Let the Hate Begin (Yankees-Red Sox Style)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 3/28/3 | By RUSS SMITH

[WaveThatFlag]

Granted, there is upheaval in the world and there are battles where a great deal is at stake -- life itself. All the more precious, then, the minor skirmishes on the home front that mean a great deal in a small way and remind us of how lucky we are to feel innocent hatreds, from summer to summer, at the ballpark.

[RJCogburn]

My Boston colleague tells me they're selling seats at the TOP of the Green Monster this year

Yup. 50 bucks/ticket. They say the first row has to stand and look down to see plays off the wall, and the next couple of rows won't see them at all.

Things took a turn for the worst at Fenway when they put in the electronic thing in centerfield. It's gone downhill since.

[RJCogburn]

Neat! Thanx.

[WaveThatFlag]

What ever happened to Oscar the Grouch? Is he still hanging around Fenway these days?

[babylucas]

I grew up in Connecticut and suffered for years as a Red Sox fan. Then I moved to Arizona in 1995. I attended games 1, 2 and 7 of the 2001 World Series. Oh, the rapturous joy!! Go Dbacks!

[majordivit]

What i remember most about the 1978 season was not Bucky Dent's three run homer in the playoff game; but an earlier Yankee four game demolition sweep of the Sox at Fenway which shrunk the Sox lead over the Yanks to almost nothing.

I thought the 1978 Red Sox team was about as good as it gets. The Sox built up a 14 game lead on the defending world champ Yankees in mid August. When the Yankees crushed the Sox in all four games, by overwhelming scores, I knew that there would be no stopping them. I bet most people do not remember that after the Yanks passed the Sox in September, the Sox came back and found a way to tie the Yanks on the last day of the season, forcing the one game playoff...

I was in attendance at Fenway Park in 1988 on a day when the Sox played a video history of the 1978 pennant race on Fenways big screen. The 1978 Yanks-Sox pennant race was certainly the greatest of the decade and possibly the greatest of all time.

[soxfan]

Any Red Sox fan who reads Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecast for 2003 is going to be really excited. From a stats standpoint, the run differential projects a 100+ victory season.

[xp38]

For the past 5 seasons the AL east standings have been static with no change in position by any team. The only variable besides the actual number of games won and lost is whether Boston took the wild card slot or not. Maybe this year there will be a change but if anything it will probably not be the number 1 slot but the ones below. The standings for the past 5 years in order were NY, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore, Tampa Bay....Go Jays!!!

[nutmeg]

PING from (divided) Red Sox/Yankees country!

[WaveThatFlag]

Any Red Sox fan who reads Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecast for 2003 is going to be really excited.

And this is different from every other year how? You guys are such easy marks...

[JohnnyZ]

Dude, LAST year's run differential predicted a 100-win season.

[Stay the course]

I wonder what would happen if Boston and the Cubs both made it to the World Series. One of them would seemingly have to win, but that would violate a fundamental law of the universe. The earth would have to open up and swallow them or something.

[stanz]

Saw this, but I decided to save myself from the flames of FR today.

[Charles Henrickson]

. . . attempts to gin up lesser pairings into an admirable viciousness -- St. Louis and Kansas City? the Cubs and White Sox? -- have always failed. There is obviously something different about Boston and New York. . . .

What is obviously different about the Boston-New York rivalry is that the writers who write about it all live in Boston or New York.

The Cardinals-Cubs rivalry is pretty darn good.

Furthermore, the Cubs and White Sox play in different leagues, so the rivalry can't be quite the same. But when I was growing up on the north side of the city of Chicago, the dividing lines were very clear: If you lived on the north side, you were a Cubs fan and hated the Sox; if you lived on the south side, you were a Sox fan and hated the Cubs. The hostility was real, and it was intense.

[JohnnyZ]

And you're a FAT French jerk. I'm surprised you can type with your hands so occupied with Derek Jeter.

Maybe I should clarify that the Bosox ACTUAL run differential last year was awesome and normally would win 100 games, but due to the vagaries of statistics it didn't turn out that way. I don't see why we wouldn't equal or surpass that run-diff performance this year, and if we get as many breaks this year as we got shafts last year we'll win 120.

[Maven]

I bet $100 on the Sox every year. This year, I collect.

Got just two words for this:

GO ANGELS!!!

Maven

[WaveThatFlag]

and if we get as many breaks this year as we got shafts last year we'll win 120.

Maybe you'll get even more breaks and win 130...

[Maven]

Let's go Yankees.

And to all you Yankee fans:

GO ANGELS!!!

Maven

[xp38]

Dodgers/Giants isn't bad as a rivalry. Toronto and Detroit sort of developed one for a while until Detroit moved out of the AL east and they hardly see each other any more.

[11th_VA]

I support the players, but not the Yankees. I HATE Steinbrenner ...

[WaveThatFlag]

The Cardinals-Cubs rivalry is pretty darn good.

I loved the George Will story from Ken Burn's Baseball documentary (which I watch every February). He tells of how he grew up in western Ohio. His he had the choice of being a Cubs fan or a Cardnals fan. His friend picked the Cardinals and grew up happy and liberal. He picked the Cubs, and grew up miserable and conservative.