Personally, I'm a pure baseball fan. However, I hang out with a very....interesting....and very political crowd. I was at a fundraiser tonight for Environment 2004 and I was talking with a few of my friends who where there with me, one of whom follows baseball not at all. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: "C'mon, Ari, the Red Sox haven't won in years. The Yankees....ugh. If you're not from New York, you CAN'T be a Yankees fan."
Him: "But....here's what I don't get about baseball. Why is it the *World* Series? It's not actually the world that plays in it, it's the US and two teams from Canada, one of which is bankrupt!"
Me: "Yeah, well, knowing you, Mr. Democrat, you should root against the Yankees, because they embody in a sports team everything that is wrong with corporate America..."
Anyhow. Go Sox! Go Cubs!
Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
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*on a side note: I'd also like it if someone tore out McCarver's (fox announcer) biased yankee heart and make him choke on it. They do the most awful job of calling a game I've seen in a while.
Posts: 183 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Mega, Hey, nice throw from center field to third. Bwahahahahaha...
My 7 year-old son tonight:
"Hey Dad, I figured it out! When we believe in the Red Sox, they lose. When we don't believe in the Red Sox, they win!" (so this is how Red Sox fan starts out. I am witnessing a phenomenon passing unto another generation. And it is, well, a phenomenon.)
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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It's like being a David Spade fan. It's like wishing your dad was more like Judge Reinhold's character in The Santa Claus. It's like owning the entire run of Thirtysomething--on Beta. It's like wishing Return of the Jedi had a few more of those exciting Ewok scenes. It's like having nothing but Barry Manilow CDs on your CD changer.
HOW CAN RED SOX FANS KEEP FROM SHOOTING THEMSELVES?
posted
Either way, I feel sorry for the Sox (I doubt either team can beat the Marlins). But, because I am my father's son, I will be rooting for the Yankees. Should be an exciting game.
Posts: 3056 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ok, so they're a hockey team and the regular season just started. But I can't bring myself to cheer for a game as boring as baseball, but I wanted to get in on all the cheering action Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
As for the Yanks and Sox. There were some stats being thrown around the other night, and they said that the two teams were dead even at Fenway in the past( ? ) years. It was something like 450 to 451: even, until the Yanks won the other night.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Ya, right now, the Red Sox and yankees are in a dead heat against each other over the past hundred years or so. If the sox win tonite, the seasons series will be 13-13. winner takes advantage in 100 year series, and moves on to world series.
Its called the world series because when baseball started, the US was the only country playing it. Why change its name? All the best players from the other countries come here to play. It is the world stage for baseball.
Posts: 348 | Registered: Dec 2000
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posted
I thought it was interesting that they were so close when they played each other, but the Sox always seem to lose in the end. Hopefully, not tonight.
I heard a really interesting thing on NPR today about the Cubs and their fans. Some guy, who died in 1979, was quoted as saying, besically, that the Cubs lose, and that is more real. They do their heroics, and save day after day, but lose in the end. Like real life, he said.
It really would be an odd thing for the Sox to win. I hope it happens, but it will be weird if they do.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
you have the Mets, the Yankees aren't the only option. There's no challenge in rooting for them, no sense of accomplishment. You might as wel just cheer every time the sun comes up.
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The Mets are my favorite team. The two aren't even in the same league though, so its not hard to route for both.
The Yankees have so much history and legacy its not even funny. They are premiere team in all of sports. We're talking a century of domination.
Everyone says they hate them, but without them I wonder if baseball would even still be played professionally.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
"Rooting for the Red Sox is like rooting for cancer." -Dan Sileo, radio commentator.
I've been a Yankees fan since the 70s, when I was a kid. I lived through the whole 1980s, when they often sucked, or were simply not quite good enough to make the post-season. I lived through having my hopes raised and dashed over and over again with Billy-Ball, until he passed away and I had to give up any hope of Steinbrenner hiring him and then staying the hell out of the way. I lived through Lou Pinella's chicanery to get him fired the last time, and then his managing the frikkin Cincinnati Reds to the championship. So if you come in here and say that anybody who roots for the Yankees is some kind of fair-weather winning-team bandwagon jumper, I'd say you must be too young to know what the heck you're talking about.
And if you think the Yankees should lose because it's someone else's turn, or that the Yankees shouldn't spend so much money, then you've got a twisted sense of what fair play is. This seems to be an epidemic these days. Fair play is everyone plays by the rules and tries their hardest. It's not unfair that OSC gets his books published and sells millions of copies while I do not. He's very talented, he's worked hard, and he's taken the risks. If I want what he has, it's up to me to go get it. If the Red Sox or Cubbies want to win a championship, they need to whine less and go out and win it. Both teams had their chances, and both teams lost to teams that wanted it more. When you're five or six outs away from losing it and you suddenly find offense when you've had none all night, that's because when the chips fell, you wanted it more.
