Why aren’t Yankees just an afterthought to Sox fans these days?
I t's become something of a pastime for yours truly to analyze the psyche of Red Sox fans. They are some of my best friends. And yet I still don't quite get how all the synapses cross in their noggins. I mean, honest, well-meaning, intelligent, decent folks all lose their minds at the thought of the Sox. The Sox! THE SOX!
Shall we discuss?
Maybe a few of you can explain to me why, glowing in the rhapsody of the World Series championship the other night, Sox fans at the postgame ceremony at Dodger Stadium provided their own background harmony: Perpetual chants of "Yankees suck." I don't get it. Boston's fourth championship since 2004 suggests to me the Yankees are in the rear view mirror. Or should be. The Red Sox are the better franchise at the moment. By a lot. Their hitters are beacons, actually adjusting their swings with two strikes, instead of the Judge/Sanchez/Stanton thing of trying to swing harder to appease all the launch angle/exit velo geeks.
And yet, in the wake of another Sox championship, the Yankees still live rent free in the minds of their fans. Why? My old college friend Tim Callahan chimed in Monday via e-mail. Tim is 1) brilliant; 2) hates the Yankees; and 3) hates the Yankees.
"I gotta say this," he wrote. "I can't stand the 'Yankees suck' thing anymore. I'm so beyond done with that at this point. Hearing the Sox fans in LA chanting that minutes after win-
ning the World Series for the fourth time in 15 years was ... embarrassing. It's unbelievable how the Yankee inferiority complex still dominates the Boston psyche, four championships later. Part of me still gets it — I'm still traumatized from childhood too. But can we please move on?"
Or maybe this: Try acting like you've been there before. Because you have. Four times this decade. More than anyone else, including the Yankees.
Joe D'Ambrosio, the once and future voice of UConn sports, ended his 6:45 a.m. sportscast on WTIC radio thusly Tuesday morning:
"It was interesting to hear the Sox celebrated in their Dodger Stadium clubhouse Sunday night by blaring 'New York, New York,'" Joe D said, "much like some of their more juvenile fans who chant 'Yankees suck' even when they are not playing the Bombers. The Sox showed that they can't get Big Brother out of their mind. That's OK, Sox, you're only 18 world championships behind."
Full disclosure: I didn't mind the "New York, New York" thing. Aaron Judge was immature enough to blast Sinatra near the Sox locker room after the Yankees won at Fenway in Game 2 of the Division Series. So the Sox lobbing a snowball Judge's way is fair game.
(Note to Judge, by the way: Ever see Jeter, Bernie or Mo Rivera do stuff like that?)
And so while the Sox players had the Yankees on their minds, too, in the wake of a championship, the Yanks sort of had that coming.
But that fans? Different story. I find the same mentality with the Patriots and their posse. Their fans gleaned more joy from mocking the Falcons blowing the 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl two years ago than the very idea their team won the game. It's called acting like new money. Again: Why? What is it about the Yankees, who should be an afterthought, that still grinds the gears of the Bostonians? The more appropriate response from the Fenway Faithful next year to the Yankees should be: "Sorry. Who are you guys again?"
Instead, the yahoos will be out en masse.
Now I get that Yankee fans didn't exactly write the manual on decorum here either. Seems they err on the side of haughtiness more than anything else. I don't recall one "1918" or "Boston sucks" chant during any Yankees trophy presentation in my lifetime. And I've seen six, by the way.
I'm sure most of the answers to my question will fail to stay on point. But it's a simple question nonetheless: Why, Sox fans, are you thinking about the Yankees while you are celebrating a championship against another team?
It's like you let the Yankees win again.
Maybe if the Sox win next year, you can start acting like you've been there before. Because you have. This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro