I wrote something for The Faster Times site about the Wall Street Journal's piece, "Enough With the Boston Glee Party," which exhorts Yankee fans to root for the Red Sox. Jason Gay, the writer of the article, seems to think that Yankee championships are more meaningful with a competitive Sox team.
But that's just silly. Most Yankee titles were won when the Sox were pathetic. Yet I don't think Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle sat around crying, lamenting the lack of a pennant race with Boston!
I don't want to sound like a cranky old Squawker here, but the complete lack of historical context in these Wall Street Journal pieces is simply breathtaking. When they're not acting as if there have always been strong Yankees-Red Sox teams at the same time, they're decreeing that Mickey Mantle was only the sixth greatest Yankee position player ever, and somebody who benefited from "dumb luck." Or they're twisting around statistics, leaving 1/3 of the Yankees' homers out, in an effort to prove that A-Rod has the longest home run trots.
Anyhow, there is no way I'm going to root for the Sox to do well so that they have a pennant race with the Yankees. You can read more of my thoughts on the issue at The Faster Times' site.
One other note - it was Squawker reader Alvaro who came up with the Boston Glee Party phrase in 2006. The WSJ should pay him royalties for using his phrase in their headline!
Just for the heck of it, I looked it up: The average finish for the Red Sox in a year when the Yankees win the Pennant is 4th -- actually 4.4.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase a brilliant blogger I saw with a page from a different sport: We are Yankee Fans. The Red Sox are the enemy. They are deeply evil people. Their fans, even more so.
The Red Sox would rob your mother at gunpoint. They would run over your puppy, and then point and laugh. They would make you listen to Phil Collins. They would insist on calling things they like "wicked." They would dip their pizza in ketchup. They would offer you a cup of coffee, then serve you chicory. They would force you to watch Ben Affleck films. They would drive really slowly in front of you when you're in a hurry, then speed up so they get through the amber light and leave you stuck at the red. They would chew gum loudly in your ear. They would pick their teeth in public. They would knock down old ladies. If they ever put a Red Sox fan into space, he would probably fart in the airlock.
They are hypocrites: They would call your team a bunch of cheaters for using steroids and outspending everyone -- and demand that you overlook that, until 2009, the two highest-spending teams ever to win the World Series were the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox, led by proven steroid freaks David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez (and possibly others).
They are not our rivals, not our competitors, not our peers. They are the enemy. Treat them as such. And in the face of such monstrous evil, such hideous, cheating, tantrum-throwing, monster-faced malevolence, make sure you let our boys know that they are fighting the good fight, on the side of truth and righteousness. For, after all, they are The New York Yankees. And we are Yankee Fans.
Da da da DAT da daaaa! Charrrrge!
http://tedsicle.blogspot.com/
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