Category — Boston Red Sox

As everyone knows by now, a Red Sox fan construction worker infiltrated the new Stadium work crew and buried a David Ortiz jersey in the wet concrete to try and hex the Yanks’ new stadium. In a classy and somewhat deliberate move (Yankee management clearly wanted to take the high ground with this), the excavated jersey was sent up to Boston and auctioned off for charity to the sum of nearly $200K.

So what’s the real story here? Some Boston fans, despite winning two of the last four World Series, clearly are as insecure as ever. You would think the actual process of winning a championship would mellow Boston fans, but there is much anecdotal evidence to the contrary–the Ortiz jersey notwithstanding.

Since the Red Sox actually won, I have never seen so many Red Sox hats being worn. It’s as if Boston fans are finally coming out of the closet to accept their team, jump on the bandwagon and bask in the light that Yankees fans have know for almost 100 years. More to the point above, I’ve never heard so many “Yankees suck” barbs in New England accents whenever I venture outside wearing some Yankees gear. 

So here’s my take on the “greatest rivalry in sports”. First off, there really hasn’t been a rivalry until this decade. Until then the Yankees had won 26 championships to Boston’s 5 (all around WWI). Ohio State and Michigan is a rivalry that’s much longer where both teams have shared in the winnings fairly evenly. 

What gives the New York/Boston rivalry life is this sense among Boston fans that everything great that has happened to the Yankees should have happened to the Red Sox if it weren’t for the ill-fated decision to sell Babe Ruth around 1918. But here’s a little know fact: the Boston Red Sox were the last team in the American League to integrate its roster. Don’t believe me, click here. Perhaps the Red Sox “curse” is simply driven by the fact that they were dead last in taking on non-white players who had plenty of talent when the Yankees and Dodgers were winning penants with Elston Howard and Jackie Robinson

The Yanks/Red Sox rivalry is (somewhat unfortunately) driven by the the intense jealousy-cum-hatred that Red Sox fans feel towards the Yankees. No such intense hatred exists on the Yankees side, and why would it? Between 1918 and 2004 the Red Sox could not beat the Yankees in a significant game. The “rivalry” exists in the hearts and minds of Red Sox fans.  Yankee fans know that their real rivals are the Anaheim Angels who have been the only team since the mid 90s to have a real edge in wins over the Yankees. 

So Boston’s inferiority complex with New York and its Yankees continues despite the Red Sox actually doing what nobody thought they could do: win a big game. If the Red Sox won as many rings as the Yankees, would the intense hatred continue? Only an experienced psychologist can answer that.  At any rate, check out this yankees gear here and let me know if it makes it into Fenway Park somehow.