I’m a Boston Red Sox fan, have been all my life. I have a visceral, and probably irrational dislike of the New York Yankees, I guess mostly because of what’s perceived as a perennial sense of entitlement and hubris on the part of Yankees fans.
There is a certain cachet associated with NY that doesn’t exist in Boston. People wear the team hat as a fashion statement, not necessarily as a sign of loyalty.
It’s been a classic rivalry for a long time, has made for some good baseball and some great stories. A couple of passionate fan bases. But I keep coming back to this sense of entitlement, that the right and proper place for a World Series victor is in New York— where it belongs… Oh, please.
There must be a lot of pressure on ownership and other management in the Yankees organization. Right now, there is great clamor and frustration over the drought that has beset the Bronx Bombers for the past 17 years. No WS victory since 2009? Oh, the humanity! But this is the expectation.
I saw a news report that said the team means a lot to the local fan base. Well, of course it does! What team doesn’t mean a lot to its local fan base? Maybe the new reality is that all the money in the world and a storied past don’t necessarily translate to reaching the pinnacle. Look at Milwaukee, or Tampa Bay. Maybe we are seeing a certain parity develop, which may allow other fan bases to have their moment in the sun. Or maybe what happened in Milwaukee was the perfect mix of talent and ownership and managerial prowess and timing.
In any event, if one lives or dies by the fortunes of any sports team, then maybe it’s time to expand one’s horizons.
