I hate the Yankees. I always have and I probably always will.
But my hatred of this famous baseball franchise runs deeper than stats and World Series titles. I hate them for the simple fact that everyone else seems to love them and it’s my God-given right as a sports fan to do so.
When I turn on the television and see a Japanese man walk out of a restaurant in Tokyo wearing a Yankees hat, it bothers me. When I take a stroll down Palm Walk and see blonde coeds proudly displaying a Yankees t-shirt on top of low-rise jeans and Ugg boots, it bothers me. When I see trendy rap artists in clubs proudly displaying their “red” or sometimes “green” Yankees hats, it just flat out bothers me.
When I see “bandwagon” fans that claim to be Yankees fans and can’t tell you the first thing about the team let alone the entire sport of baseball, it makes me want to throw up.
For nearly three quarters of a century now, the Yankees have ruled baseball and their counterparts, the Boston Red Sox have done nothing but stink it up. They’ve both had their share of stars from Ted Williams to Carl Yastrzemski, but the Red Sox have always managed to come up short and that is what made them great.
Prior to 2004, the Red Sox had gone 86 years without winning a World Series and had often been haunted by the likes of Babe Ruth’s ghost or Bill Buckner’s inability to field a grounder. Perhaps it’s the underdog mentality that was what made me and millions of others want to cheer for them, but perhaps it was something else.
We all have our rough patches in life and the Red Sox were no different. Whether it’s our older brother who got the promotion rather than us or whether we came so close to winning the lottery but barely missed it, many of us can relate to the Sox and their history of coming so close only to fail.
Recently however, to the dismay of many true-to-the-core baseball fans, the Red Sox have begun to take on traits of their hated rivals of New York.
Since 2004, the Red Sox have won two World Series and could possibly win another one this year if they can dig out of a 3-1 hole against the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship Series this weekend.
That’s funny, last time I checked it was the Yankees who always established dynasties.
CBS Sports reports that the Red Sox have the fourth highest payroll this year in baseball with over $133 million dollars being spent.
They are quickly approaching the number one most expensive team — you guessed it — the Yankees. Cries of “Red Sox Nation” and “Big Papi for Mayor” can be heard from coast to coast as of late, echoing the Yankees as far as global fandom. If you are a true fan of the game, this should worry you, as it does me.
The idea of the Red Sox becoming the Yankees of the new millennium is something that so scares me it has already got me sort of rooting against them, if for anything else simply to preserve the integrity of the game.
I still cling to the ideals of a pure and wholesome baseball. It’s America’s creation and America’s pastime. It’s the Ken Burns special that was on PBS for many consecutive weeks, it’s the popcorn and cotton candy, it’s the seventh inning stretch, it’s the little league games on a Saturday afternoon.
These are the things that make baseball so great. Not who can spend the most money to buy a title or who can establish dynasties so that no other team has a real shot of winning. That is always what the Yankees symbolized and it was terrible.
So join me in hoping that, this offseason, the Red Sox change their free-spending ways of late and go back to being the lovable losers that they were for so long.
Trust me, baseball only needs one evil empire and it already has the Yankees. The Red Sox should realize the important place that they hold in America’s hearts because our national pastime deserves better and the Red Sox are better than that.
Alex is a Diamondbacks fan, yet still holds out hope that the Red Sox will win the World Series, contact him at Alex.Bolt@asu.edu.
