The greatest rivalry in sports today

Peter Papachronoplous Guest Writer

Autumn’s arrival at the College brings with it one of the biggest sports events of the year: the World Series. It also means that the greatest rivalry in all of sports, the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees, is to be renewed in the major league baseball postseason. Though these two teams have pummeled each other in dozens of meetings this year, it is in the postseason where they get the chance to strike a lethal blow.

The playoffs are more than just a chance for the Red Sox and Yankees to beat each other. Both teams have fans with very different reasons for seeing October as so important. Every year their team makes the playoffs, Red Sox fans proudly proclaim that this will be “the year.” Finally, their liberation from an 80-plus year curse will end. For Yankees fans, every postseason their team enters is another chance to reaffirm its historic greatness.

Unfortunately, not every one is either a Red Sox fan or a Yankees fan. Many students at the College could care less about professional sports in general, let alone a rivalry between two baseball teams.
“I just don’t get it. I’m not a baseball fan, and it makes no sense to me that these two groups of fans could hate each other so much,” said Kentucky-native Jeff Gyula ’08.

Students like Gyula may be shocked, then, when they witness the degeneration of friends and classmates who support either team. If the Red Sox meet the Yankees in the playoffs, rest assured any common room on campus with a TV will turn into a battleground. The rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees is so intense it is capable of transforming a group of rational college students into a roaring, incoherent mob.

To all those who are not inexorably tied to this rivalry, it may seem foolish for any human being to vest so much physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy into so trivial a thing. Perhaps, but before a non-fan may pass judgment, they should at least understand why this rivalry exists.

History lessons are not required for one to understand the vehemence between the Red Sox and the Yankees. They help, but do not fully explain the essence of the rivalry. The core division of these two teams does not lie in past events, it lies in the hearts of the fans. The Red Sox haven’t won the World Series for 80-plus years, more than the average life span of a human. There are many sports fans at the College from cities with god-awful teams who can partially understand the dilemma of Red Sox fans. The Detroit Tigers in baseball, the Cincinnati Bengals in football, and the Los Angeles Clippers in basketball are all examples of these horrible teams.

What those fans have suffered, though, does not come close to what Boston fans have endured for almost a century. This is because Boston fans care more about their teams than any other fans in the country. They live and die by their teams.

On the flip side, the Yankees have been the greatest success story in American professional sports’ history. With 26 championships, they have been unquestioningly the most dominant team in baseball, and the perennial “team to beat.” This has caused their fans to take on a sense of superiority over other fans, not without good reason. Every new championship is just another affirmation of their team’s greatness, another reason to hold their chins a little higher.

Put simply, Yankees fans expect their team to win the World Series every year. Any other outcome is a dismal failure to them.

It is plain to see how tremendous the rift is between the Yankees and the Red Sox. This divide is deepened all the more by the hatred and contempt both sides feel for one another. It is well known in baseball that the Yankees are far and away the wealthiest team. As such, they are able to pry the best players from other teams with tempting contracts and outrageously high salaries. Boston fans hate this “Yankees” notion that a team can just buy the best players, assemble a mercenary squad, and then claim that it fairly wins all of its championships. It may seem a stretch, but, in a subconscious way, Boston fans see the Red Sox defeating the Yankees as their team liberating the baseball world of the tyranny and oppression of the rich over the poor.

A Yankees fan’s perspective is quite different. There are no rules against spending too much money and any other team in the position they are in, including the Red Sox, would certainly use their revenue to acquire the best players.

“It’s so stupid for Red Sox fans to say we’re cheating,” said Alexandra Weiner ’08. “They can whine all they want, but there is no way they wouldn’t spend just as much as we do if they had it.”

As for Red Sox fans, they are loud, often annoying, and always screaming about how unfair it is that the Yankees can just buy all their players and championships. They don’t shut up, ever. Red Sox fans even chant “Yankees Suck!” at baseball games were the Red Sox aren’t even playing the Yankees!

Yankees fans know their team is and has historically been the best. Because of that they don’t need to prove themselves to anyone… except Red Sox fans. In the minds of Yankees fans, 26 World Championships are enough to justify how great their team is. In their hearts, though, they feel that if their team could just freaking pummel the Red Sox into submission this year, maybe then their fans will shut up.

Perhaps James Cantres ’08, a Mets fans, best summed up the whole rivalry. “Both of the teams have good reasons to hate each other, but both sides are also stupid for hating each other, too. The difference between Red Sox/Yankees fans and other fans of baseball is that other fans could care less who they play, as long as they win. Nothing is taken too personally. When the Red Sox play the Yankees though, it’s like whoever wins just punched whoever lost in the face. No other fans enjoy beating someone so much and feel so awful when they lose.”

So what are students who don’t care about baseball or baseball rivalries to do in such an intense atmosphere? One thing is for sure: don’t get caught in the crossfire. Either stay clear of the common rooms come time for the playoffs or choose one side and keep with it. Of course, it is very easy to be absorbed by either side’s mentality, so don’t be surprised if you look around one night and find yourself as caught up in the game as the people around you.

As a word of caution, never become a “fair-weather fan.” Pick a side and stick to it. Both Red Sox fans and Yankees fans can sense traitors among their ranks and neither group is afraid to vocalize their contempt for those who just root for whoever happens to be winning.

It’s possible that one has read this far and still feels that the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry is a pointless issue. For those students, take solace in the fact that whether Boston breaks the curse this year or the Yankees further cement their franchise’s greatness, when all will be forgotten winter arrives.

Just remember though, in the words of Simon Taylor ’07, “It’s really a shame that students from other parts of the country come to the College and avoid the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry. They’re really missing out on something special.” Craver then made it a point to add, “Go Sox! Yankees suck!”