Red Sox or Yankees?
It's the litmus test for Boston newcomers, the impromptu assessment that will be asked of fresh Tufts faces over the course of the year. It's not important that there are presently 28 other professional baseball teams. It's not important that those students care about sports at all. A calculated retort is required: Red Sox or Yankees.
The question lives on because, in the sphere of Bostonians and New Yorkers, there exists only two teams in baseball. The Red Sox and the Yankees sit smack in the center of the baseball-cosmos, forever pushing and tugging at each other in an endless bout. And for those at Tufts who come from places other than Beantown and the Big Apple, often
picking sides has more to do with the commotion created by opposing fans rather than the actual baseball teams.
"I pick the Yankees," said Vijay Nathan, a senior from Houston, Texas. "It's not because I care about the Yankees necessarily, but I just don't care for the attitude of many Red Sox fans. They seem to blow it out of proportion, and handle the rivalry better than the Yankees fans."
Nathan echoed the sentiment of other students interviewed, many of whom expressed dismay with the frequent "Yankees suck" chant in the city and the perceived misrepresentation of the Red Sox as a less-fortunate, fledgling team by Boston fans eager to draw a difference between their team and the ostentatious Yankees.
"The Yankees have the reputation of being the Evil Empire," senior Scott Lusting said. "The only ones who spend lots of money, who take all the expensive players, but the Red Sox are exactly the same. Their PR just pretends they're not like that, and that's good marketing."
Lusting is from Long Island and chose a favorite team only after arriving at Tufts.
The Red Sox criticized the 2001 Yankee team for a payroll that exceeded $100 million, only to spend $109 million that year. The Red Sox now have the second highest payroll in baseball, with a 2005 total team salary of $123 million, compared with the Yankees $208 million.
For undecided new arrivals, there are plenty of reasons to choose either team. The World Series trophy is finally making the rounds in Massachusetts for the first time since 1918, following the Sox's defeat of St. Louis last October. Some students find the team's perennial underdog status appealing, and the Sox's World Series buildup juxtaposes nicely with the 26 World Series victories of the baseball goliath to the south.
"Everybody loves an underdog, and being in the center of Red Sox Nation certainly makes it easy to get swept up in the energy surrounding the team," said senior Pittsburgh native Judson Porter. "Boston baseball fans have been disappointed again and again...and the Yankees kept winning. [And] after so many years, the underdog finally pulled the rug out from the almost-invincible Yankees."
The rivalry flared in 2003, when Yankees third baseman Aaron Boone hit a home run in the 11th inning of Game Seven of the American League Championship Series to give the Red Sox their 85th straight unsuccessful World Series bid. The Yankees would go on to lose the World Series to the Florida Marlins, but the Boston/New York hatred between fans only grew in intensity.
"I couldn't believe that when it happened (Boone's homer), that took my hatred of the Yankees to a new level," said senior Josh Rothschild, a lifelong Boston fan who has lived in the Boston area since childhood. Rothschild was actually at a Red Sox game when he was interviewed for this article.
"After that, and after all those years, you don't understand how sweet it was to come back in 2004 (in the AL Championship Series) to beat the Yankees, and then take the World Series. There are people in their 60s, 70s, 80s who had been waiting their whole lives for that."
Rothschild paused.
"Did I mention it was great to beat the Yankees?"
As with their Boston counterparts, Yankee fans were equal in their dislike for Boston and its fans.
"I really do hate Boston," said Greg Apostle, a senior Yankees fan from New York.
Apostle tried to explain what he sees as the difference between the New York and Boston perspectives of the rivalry.
"We seem to view [the rivalry] differently," he said. "Yankees fans want to win more than anything and since the Sox are our biggest rival we love to beat them. Boston fans seem to have the mindset that if the Sox don't win at least having the Yankees lose is comforting."
The endless debate leaves some students feeling exhausted.
"I'm. . .sick of hearing about it," senior and Indiana native Sarah Lucas said of the rivalry. "I don't like either."
Despite her distaste for the rivalry, Lucas still feels to take a position.
"I've never lived in New York," she said. "I live in Boston, [so] if I have to, I choose the Red Sox."
