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Start spreadin' the news
By adamg on Sun, 08/20/2023 - 9:06pm
On the occasion of the Sox sweeping the Yankees in New York, Jake Reiser rewrites the Sinatra classic.
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Comments
This rivalry was a lot more fun when it meant
something. Thumping on the hapless Yanks of 2023 doesn't have the same juice when they and the Sox are both destined for early fall golf.
Counting chickens still in shell
Seattle just beat up on Houston this weekend too, which has flattened the top of the WC (for teams not named the Rays who are still cashing in on their insane start to the season).
Let's face it, no WC team is coming out of the hapless AL Central this year where the division-leading Twins are 2 games behind the Sox.
The Sox are only 3 games back from Seattle for the 3rd WC and 3.5 behind Houston for the 2nd WC slot. And 7 of our next 10 days are against Houston! If we go 5-2 against them, we could easily take over their WC slot. And over the past 10 games, we're the ones playing 0.700 baseball and they're playing 0.400 baseball.
Do I think we're going to win the postseason? No, probably not. But making the wildcard when there's only really 5 competitive teams for 3 slots and we've got 7 against Houston, 10 more against the Yankees, Royals, and White Sox combined in September and 5 against Tampa?
I think it's completely reasonable to make the 3rd WC slot.
A wild card slot is always possible. This
team getting further than that in the post-season? Cue Dean from Dean's Home Furniture.
Ah yes
Ah yes. The participation trophy. The "you tried" prize.
Can't win without a seat at the table
Once you're in the playoffs, you can figure out how far you go from there.
The Sox Are In 4th Place
The Yankees are in 5th.
Calm down with your giddiness.
The Sox aren't making the playoffs.
Nothing worse that a Red Sox "fan" that starts up Yankee Sucks chants and sings along to Sweet Caroline and Take Me Out To The Ballgame.
Rewriting New York New York owing to a 3 game sweep is childish and is like patting yourself on the back for writing your name correctly on a form.
Go get your picture taken with Wally and the other tourists.
The rest of us want to see wins and lots of them. That's it.
What’s the big deal?
Why get hyped up about some manufactured competition between corporations? It isn’t as if they actually represent the cities they pretend to care about.
Worldwide wrestling is more interesting and up front with the theatrics. But after five minutes that’s also dull.
Because sports are fun to watch for some people,
even if we recognize that it's a for-profit enterprise and the locally-branded laundry doesn't mean that much.
My longtime ardor for the Sox has been cooled by the fact that ownership has abandoned its pursuit of championships, settling instead for raking in cash while coasting on past glories, letting its most charismatic and talented stars walk to help win championships for other clubs.
I've gone from a 20-games-a-year attendee to once or twice a season, will only ramp it back up if they ever look serious about winning again. This updated version of Moneyball leaves me cold.
SPORTS are fun to watch
Correct. SPORTS are fun to watch, not some ginned-up "rivalry" designed to fill the pockets of bland-faced corporations who don't give a damn about the sport.
And it's fun to watch sports in the company of people who are also there to watch sports, not people who "go to Fenway" because it's a thing (less so than it was a few years ago, thankfully), whose idea of "tradition" is "Sweet Caroline", who actually like the Disneyfied mess than Fenway Park has become.
I think it's a stretch to call the rivalry "ginned
up". The Sox and Yankees have been fighting for the same championship spots since the league's earliest days. There have been scores of truly memorable late-season and post-season duels over the years, with the Yanks getting the better of most of them until 2004.
I don't seriously see how anyone doesn't view Sox-Yankees as one of the greatest historic rivalries in American pro sports. It's just lost some of its heat with the two franchises' recent declines, which was the point of my original post.
And I don't miss the old piss-trough, shit beer-and-concessions, sex-dolls-in-the-stands Fenway, either. You want to kick about prices, go ahead, but the cleanup and other upgrades were long overdue. (I loathe Sweet Caroline, too, if that helps.)
Meh
I will tell you as someone who was raised in pinstripes that the view of this "rivalry" is very different depending on where you are standing. Red Sox fans have had throbbing forehead veins over it for many decades, true. Yankee fans didn't consider the Red Sox worth getting exercised over until they actually started showing up and, y'know, being rivals. Even now I don't think get the impression that Bombers fans are breaking much of a sweat over it. But then they never had the febrile quality of Red Sox fandom.
I not only hate Sweet Carloline …
… I hate everything by Neil Diamond. His voice, his songs … how’s that for negativity. lol!
Some sports are fun to watch.
Others are even more fun to play.
But I don’t even think of Major League Baseball as sport. It’s just noise and blinding lights to me. I’m happy for people who enjoy it, I just don’t need it in my face all over the place. Nor do I need the behavior of the fanatics. If Big Corporate Sports was more about athletics and less about gambling and scandals, I might enjoy it too. Maybe. Probably not.
Agreed
I grew up close to NY and remain a fan of the Yankees and used to get upset when they lost big games and excited with the victories. I loved making fun of the Red Sox losing but I've also been an overall fan of the game and having lived in Boston for over 30 years I came to appreciate the exceptional teams they fielded. And yes, 2004 humbled me. The taunting bothered me at one time. It's still fun to go to a game every once in a while. But as I get older, the games mean less and less as the salaries get higher. I admire the players who actually seem to have some pride in what they do and where they play, Papi, Jeter, Mariano, Pedro, but there aren't anymore Freddie Pateks crying alone in the dugout after losing the big game. I tell young fans to take a good look at the players they worship and ask how much do you think they care about what they do with all of their millions of dollars. While you're upset at the loss, the player is driving home in a very expensive car. It's just a game.
They need to start cheating
They need to start cheating more if they want to make playoffs this year.
So that's how you'd do it
Noted.