BoSox Honour Digby Neck Native

Renovations to the main floor of Jim Prime’s house in New Minas may, depending on the outcome of discussions with his wife, include a hardwood floor with an inlaid Boston Red Sox logo.

Loyal Sox fans in Nova Scotia are, as the saying goes, common as dirt. But Prime, who has attended more than 100 games at Fenway Park, is uncommonly devoted and recently received an uncommon honour from the team and its official fan club.

"They contacted me and asked me if I’d like to become acting lieutenant-governor of Red Sox Nation," said Prime. "There will, down the road, hopefully be a competition to have an elected lieutenant-governor."

Prime grew up in Freeport on Long Island, where radio reception from Boston was crystal clear and the dulcet tones of announcer Curt Gowdy streamed in from the Fens.

Prime’s Red Sox fandom dates to 1960, when the team wasn’t very good and attendance at the park was sparse.

"There was no talk of a Red Sox Nation at that point," he said. "It became official in 2004, when they created the concept of Red Sox Nation. In 2007, they decided they needed a president, so they held a competition and even had a primary-style interview session at Boston University, with Tim Russert as the moderator and some very high-profile candidates, including Doris Kearns Goodwin. Eventually, Jerry Remy became the president."

An author, Prime has written or co-written a dozen books, most on the BoSox.

He even collaborated with legendary slugger Ted Williams on a book, and has a dozen autographed Williams items in his basement office, jammed to the rafters with Red Sox memorabilia.

After Remy, the former Boston second baseman and now the colour commentator on the team’s television broadcasts, was elected president, contests were held to name Red Sox Nation governors for every U.S. state.

There are 731 members of the club in Canada, 60 of those in Nova Scotia, and one of them, Don Hyslop, thought it was outrageous that this area didn’t have an official leader.

"So he contacted the Red Sox with this idea, then he became sort of my unofficial campaign manager," said Prime. "Our group, the Bluenose BoSox Brotherhood, has in excess of 250 members, so they tell me that would put us in the top five in the United States for any state outside New England, which is pretty impressive."

Members of Red Sox Nation get perks like hats, T-shirts, invitations to batting practice and a chance to visit the Green Monster seats at Fenway.

Prime’s position as acting lieutenant-governor came with a list of duties:

"To provide feedback and insight from Nova Scotia fans," he said. "To help the Red Sox understand the people of Nova Scotia. To devise strategies to include Nova Scotia fans in Red Sox initiatives. To organize watch parties, where everybody gets together to watch games at a bar or whatever. Providing the feedback is huge because they’re quite interested in putting together international packages and increase the flow of people to Fenway Park."

There is a constituency of Red Sox fans who ridicule the concept of a fan club, labelling its members as part of the "pink hats," people who have jumped on the bandwagon since the team ended more than eight decades of futility with a World Series title in 2004, and another three years later.

"I have to admit that at first I wondered," said Prime.

"You don’t have to be a member of Red Sox Nation to be a devoted, hard-core Red Sox fan . . . but I think it’s kind of nice to codify the whole thing, to say ‘Yes, I am a member of Red Sox Nation. Here’s my bumper sticker to prove it. There are benefits, and show me your Yankee membership form.’

"It’s a lot more than that. A lot of the people I know that are members are the hard-core fans, and they want everything to do with the Red Sox and part of that is showing their allegiance, having the card.

"Some people would argue that since they’ve won the World Series, twice, that things have changed a little bit (among the fan base) in that we’re not hungry anymore, we lost a little bit of our edge or something.

"I don’t think so at all. I think we’ve relaxed a bit. It was the greatest thing in the world when we won in 2004, I was just as hungry in 2007 and I’ll enjoy it just as much when they win it next year in 2011."

By BILL SPURR

The Halifax Chronicle Herald
Sat, Aug 14, 2010