Ever for the A’s in 2023, the White Sox last year, and the Rockies this year, do you see any blame towards the fans? When the Yankees choked in the World Series, when the Padres offense completely died in the NLDS, were the fans at fault for their performances? Absolutely not, because why would you blame them!? And these are two teams who haven’t won a World Series in years, or ever in the Padres case. The Padres would theoretically have a lot of pressure to win since they’ve never won, and they usually have a very strong team. But when, and why, should an entire fanbase be blamed if the Padres fail? Or if any team fails?

Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images
For me it’s even wackier because in baseball the fanbases and the teams go hand in hand. I’m not just talking about events and theme nights. You constantly hear baseball teams saying they have the best fanbases in the sport, how they want to succeed for the fans, how their atmospheres are better when the fans turn out. (The Red Sox love these buzzwords, whether they’re true or not). Fan interaction and appreciation is often at the forefront of the players’ minds when they speak to the media or post things online. With baseball, and with every other sport, noise is good. Noise is wanted. Can you imagine Fenway without noise during a postseason? The crowd buzz is what makes the park come alive. You want that passion, and for Maple Leafs fans, it is passion. It’s cruel to turn it against them when they just want their sports team to do well, just like everyone else wants their team to do well too.
It gives me a whole new perspective on baseball fanbases and baseball as a whole. Even for the hated Yankees, I can’t imagine them ever pointing the finger at their fans or scorning them the way the Toronto Maple Leafs organization and media has scorned their very large and very fervent fanbase. And it’s not like the Maple Leafs are the same as every other franchise—I’m told the “noise” is great for the Bruins! But I couldn’t imagine any baseball team or baseball media blaming the fans for the team’s own failures. Maybe I’d have to be a real Leafs fan to understand it.
P.S. If you want a real Leafs fan’s perspective, this Steve Dangle video is very good.