The last week before spring break is always the toughest week of the year. Every professor piles on the work, desperate to get in that one last paper, problem set, lab, or exam before the week off, and meanwhile, all we students can think about is getting the hell out of here.
For me, Monday night was especially painful. I had boatloads of reading to do, a take-home exam to finish, a paper to start, and, of course, a column to write. So naturally, when I got home Monday night, I knew exactly what I had to do.
I turned on the TV.
Why, you ask? Because Monday night, for the only time this March, the Red Sox and Yankees took the field for a spring training game. Not one to miss a chapter of everyone's favorite rivalry, I tuned to NESN and watched every pitch.
I'm not usually one to care about spring training. Obviously, spring results don't translate to regular-season performances - all it takes is one look at the Grapefruit League standings to prove that. (Next time the Reds or Orioles make a run at winning a real league title, let me know.)
But watching spring training is not, however, completely useless. I'm a believer in the spring's ability to teach you the little things. Monday night, for example, taught me that Craig Hansen can handle the pressure of the Yankees in the ninth inning; that Jerry Remy liked the movie "Flubber"; and that, contrary to popular belief, Carl Pavano does not actually have a genetic defect rendering him unable to retire a single AL batter.
And unfortunately, it also taught me one other lesson - one that I've probably already known for years, but that I've always resisted. On Monday night, I finally realized the awful truth.
We Red Sox fans care too much.
Let's back up for a second. In case you didn't watch the game in question (and I can't blame you), the Red Sox won 7-5, overcoming an early 3-0 deficit when a sixth-inning homer from J.D. Drew opened the floodgates for five unanswered runs in two innings.
Manny Delcarmen and Javier Lopez pitched the seventh and eighth innings, setting up for a Hansen save, and the game ended on a double play turned by Julio Lugo, to a triumphant cry of "the Red Sox have beaten the Yankees in their first meeting of 2007!" from Don Orsillo.
Apparently someone forgot to tell the guys in the NESN booth that these games don't count.
It seems that all of Red Sox Nation put everything it had into this game. The announcers, Orsillo and Remy, spent all night hyping the match-up for all it was worth; the fans, at least half a dozen of them according to Monday's Globe, camped out outside City of Palms Park the night before to get tickets; and the Sox' manager, Terry Francona, played his entire starting lineup just to win a game played on March 12.
That's right, he played everyone. Tito started the game with Lugo, Youkilis, Ortiz, Ramirez, Drew, Lowell, Crisp, Mirabelli and Pedroia. Joe Torre countered with four major leaguers and five guys you've never heard of.
In 2004, Francona tried to get away with benching his starters in a Sox-Yanks preseason game. It was the first game (real or otherwise) of his Red Sox career, and he was booed for not trying his hardest to beat the hated Yankees. I guess he's learned his lesson.
He got the job done this time, pushing his team over .500 in Grapefruit League play, at 7-6. The only problem is that none of this matters.
What's the point of beating the Yankees if there's no Derek Jeter to boo? No Johnny Damon to call a traitor? No Alex Rodriguez to laugh at every time he attempts to do what he calls "playing third base?"
It just didn't feel like a real win, at least not to me. Anytime a Red Sox fan gets to watch the Yankees lose, it's supposed to be a special occasion. But this time, I think it may have gone too far.
Whenever I get into a debate with a Yankees fan, I will inevitably be reminded that this "rivalry" is all on the Boston side and that the Yankees don't actually care about the Red Sox that much. I always denied that until now.
Todd Pratt, Josh Phelps, Kevin Reese, Chris Basak, Alberto Gonzalez all started for the Yankees Monday night, even though it was the last time the two teams will meet until late April. If it were the other way around, all of New England would be calling for Tito's head. But I will admit that as much as I hate everything it stands for, the Yankee faithful got it right.
I've always admired the fanatic support that the Red Sox fans have for their team. But March is March, and I think that support's gone a bit too far.
Save it for the regular season. It's gonna be a great one.
Evans Clinchy is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major.
