Outsiders
Fans of teams other than the Yankees and the Red Sox clearly do not understand the rivalry. They don't understand the fun of taunting fans of the other team. They don't understand the joy of trash-talking each other. Are fans of the Yankees classless towards Boston fans when the Yankees win? You betcha. And the fans of the Red Sox are just as classless towards Yankees fans when Boston wins.
I was talking with a guy at work who is a Red Sox fan. We get along great, except that we like to trash talk each other's team. I was saying how much I hate the Braves, a sentiment he agreed with. He then asked me if I hated the Braves more than I hated the Red Sox. I told him no way that could ever happen. Understanding the rivalry, he was relieved to hear it. He said "Good, because I'd be offended if you did." Just as I'd be offended to learn that a Red Sox fan hated some other team more than he/she hated the Yankees. It's just not right.
Then there's the whole Northeastern thing. New Yorkers and Bostonians have that in common. What does that mean? It means we're all about sarcasm. No fluffy bunnies for us. No pretense. I know the rest of the country doesn't get it. You think people are supposed to be polite to each other. Diehard Northeasterners know better. If we started being polite to each other, we'd get suspicious.
So Red Sox fans will continue to come to Yankee Stadium and chant "Yankees suck!" And Yankees fans will continue to chant "1918" right back at them. We wouldn't have it any other way*.
*Okay, Red Sox fans would have it such that Yankees fans were forced to find some other way to jeer at them besides the "1918" chant. But the principle remains.
Comments
I have to admit I was salivating at the though of a Cubs / Red Sox WS. The idea of two long suffering storied franchises going at it might have brought me back from my self imposed exile that began after the strike canceled the WS.
But frankly I can't get all that excited over NY Vs. one of the new teams. It just doesn't have the romance. The Yankees vs. Cubs would have been a bit more interesting for me. Even the Marlins / Red Sox. But a team that is always there vs. another big market team that has been there recently is just dull from an aesthetic point of view.
Posted by: Rick DeMent | October 17, 2003 08:14 AM
If it makes you feel any better, the sentiment's the same out here on the left coast...
Yankees suck!
They win, but they still suck!
Personally I'd like to see the Mariners bring in Don Zimmer. I hear he's given his notice.
That cantankerous old bastard is exactly what those overpaid prima donnas need.
Posted by: Jim | October 17, 2003 11:26 AM
Screw the Yankees.
You can be sure I won't be watching a Yankees/Marlins series and neither will millions of other Americans. I mean the Yankees are the most hated team in America, and Florida doesn't even know they have a team in Miami.
Seriously, do we have to be subjected to millionaires row year after year anfter year?
Something has to be done about this soon, or baseball will dry up and blow away.
Posted by: Rich | October 17, 2003 05:00 PM
You can be sure I won’t be watching a Yankees/Marlins series and neither will millions of other Americans. I mean the Yankees are the most hated team in America, and Florida doesn’t even know they have a team in Miami.
Okay. You could be sure I wouldn't be watching a Cleveland/Anybody but the Mets Series. So what? I bet in general that I watch lots of stuff you wouldn't watch, and you watch lots of stuff I wouldn't watch.
Getting back to the point of the post, I will say that the Yankees/Red Sox ALCS was more meaningful than the Yankees/Marlins World Series will be. The World Series will just be anticlimactic, because I don't really care about the Marlins. A Yankees/Cubs Series would have been really cool, despite the conflict I would have felt. I want the Yankees to win (as any fan of any team does), but I also want the Cubs to win. Sadly they defeated themselves and won't get their shot this year.
A Red Sox/Marlins Series would have bored me to tears. I wouldn't have watched it, just checked the scores in the hopes of the Red Sox losing. Just like all my Red Sox friends will be checking the scores in hopes of the Yankees losing. And much taunting and fun will be had until it's over.
I do think you underestimate baseball, though. It didn't dry up and blow away during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, when the Yankees made it more often than they have in our lifetimes. Yeah, they've made it 6 out of the last 7 years. Prior to that it had been 15 years. They also made it 5 times in a row from 1960-1964. Then they didn't make it in again until 1977. This won't last forever. And fans of other teams will continue to watch their teams in the hopes that they'll make it this time. Baseball will survive. The only thing that might kill baseball is another strike. The Yankees aren't the death of baseball.
Posted by: Lesley | October 17, 2003 05:37 PM
If it makes you feel any better, the sentiment’s the same out here on the left coast… Yankees suck! They win, but they still suck!
It doesn't make me feel better, precisely. I already knew it anyway. It does amuse me greatly, though, that the rest of the country hates the Yankees. Like Yankees fans are somehow supposed to care.
Posted by: Lesley | October 18, 2003 10:30 AM