What Is the Deal Between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox?

As in all sports, baseball has its rivalries, and the granddaddy of all baseball rivalries has got to be between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. As the two teams play each other in New York over this Fourth of July weekend, The Girlfriend gives pause and considers what might be behind this stubborn rivalry. I posed the question to Joanie The Softball Diva and Terminal Yankees Fan and The Boyfriend, who was born and raised in Red Sox Nation, to give me their views from their respective teams.

Joanie The Softball Diva and Terminal Yankees Fan on THE RIVALRY:

The Yankees/Red Sox Rivalry is called the greatest rivalry in all sports. Well, it’s definitely true…..but in all actuality it’s a rivalry between two cities and two fan bases. Boston, perpetually with a big chip on its shoulder because it is a smaller city and no matter how hard it tries…..it will never, ever be as cool as New York.

Same thing with their fans. The Boston fans are possessed, downright maniacal when it comes to their beloved Red Sox. That’s not a bad thing. But in Boston, it’s the only thing. In New York, of course there are passionate die-hard Yankees fans, but there is also other life. Millions of New Yorkers don’t even watch baseball. They have theater, comedy clubs, art museums, rollerblading, dance clubs and many other avenues for entertainment. Boston….smaller city, smaller venues for fun, no other life than to be an obsessive Red Sox fan. “Wicked” hard life.

They say the rivalry began with the famous Curse of the Bambino. The Red Sox were very successful until they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees and then had a drought of 86 years until they finally won a World Series in 2004. Supposedly Harry Frazee sold the Babe so he could finance a production of the play, No, No Nanette, but Wikipedia disputes that claim. Whether or not the timing of the sale financed the play, the trade apparently doomed the Red Sox to eight decades of anguished suffering for giving up the greatest player of all time. Of course with World Series victories in 2004 and 2007 the curse is over…..or so you would think.

A Red Sox fan working construction on the New Yankee Stadium, which will open in 2009, buried a Big Papi Red Sox jersey deep into a concrete slab in the bowels of the Stadium. Someone, maybe a Yankee fan, ratted him out. It garnered all kinds of publicity….a new curse on the New Stadium. Silly Red Sox fan….didn’t he get the symbolism! Being BURIED at Yankee Stadium. Well, several thousand dollars in overtime jack hammering later, the shirt was dug up, cleaned up, and in a snide turning of the cheek, the Yankees higher-ups ended up auctioning the shirt off to the tune of $75,000 and gave the money to the Jimmy Fund, which is a favorite Red Sox cancer charity. No way that good karma will be erased.

The Red Sox are playing really good ball right now and the Yankees will have to work really, really hard to even come close to catching them for the Eastern Division title. Of course there is always the Wild Card…..and there is always the delicious possibility of seeing all those Red Sox fans going back to their normal miserable state. They really have had too much success lately (Super Bowl XLII notwithstanding) and the fans really are better suited to be railing, wailing and flailing against those damn Yankees. It’s a city thing…..it’s time for things to go back to normal. New York on top.

The Boyfriend responds, defending Red Sox Nation:

My father was born in the summer of 1921, three years after the Red Sox won the World Series. He grew up during the Depression, married, raised 6 children to middle age, lost a brother who died in his 50s, a father who died in his 70s, and a mother who died in her 80s. He watched as the country experience five wars, five economic recessions, bought and sold five houses, delighted in the birth of countless grandchildren and great grandchildren and watched as the New York Yankees won the world Series 26 times and the Red Sox won none.

Does anyone really need me to explain why Boston HATES the Yankees?

Boston has always been the “Bastard Stepchild” to New York City. New York is the financial capital of the US, had the tallest building, and for a time had the largest population. New York is the EMPIRE State. Massachusetts is the BAY State. Yes, the State that has a lot of Bays.

It makes sense that Boston has a self-esteem problem, doesn’t it?

That brings me back to my Dad. He said that New Yorkers were just a bunch of “animals.” When I was very young, I believed him and when I got older, I blew it off as one of his “things”. I know that most of that feeling was a manifestation of the rivalry between the Cities, but I wonder if the Red Sox had won 26 world championships if that feeling might have been softened somewhat.

But... that’s what sports is all about, rooting for your team, right? What would a Red Sox/Yankees series be if the intensity wasn’t there? That’s what it’s all about.

My father was 83 years old when the Red Sox finally pulled it off. He was living in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, at the time. Half way through the fourth game of the series when it became obvious that the Red Sox were going to win, in spite of the fact he had stopped driving at night years before, my father put on his Red Sox jacket, his Red Sox ball cap and went to the local bar to watch the rest of the game. This college town bar was filled with students and they rolled out the red carpet for him. He became the impromptu elder statesman of the “Red Sox Nation” They gave him a seat right up front, and bought him a screwdriver. He had the time of his life.

So…look out New York. The Red Sox are back in business and your days on the top of the shit heap are numbered. Only 24 more World Championships to go!!!