[Chefelf]

Last night the Boston Red Sox utterly humiliated the New York Yankees in an unprecedented come from behind series win. No team in baseball had ever come back from a 0-3 series deficit, until last night.

So why do I bring this up? What does Chefelf care about baseball? Well, he watches a little. He is used to the Boston Red Sox disappointing him and his friends. It is impossible to exist in the Boston area without being surrounded by Boston fans that will spontaneously erupt into a "Yankees Suck!" chant. This can happen at crowded bars, in parking lots, at wedding receptions, dinner parties, graduations and funerals. It seems that the less the occasion has to do with baseball, the more likely the chant will occur.

Being in New York I am surprised at how many Red Sox fans there are, particularly in my neighborhood which was comprised of 100% Dominican Republican residents before Jen and I moved in to throw off the average.

Joe Torre, the Yankees' manager, when interviewed after the game stated that his team's goal was to get to the World Series, not to prevent the Red Sox from getting there. This self-centered and optimistic approach to baseball usually works in his favor, but not last night. See, the Red Sox -- and more so their fans -- don't play to win themselves, they play to see the Yankees lose. Ask ten Red Sox fans which they'd prefer: A Red Sox win or a Yankees loss. Nine out of ten will say, "A Yankees loss." Then all ten will erupt into a "Yankees Suck!" chant.

This morning we had a meeting at work and my boss, a Red Sox fan, got up in front of all the 500+ employees and donned a Red Sox cap. The crowd erupted into boos that slowly subsided enough for everyone to hear him say into the microphone, "Who's your daddy?"

What really made an impression on me was the looks on the faces of the die hard Yankees fans at work. Yankees fans know nothing of pain. They know nothing of suffering. When talking about the game they just would sigh and say, "What a letdown." A letdown? Had the Red Sox lost this series 4-2, or even a 4-0 sweep, Boston fans would have been thrown into a rage. The talk shows would have been inundated with angry members of the "Red Sox Nation" who, for another year, have to vent their frustrations, waiting for next year when they can inevitably put on their guise of false hope by stating: "This is the year." Yankees fans, when facing a loss like this, are upset because they may have to take a one or two year break off of winning. You'd be hard pressed to find a Red Sox fan that was even alive in 1918 during their last World Series championship, let alone a fan that remembers it.

On my walk out of work as I crossed a busy intersection a newsman with an armful of papers chanted: "No more Red Sox! No more Bush!" While I agree with half of the man's sentiment I am shocked that he would combine the two. Firstly, you can't say, "No more Red sox!" There will be more Red Sox. At least four more games worth. A Boston fan, plucked off the streets and transplanted into this situation, would have shrugged at this "paper-carrying asshole". "No more Red Sox? No more bush? What does landscaping have to do with this? Yankees suck!"

I called some friends after the game to see how they were doing. There is no way to explain how happy this makes them. Our whole lives we have been let down again and again by this team that always seems to come so close and then come up empty. Some may say that there is still another series to go, but those people don't understand that to Boston fans, seeing the Yankees beaten (and not just beaten, humiliated on their own turf!) is far more important than anything. The Red Sox could likely lose the next series but Boston fans will still be talking about this in forty years.

In 1986 the Red Sox made it to the World Series. I was eight. When they lost, I cried. Ten years later I would work with a man who was in his early forties. When I told him that story he said: "Me too, and I was 32."

[mrtimp]

I am not a Redsox fan by any means, I was rooting for the Yankees for sure. What gets me upset about this whole thing is the amount of Redsox fans all of a sudden there are coming out of the woodwork to celebrate this, you don't hear from these people all year not one peep about this team but all of a sudden now they are huge fans, this happened with the Patriots when they won their first Super Bowl, bandwagon jumpers are rampant, I guess you can expect this with any team out there and maybe because I live in New England it's more magnified than it really is, one other thing is they haven't won anything yet, I actually have heard a couple people say this series with the Yanks was their World Series which is complete nonsense, I give them enormous credit for coming back the way they did and it was an incredible series no matter who your team is you have to be happy as baseball fans to have witnessed it.

[Jen]

Your boss is a brave brave man! I am keeping my Red Sox tendencies under wrap here at work, because I work in the Bronx. There are a lot of depressed Yankee fans roaming the place, and I don't think they'd stop at just "boo" if I were to launch into a taunt-fest.

However, it must have been the sweetest moment of that man's life to put on a baseball cap and say the immortal, yet also totally silly, phrase, "Who's your daddy?"

[Lefty]

(from InnerCityGames)

[Creaux]

Here in Pittsburgh, I wqas getting a burger while the game was going on, and for 5 minutes after the game was over, people were hollering across the city streets and cherring crazily. Heheh.

Although we ALL know the Cardinals are going to win it.

[Despondent]

I grew up in Missouri and was never a Cards fan. Then when they got big in the mid-80's I certainly wasn't going to jump on the bandwagon. Same thing when I moved down south. I was never a Braves fan, so why would I cheer for them suddenly when they got good, as if nobody'd notice. I'm sorry; I'd never cheer for them period. And usually the Braves do great, get to "Choke"tober and blow it. If you blow it with regularity you ought to be taken out of rotation in principle.

[Jeff]

-Jeff

[Creaux]

I grew up in Missouri and was never a Cards fan. Then when they got big in the mid-80's I certainly wasn't going to jump on the bandwagon. Same thing when I moved down south. I was never a Braves fan, so why would I cheer for them suddenly when they got good, as if nobody'd notice. I'm sorry; I'd never cheer for them period. And usually the Braves do great, get to "Choke"tober and blow it. If you blow it with regularity you ought to be taken out of rotation in principle.

Hmm, where in Missouri did you grow up? I grew up in the west county of st. Louis, and my parents were Cardinals fans, and I never really cared that much anyway, but it's fun to be a good-weather fan. I mean, I'm sure the team would rather have me rooting for them and not caring, it's only the snobby fans who care.

[Despondent]

I grew up in the boyhood home of Mark Twain. you know, that hick town 100 miles north?

I'd never be a good weather fan. Just in principle. But I cheered for them against the twins in the late 80's. I mean, now that I'm geographically removed it takes on a different element. ok, switch that. Go Cards. Anything but the (egg-sucking) braves.

[reiner]

Heh I grew up between you two. Went home when the cards were starting this year's series. That side of teh state was rife with fair weather fans. I derided them then just as I derided the fair weather Rams fans when they won the super bowl.

[SeanJ1]

Just in case some of you don't believe Chefelf when he said

"It is impossible to exist in the Boston area without being surrounded by Boston fans that will spontaneously erupt into a "Yankees Suck!" chant. This can happen at crowded bars, in parking lots, at wedding receptions, dinner parties, graduations and funerals. It seems that the less the occasion has to do with baseball, the more likely the chant will occur."

I was at a Wedding a few months ago in NJ. The groom was a friend of mine from grade school in Boston. The evening ended in a "Yankees Suck!" chant, which will now be on thier wedding video forever.

This post has been edited by SeanJ1: 03 December 2004 - 01:49 PM

[Chefelf]

See what I'm saying? And SeanJ1 is even closer to Boston than I am so the hatred is even more focused there than in my hometown.

[Otal Nimrodi]

I lived in Boston. I heard that chant everyday. I still am compelled to randomly yell Yankees Suck! I heard it that many times. I really don't care one way or another.