You'd think that after 375 wins and two World Series rings in four years, Red Sox fans would have a different outlook on life than the one we had back in, say, the winter of 2004. That's just common sense, right?
This is a franchise that's come a long way. To go from a mindset of harping on the scapegoats of past failures - Mike Torrez, Bill Buckner, Grady Little et al - to celebrating the heroes of the present is a profound step. To take that step in just four years is admirable. This is 2008, and there isn't a "Yankees Suck" T-shirt in sight. This is a fanbase built on positivity. Right?
Maybe not. Apparently in the Bronx, there's a man named Gino Castignoli who missed that memo.
Castignoli is a rare breed - a sworn Yankee hater, born and raised in the Bronx, who claims he's never set foot in Yankee Stadium. The old one, that is. Last week the 46-year-old construction worker admitted that six months ago, he'd stopped by the new Yankee Stadium construction site and gotten a job. He kept it for one day - just long enough to bury a replica David Ortiz jersey in the stadium's foundation.
Apparently this was an attempt to "jinx" the Yankees. Sounds to me more like an easy way to waste a $30 shirt.
This is the kind of immature garbage that pervaded Red Sox Nation years ago. A lot has changed since then - if you'll notice, Gino, the Yankees haven't won a title in this century. They didn't need any buried jerseys to choke away 2001, '03 and '04.
So why, then, do the Red Sox still have fans who insist on defining themselves through their hatred of the second-best team in the American League East?
I blame everyone, fans and media members alike, who perpetuated the idiotic notion of a "Curse of the Bambino" for so many years, claiming that for some supernatural reason, the Yankees were baseball's team of destiny and the Red Sox were doomed to eternal failure. Ever since Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919 to (according to myth) finance his production of "No, No, Nannette," the Red Sox weren't the same.
So now, apparently, the goal becomes returning the favor. It's time to teach the Yankees what it's like to endure a century under a curse, right?
Ugh. I hope not.
If I had my way, the words "curse," "jinx," "hex," "spell," "augur," "enchantment," "charm," "scourge," "abomination," "anathema," "plague" and "pestilence" would all be categorically banned from use in any sportswriting of any kind - hell, even in casual conversation. Could this be a constitutional amendment, maybe? It should be. I miss the days when baseball was actually about baseball.
It's unfortunate that in today's sports media, off-the-field controversy is what sells. Because often, it's controversy that would make pro wrestling look intellectual. What unfolded after Jerseygate (gag me now) was Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner declaring that "I hope his co-workers kick the s--t out of him" and Castignoli responding with "Tell Hank he can come meet me if he wants to try." Seriously? This is a story? Isn't there baseball being played somewhere?
I'm tired of people trying to create stories out of nothing. Baseball is a beautiful game, but it's agonizing to see people try to make it into more than it is. For lack of a better way to put this, I'll just quote the immortal Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh:
"A good friend of mine used to say, 'This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes, it rains.'
"Think about that for a while."
Evans Clinchy is a junior majoring in English. He can be reached at Evans.Clinchy@tufts.edu.
