Here come the Boston Whiners again

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I don’t usually sit in many press boxes. As The Times’ sports projects reporter, my attendance at games comes either when I buy my own tickets or if a buddy invites me to a game after work.

So, forgive me here if I separate myself from objectivity a bit to inject some real-world experiences as they relate to the Angels-Red Sox American League Division Series that starts tonight in Anaheim.

After sitting among the masses at dozens of games at stadiums in Anaheim, San Diego and L.A., I can say with great confidence that Red Sox fans -- make that Boston fans -- easily rank as the most grating in the country.

I don’t know if they believed it was endearing, or if they thought none of us paid attention to sports, but they had to remind us ad nauseum about the fact they hadn’t won a World Series since Babe Ruth left, through the Ted Williams and Yaz years, because of Bill Buckner, blah, blah, blah ...

What galled me, and I think I speak for most of us hard-core sports fans in Southern California, is that the majority of those telling these tired tales were, like me, age 40 or under.

Listen, Beanboys, the Angels went 42 years before winning their first World Series title. I was raised in San Diego, where the Padres haven’t celebrated a World Series since their 1969 inception, and the Chargers claim only an AFL title in 1963 that pre-dates my birth.

So complaining about a ring-less Splendid Splinter doesn’t bolster your credibility.

Drop your woe-is-me routine about the 1986 ALCS. Remember, history buffs, how you pulled off the Dave Henderson miracle? You’d still be dancing on the graves of poor Donnie Moore and Gene Mauch if you could. Instead, all we heard were your moans about Buckner.

Here’s pain: My best friend was in the prime of youth, age 17, hugging the right-field foul pole at Anaheim Stadium, ready to risk arrest by darting onto the field toward heroes Baylor and Reggie. The Halos needed one strike to clinch the pennant. That’s when Henderson stepped to the plate.

Heartbreak happens in sports, but most of us move on.

The Angels won the 2002 World Series and my same buddy returned, buying Game 7 seats behind home plate for himself and his elderly father. They embraced as Darin Erstad squeezed the final out.

The Boston whiners have won two of the last four Series -- redemption has finally arrived. We get it.

But now Fox punishes the rest of us each fall with TV close-ups of Fenway fans’ nervous, intent faces before what seems like every pitch, as if their passion is unique, like they’re the only fans who care about their team.

This just in: We all care.

Boston, get over yourselves.

-- Lance Pugmire