Is it unfair that New York has more money because they're in a bigger market? Then change the rules. Share profits like the NFL does. But until and unless that happens, should the Yankees voluntarily pay less? Should they let some good players go out of a sense of "fairness"? Freaking absurd. That's the have-nots wanting to peck and take from the haves what they can't earn on their own. (And this year's Marlins are living proof that you don't need to buy a World Series trip: that you can get there by developing most or your own talent, and having somewhat less talented guys who just want it more and who never give up.)
Kayla commented in another thread on how Yankee fans had a similar outlook to conservatives. I am neither socially nor fiscally conservative; I am just a lifelong Yankees fan. But, my goodness, people carrying on about how unfair it is that the Yankees won't stop doing what it takes to win and get out of everyone else's way . . . what a very cheesy stereotype of liberalism you're acting out!
[/rant]
Carry on, now!
Oh, and, by the way, I don't hate the Mets. They beat the Red Sox in '86, and that has to count for something. They're on a list of teams that I'm OK with winning it all if the Yankees can't.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
How about the stories of the cursed teams that came so close this year?
How about the story of the upstart young team with the Very Old Manager?
How about the story of the sociopath owner who alienates the heck out of his coaches and managers as they try to win him a championship?
How about the story of the aging stars trying to hold of the younger and faster guys?
How about the story of the team Selig wanted to contract almost winning it all? Or the story of a town burned by Wayne Huizenga learning/daring to fall in love with their team again?
The dynasty versus the upstarts . . . there are still a few good stories left for you this year.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
I largely agree with the rant, but the bit about "wanting it more" is just self-congratulatory BS. Unless you can read into the hearts of men or something.
I don't want the Sox to be given anything, heck, we've been given a lot (I believe the Red Sox are the winningest team of the past 20 years!). But you have to admit the more frequent a team wins (any team) ba championship the less interesting it is to everyone but the fans of the champion team.
The sox will come back next year with better pitching, and with the Yanks losing at Clemens, and possible Clemens, Wells, and Pettite, I figure the Red Sox have a great chance to take it all.
-Bok
PS- Elizabeth, I offer my condolences to your 6-year-old; I welcome him into Red Sox Nation, on this, his "first communion." Posts: 7021 | Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Yes and no, Bok. Both the Yankees and the Marlins won when their backs were against the wall, and both the Sox and the Cubs lost when victory was in sight . . . in hand, even.
Now Chicago fans are hounding some poor fan instead of looking at their team's utter collapse, and Boston fans are calling for their manager's head despite his getting them to the ALCS, because he showed loyalty to their most talented pitcher. (Not that the Yankees are any better off in this regard . . . I still think there is a good chance that Torre will not return. We know that Zimmer won't. Everybody thinks Torre might still get fired if he loses--I think he might quit if he wins. The ultimate "stick it" gesture.)
And you're probably right about this being a last hurrah for the Yankees before some serious rebuilding begins.
The Marlins, however look like they'll be around for a while. So they should let New York win it; they can win it next year.
posted
Perhaps they are not interesting to midwest types congratulating themselves for not living in a big city or on the east coast (after all, how much of your digruntlement is rooted in your dislike for Florida and New York, more than in your feelings about the teams?) but I think they are interesting stories for most baseball fans.
posted
Except you're selectively ignoring the A's-Sox ALDS this year, or the past 2 playoffs for the Yankees...
Little's moves have been fairly maddening all year, actually. He isn't a great field manager, though he apparently is hands-off enough to keep the players happy, which is something. Last night was a great example.. I am not upset bringing Pedro out,a although he showed signs of fatigue in the 7th, and even when Grady let Pedro stay in when he went to the mound, that was fine too. However, just about ANY ML manager would have taken out any pitcher after the Matsui hit. You had the reliever ready, and the general rule is that you never let your starter pitch so that they can lose the game in the late innings (Posada represented the go-ahead run).
That would be my major gripe last night. And it is not the first time Grady has done something like that in a game.
Oh, don't worry, the Yanks are much better than the Marlins, they ought to win, with home field advantage and all that.
posted
At midnight last night, the instant that homer left the park, I shut off the TV and rolled over in my bed, in my darkened room. The casement window was slightly ajar; as I started to doze, I heard a distant cacophony reverberating through the streets of Boston - mostly young inebriated males (I judged) screaming in mortal pain.
My last waking thought (before morning - hush ) was that in that instant, 6 million people became Marlins fans.
I know, it's not profound. But these mass social phenomena do fascinate me.
[ October 17, 2003, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: John Van Pelt ]
Posts: 431 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Actually, Tom has a point, and his potential disdain for the East Coast is irrelevant. The much bally-hooed "Subway Series" was one of the lower rated Series in the national TV era, I believe. And that actually was kind of a neat story.
posted
It's not really about how often they win, Icky. It's about how interesting a team they are. The Yankees are boring. The Mets are only slightly less boring. Consequently, a Yankees-Mets game is extremely boring, moderated only by the mild interest of having two teams from the same city involved.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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