Doff Sox caps for this Yanks hat

I have a friend, Chris, who has never visited Boston. However, he’s coming here on business and we’ll be getting together for dinner. Since he’s never been to Boston, he asked me a question.

“Is Boston the sort of town where I’ll receive a beating if I wear my Yankees cap?”

Now 25 or 30 years ago, my answer would have been unequivocal.

“Yes, of course you’ll get a beating! Are you insane? What could possibly lead you to believe you could wear a Yankees cap in Boston and not get a beating?”

Today it is a more global and less insular Boston. It might not be advisable to wear a Yankees cap to Fenway Park, but just sporting one around town? Unless you venture into certain select neighborhoods where people will kick your butt just for the fun of it, regardless of your choice of headwear, you can probably wear a Yankees cap in Boston and not have much to worry about.

The sporting world has changed, maybe for the better.

As kids growing up in Dorchester, all of us rooted for the Red Sox. It was a given that being born and raised in Boston made you a Sox fan.

Now, though, what with so many opportunities to see other teams play on a regular basis, loyalties are split. I was shocked a few years back while watching the Little League World Series on TV. The practice during those telecasts is to introduce the players to the television audience by having them say their names and who their favorite ballplayers are. A team from Massachusetts was still alive and the kids did their intros. Out of 14 players, only five named a member of the Red Sox as their hero. The rest chose players from Los Angeles, Texas, Miami or (shudder) New York.

As I say, this may be a good thing. Many of the players don’t care what city is emblazoned on their uniforms, so long as the check clears, so why should the kids? And if your children don’t show blind loyalty to a certain mass-marketed brand of headgear, then maybe they’ll also be free-thinking enough to not automatically assume one skin color is the best or that they have to vote for a person only because he has a certain political affiliation listed next to his name. For that matter, maybe they’ll even vote for someone who isn’t the same gender as they are. Who knows what wild and crazy thoughts they’ll come up with?

Getting back to my buddy Chris, he’s a slim middle-aged white guy with a goatee. If you see such a person around town wearing a Yankees cap, I’d appreciate it if you cut him some slack. You see, one of the reasons he’s slim is because he runs marathons. Following the Boston Marathon bombings, he went against every fiber of his being as a Yankees fan and he wore a Boston Red Sox cap, with the initials of the bombing victims written in felt-tip on the brim, during his next marathon. He knew some things are more important than the color of your cap. For that alone, he deserves a pass on a beating.

Well, at least on one beating. I’d say he’s on his own after that.

Following the Boston Marathon bombings, my friend went against every fiber of his being as a Yankees fan, and he wore a Red Sox cap.