Thursday, April 6, 2000 Older Editions

Hard(ball) wired: As BoSox season begins, so does fan's Web site

By Neil Fater

Though he's happy the Red Sox kicked off their season with Pedro Martinez holding the Mariners to just two hits Tuesday night, Andover resident Ernie Paicopolos is hoping his new Web site gets a whole lot more.

A dyed-red-in-the-wool Sox fan, Paicopolos has launched fenwaynation.com, a Web site devoted exclusively to the hometown team.

Paicopolos is editor-in-chief, and he's joined on the editorial board by a handful of his Fenway-loving friends.

"It's a bunch of guys who have been Red Sox fanatics for years," says Paicopolos. "We decided there wasn't a place where we could shoot the breeze about the Red Sox, and kind of share it with the world. I floated the idea by them and they were pretty excited about it."

The Web site offers the editorial board's opinions on the Sox, the latest game summary on the Sox, a poll question on the Sox, a chance for readers to submit a "Rant of the Week" about the Sox and links to other Web articles on the Sox.

In other words, it really gets into the Carmine Hose.

"But not necessarily into all the negativity and the sniping," says Paicopolos. "It's an outlet for the 'responsible' Red Sox fan to vent and to read our venting, and to discuss it, hopefully in a more intelligent way."

As you might have guessed, Paicopolos is a Red Sox season ticket holder, and has been for 10 years. But he says he only goes to a relatively reasonable 15 games a year.

"I like to think I have it in perspective, but it's probably one step behind family. I don't think I'm that obsessive, but I'm just kind of a general fan of other sports. (The Sox) is just an ingrained thing," he says.

In fact, Paicopolos has the ticket stubs from the first Sox game he ever attended, a 1956 game against the old K.C. A's, hanging on one of his walls. He was a 5-year-old boy when he saw that game, and this year he intends to bring his own son to Fenway for the first time.

Then, he, too, will be a member of Fenway Nation.

Paicopolos says he chose "fenwaynation.com" because Red Sox Nation is a bit overused, and because he didn't want to get clobbered by the Red Sox brass' knuckles for using the team's name.

"It's sort of a whimsical thing, so I didn't particularly want to get into a lawsuit with John Harrington or anything," he says.

Of course, he has no such qualms about taking on Yankees fans. On the bulletin board meant for visitors to use to comment on the Sox, the tongue-in-cheek fenwaynation.com guys have sent this message:

"Posts from Yankees fans will be flamed," they say, "(which is) not a big problem since none of them can read or write."

It should be quite a year for Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, one way or another.