I had the privilege this past weekend of attending my first baseball game at Fenway Park. Coincidentally, it happened to be Jason Bay's first day in a Red Sox uniform.

Bay's first at-bat was greeted by a thunderous standing ovation from the sellout crowd. His first standing ovation was simply because he was not Manny Ramirez. After that, the Boston crowd immediately accepted him as one of their own. By Saturday night's game, many of the Red Sox faithful were dressed in Bay jerseys. Boston has fallen in love with him and in the course of one weekend, I have become a huge Boston Red Sox fan.

To make things interesting for the balance of the baseball season, I recommend that all Post-Gazette readers consider adopting the Boston Red Sox as their second-favorite team. By doing so, they (1) have a rooting interest in baseball for the balance of the season; (2) aren't rooting against the Pirates; (3) are rooting against the Yankees, who, other than having Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte, have no redeeming qualities; and (4) most importantly, pay tribute to Jason Bay, a real class act.

KEN EISNER, McCandless

I have been a loyal Pirates fan since that day when I walked into the house after kindergarten to see Bill Mazeroski hit the home run that beat the Yankees and win the 1960 World Series. Since then, I have been privileged to watch great teams and great players at Forbes Field, Three Rivers Stadium and now PNC Park.

I am as patient as anyone. I support the team through good times and bad. However, I have reached my limit and I hope many other fans have as well. I am tired of the Pirates getting a free pass this time of year when Steelers open training camp because the Pirates are out of the playoff hunt and have shipped out assorted players for prospects in an effort to build the program. When does the building stop and the winning begin? I do not want to hear about it being a small-market team when many other teams from small markets seem to be competitive. They just do it better than the Pirates have for the past 16 seasons. I don't want to hear coaches and the media giving players a pass when they don't play hard or they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again without repercussion. I don't want the media, Major League Baseball and the city of Pittsburgh to be comfortable with the notion that it is just the Pirates and they always finish at the bottom of the division, thereby dismissing the team from serious consideration every year.

I know this is the first year of new leadership for the Pirates, and I have to admit that things seem to be better. But I do hope that this is the last year that the division leaders feel that the Pirates serve as a player-development program.

Someday soon, it had better be the Pirates that do the taking or at least find themselves in a position to say no when a team comes calling.

TOM JEREMIAH, Fredericksburg, Va.

How disheartening do you suppose it is to watch our guys -- Jason Bay and Xavier Nady --help their new teams in such dramatic fashion, while we are still losing with our prospects and looking for an offensive spark? We finally get the outfield combination we've been waiting for, only to rip it apart in trades. Once again, we are left to wait for them to turn into something instead of paying for some decent starting pitching that would have made a big difference this year.

So we suffer another two months, kissing off another season, and hope for next year. At the end of the day, there has to be something besides bobbleheads to look forward to, even for diehard fans such as myself!

KAREN CAFAZZO, Fort Myers, Fla.