Before we begin looking ahead to 2027, OTM is looking back at 2026, highlighting some of the biggest, strangest, and most memorable moments of a memorable season. Today, we look at the moment that thousands of Scottish soccer fans breathed life back into a dead Fenway Park.
This chapter of the 2026 Boston Red Sox story actually begins back in 2025—Friday, December 5, to be exact. Ironically enough, it begins with a New York Yankee: Aaron Judge.
Number 99 was in Washington, D.C. for the draw of the 2026 FIFA World Cup that day. Basically: all 48 teams who qualified for the international soccer tournament in North America the following summer were to be randomly drawn into groups of four. Locations and dates for all of the group stage games were already predetermined; it was just a matter of who was going where.
Judge reached in to grab one of the balls (heh heh) holding the name of a team that would be drawn into Group C. If you hit play on the video below, you’ll see he selected a group of kilt-wearin’, haggis-eatin’ guys.
Fast forward to Sunday, June 14, where the Red Sox lost yet another stupid game of baseball.
After the hometown team notched back-to-back wins against Texas earlier in the weekend, Nathan Eovaldi came back to the city where he rode in a duckboat in all those years ago and sliced up Boston to the tune of seven innings, three earned runs, and six strikeouts. Connelly Early coughed up 11 hits and six runs—all of them earned—across 4.2 innings. A pair of solo homers from Willson Contreras were not enough to prevent the Sox from falling by a score of 6-4. Boston’s record dropped down to 29-40, bringing their odds of making the playoffs down to 16.3%, according to FanGraphs.
And yet it didn’t seem like a single person at Fenway Park cared about any of that, probably because Fenway Park was swarmed with a ton of Scots.
As you’re sure to recall, the Tartan Army—the large group of soccer fans who support Scotland’s national team—were in town for the start of the World Cup. The night before, Scotland began their Group C campaign with a 1-nil victory against Haiti at Gillette Stadium. John McGinn directed a rebound into the back of the net in the 28th minute, and that was enough to secure all three points in Foxboro.
The Scots needed something to do until their next game against Morocco at Gillette in a few days’ time. Why not take over an entire ballpark?
What I wouldn’t give to have been in attendance for this game—and I’m not even Scottish! “Fitzy” is Irish! Who cares?!
What the Tartan Army brought to Fenway Park in mid-June was something that the 2026 Red Sox hadn’t been able to provide up until that point: life. Save for a few tarps off moments here and there, Fenway was getting to be America’s Most Beloved Library. And could you blame anyone in attendance for feeling that way? The first half of the season was, by and large, a miserable experience. The club had won two straight games to climb all the way up to *checks notes* 10 games under .500. Who cares? What was there to cheer about?
Counterpoint, as proven by the Scots: Who needs an excuse to cheer?
The Tartan Army gave us a taste of a group of fans who are just there to have a good time, man. Just a tease of the chanting and singing made me want even more of it. American sports fans going “DE-FENSE” or “LET’S GO (INSERT TEAM NAME)” just doesn’t hit the same once you’ve been subjected to that. No Scotland
No Party, indeed. The Celtics and Bruins were already long gone at this point, the Pats were still nursing a Super Bowl hangover, and we know what the deal with the Sox was. Boston needed a shot in the arm, and Scotland delivered it. It was the highlight of the summer to that point, mainly because there wasn’t much competition for that crown.
Personally (and this is something we’ve talked about on Pod On Lansdowne), the World Cup provided me with at least something to watch with some life. I love soccer, so the tourney—and the fans who came to America, especially the Scots—couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. The Tartan Army deserves a ton of credit for making me feel that way. They deserve credit for being a breath of fresh air. They’re welcome back to a Sox game any time they’d like, if you ask me. I’d love to sing about Super John McGinn or their captain Andy Robertson with them (well, maybe not the latter, since he plays for Tottenham and I’m an Arsenal guy, but you get the point).
And funny enough, once the group stage wrapped up and the footy games became a bit more sparse, things with our favorite team began to change.
After losing to Morocco in the second group stage game, Scotland fell once again to Brazil in Miami. The team failed to qualify for the knockout stage of the World Cup. That loss to the Brazilians took place on the same day as yet another Red Sox loss, the second out of three in Colorado. The next day, Boston began a four game series at home against the Yankees. You know what happened next.
Maybe we just needed the Tartan Army to get the party going.
