Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez discusses a pitch with New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, 2003 ALCS.
The Boston Red Sox begin a three-game series against the Yankees tonight at Yankees Stadium. The stumbling Yanks, who’ve lost two in a row now, are eight games behind the Red Sox in the American League East – a number that’s got to have owner George Steinbrenner practicing his strangling techniques and fans yearning for decisive victories against the Sox in the coming days. A three game sweep against Boston would position the Yanks nicely for a run at winning the division, and securing a playoff spot when the season comes to a close in about a month.
If you’ve lived in New York or Boston since 2003, you’ve undoubtedly noticed a heightened rivalry – not between the teams, that’s always been there – but between the fans, which only seems to be getting worse.
I think the feeling can be best explained by a guy I saw in the men’s room at Yankees Stadium the last time Red Sox were in town. The inebriated, and obviously well-bred Yankees fan, was urinating in a restroom sink as his son watched, as he tried to explain how the other half lived:
I hate Boston. They’re awful fans. I’ve been to Fenway. Red Sox fans have no class.
And the sentiment would be described on both sides in a similar way given the right circumstance. Therefore, it’s only fitting that we institute a “Red Sox/Yankees Alert” whenever the Red Sox, who grabbed headlines last week by superseding the Yankee’s as “America’s Team” according to USA Today, play the Yankees.
UESers: be ready for heightened baseball statistics chatter, increased levels of gambling and of course, lots of drinking, public drunkenness, misdemeanors and fistfights over the next three days.
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