If history has a tendency of repeating itself, Tufts is making sure that at least some aspects of last year's surreal New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox series do not reappear on
campus.
Tufts, which boasts a considerable student population from the New York/New Jersey area, is no stranger to passions running high when it comes to this baseball rivalry.
After a particularly exciting game last October between the Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics, a crowd of about 500 students gathered on the Residential Quad to celebrate. Six Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) cruisers and a paddy wagon finally arrived in an effort to contain the crowd.
Although the students were not violent, they were loud and rowdy, shouting "we want Bacow!" and "Yankees suck!"
Some members of the Tufts community believe that this year's American League Championship Series could easily incite similar student demonstrations, which has left some within the administration on edge.
Because both the Yankees and the Red Sox are in the same position in relation to each other as they were last year, the TUPD is not taking any chances regarding impromptu and possibly dangerous or vandalistic fan exuberance.
Although the TUPD made no special arrangements last night, which marked the first game between the Yankees and the Red Sox, Sergeant Richard McConaghey said that an added police presence around campus will be instated on other game nights.
"Right now they're going to add more shifts over the weekend, and other than that we're looking into" other ways to ensure a smooth series on campus, McConaghey said.
Before the series having even started, there are some literal signs around campus that students will be taking these games very seriously and personally. Already there have been several vandalisms, including a prominent "Yankees Suck" message spray-painted onto a dumpster in Hill Hall's parking lot.
Many Tufts students are anticipating an exciting and raucous on-campus reaction to the series between the two teams.
Senior Bryce Petrucelli is one of those students. "[Red Sox fans] are a bunch of f***ing animals up here," he said. "Very little can be done to control them."
He added that "if the Red Sox should win, Fenway [Park] will get burned to ashes. I don't even want to think what would happen to [our] campus."
Petrucelli attributed last year's disruptive behavior to Red Sox fans, whom he considers to be far ruder than their Yankees compatriots. "Fenway fans are far worse [than Yankees fans]," he said. "You can tell just by looking at the sort of rude slogans they have on their shirts."
Not everyone, however, is convinced that extreme excitement within the Red Sox population on campus is unmerited or inexcusable.
Sophomore Eric Misbach, a self-proclaimed recent convert to the Red Sox tradition, said that "it's just the chemistry of Bostonians ... wins and losses for the Red Sox mean more to Sox fans than Yankees fans who are more pompous."
For this reason, Misbach believes that " ... of course a win or a loss would create riots in the Tufts community and of course if [the Red Sox] get to Game 7 like they did last year a riot is sure to happen."
Misbach noted that he was swept up in last year's excitement regarding the Red Sox and Athletics game, and that "[he] was one of the main leaders of the riot after the victory."
"I was screaming like an idiot with Red Sox posters over my head towards the Res Quad ... with hundreds of other fans following and joining the mob," Misbach said.
Despite the fact that the TUPD will be better prepared this year to head off any possible repeats of last year's near-riot, Misbach said that "I would love to join another debacle of Red Sox pride," and that "I am very willing and looking forward to joining yet another Red Sox pride mob and riot [this year]."
