Pink-hat wearers haven't suffered sufficiently, they reason. Haters say pink-hat owners are latecomers who only support the Sox because it's suddenly cool - even fashionable - to do so. Fans of the hats think they're simply a cute way to show their love for the Sox. Next to Yankees caps and Giants jerseys, the pink Red Sox cap has become the most polarizing piece of clothing a Bostonian can wear. 'I had no idea how unwelcome it was,' she said. Later, Houseman threw her pink hat into the back of my closet. 'My friend went on a five-minute tirade about pink hats and how people who wear them are not real fans.' 'I was watching a game on TV with a girlfriend of mine and the camera zoomed in on a female fan in a pink hat,' she said. Rather than a sign of support, the pink hat somehow outed her as a poseur, a bandwagon fan. Houseman, 28, soon found her pink hat was about as welcome here as an A-Rod shirt in the bleachers. But something changed in late 2004, after the Sox won the World Series.
For a while, the convert shared a peaceful coexistence with lifelong Sox fans. To pledge her allegiance to Red Sox Nation, she bought a pink Sox cap and wore it proudly around town and to Fenway Park. Anne Houseman was never into baseball, but after moving here in 2002, she became a devoted Red Sox fan.
