RED SOX RULE...YANKEES DROOL!
Friday, April 11, 2008
The Red Sox are playing the Yankees in Boston tonight!
I know, I know! Most of you don't think 'SPORTS FAN' when you think of me and that is true I guess, but there are some exceptions to that rule. I LOVE to watch sports if someone I care about is playing. I used to watch a friend of mine play basketball every week and I LOVED that. It probably helps that he is pretty amazing at it, but I really miss that. What I never admitted as a teenager is that I loved it when I watched my brother or sister in a basketball game. I didn't go often and would have never confessed to enjoying it so much (sibling rivalry and all), but I really did!
I also feel pride in where I come from and the sports teams are a part of that. New England, and Bostonians in particular, have a real attachment to their sports teams and none have captured our hearts over the years like the RED SOX. Even through an 86 year dry spell we believed damn it!
I admit to hearing some stories that are a little crazy, for example there was a guy who bought the house Babe Ruth was born in and ripped it down trying to break the curse. You know that idiot was out the night we won the World Series buying everyone beer and taking all the credit, when it is our dear Red Sox and all the fans, even the normal ones without enough money to buy a house just to rip it down, that deserved the credit. Believing is enough! I think that guy is nuts, ok? I said it, but the insanity of RED SOX fans and their persistence in believing and loving the team (even though they broke their hearts in game 7 of three different World Series before we finally won in 2004) is part of their charm! Boston fans don't give up.
Anyone who knows about Red Sox fans knows about the hatred we have for the New York Yankees. They say we always route for two teams, the SOX and whichever team is playing against the Yankees! I was once impressed with an encounter I had with a Korean guy in a bar in Daegu, South Korea. It was right after we had won the 2004 World Series. And yes, I had watched it at 8am my time and I did cry when we won. So, anyway, I am in this bar on the following Saturday night and quite drunk and this huge Korean walks by (he really was a large man and not just for a Korean) and he is wearing a New York Yankees jacket. Well, in my excitement (and inebriation) I gave him a shove and got in his face and yelled, "YANKEES SUCK!" I know, this is really NOT AT ALL like me. It took a moment for my friends to recover from the shock and start to grab me, but before they could he said in really bad broken English, "No, No, No...I like Red Sock, My girlfriend buy" as he grabbed the jacket and made a disgusted face. We hugged and bonded over the Red Sox recent win and my European friends thought we were both crazy! I was so surprised that he knew immediately that I must be a Red Sox fan. The word of the rivalry has made it to Asia folks!
With all of that said, and even with our success, a Boston Red Sox fan has pulled yet another stunt in order to assure our victory over the Yankees and possibly to get back at them for the "Curse of the Bambino." I have to say. I like this one. Harmless and yet adorable. I approve! I will think of it every time the Red Sox are playing at the new Yankee Stadium starting in 2009. Please see the New York Post article below for this clever fan's attempt to put a jinx on those dastardly Yankees! I LOVE IT!
I hope you are all well and the Sox will kick some Yankee BUTT tonight! GO SOX!!!!!
FROM THE NEW YORK POST:
HIGH'JINX' HITS YANKEES
By JOHN DOYLE, CHUCK BENNETT and JEREMY OLSHAN
NEW YORK -- April 11, 2008 --The new Yankee Stadium may be cursed!
A devilish Boston fan working on a concrete crew at the $1.3 billion stadium covertly buried a Red Sox T-shirt under what will become the visiting team's locker room to jinx the Yanks, two construction workers told The Post yesterday.
"In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor's clubhouse. It's the curse of the Yankees," one worker said. "Nobody knows about it. It's in the floors, it's buried."
The workers say they now fear that they unwittingly helped hex their beloved Bronx Bombers.
"I don't want to be responsible for sinking the franchise," said a second worker, who witnessed the sabotage. "I respect the stadium."
The Post has withheld their identities because they are not authorized to speak to media.
This latest hex is above and beyond any typical ritual - like wearing a lucky shirt or hat - that fans typically do to boost their luck.
"It sounds a little unprecedented to me," said Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.
"I guess if the Yankees go 86 years in the new ballpark without a win we'll know if we are on to something," he said, referring to Boston's previous infamous losing streak after they sold Babe Ruth.
"If I was a Yankees fan, that is my house. I don't want a Red Sox [T-shirt] under my house," he added.
Chris Wertz, co-owner of the Red Sox bar Professor Thom's in the East Village, laughed at the ingenuity of the worker. "I won't be surprised in the least bit to see that visiting locker room torn up and relaid right away," he said. "This what makes the game special for baseball fans. It's not a mean thing, but something they will take seriously."
Red Sox fans, he said, will see the buried garment as a good-luck charm, especially after years of seeing the retired numbers of four legendary players displayed in Fenway Park.
It has long displayed "9" for Ted Williams, "4" for Joe Cronin, "1" for Bobby Doerr and "8" for Carl Yastrzemski - which comes out to 9-4-18, the day before the World Series that resulted in the last Red Sox championship until 2004.
Baseball historians said these kinds of superstitions are not something to be scoffed at.
"Curses start off very easily. It's all the power of suggestion and they take on a life of their own," said Dan Gordon, co-author of the 2007 book "Haunted Baseball." "Even the 'Curse of the Bambino' didn't really take off until the 1980s. Before then it was just hard luck," he said.
Mickey Bradley, co-author of "Haunted Baseball," said a worker is said to have buried an unknown good-luck charm in a water main trench of the current Yankee Stadium back in 1920. "Prior to that, they never they won a World Series," he said. Players can also bring curses to their teams.
"Look at the curse of A-Rod. The Yankees haven't won since [Alex Rodriguez] came to their game. There's probably more to that than a T-shirt," said Peter Nash, author of "Boston's Royal Rooters," a history of Red Sox fans.
"This just takes the rivalry to whole new level. If you look at 2004, the Yankees were up three games. If Boston lost that, seriously, the whole franchise would have been decimated," said Nash, who performed with the rap duo Third Bass before writing about baseball.
"I think there is a curse in effect already. Maybe the Red Sox T-shirt is like the icing on the cake, a nice little F-you from Boston," he said.
The year 2004, of course, was the year the Red Sox broke their own curse and won the World Series after beating the Yankees in the playoffs. Still, stadiums have long had their own curses.
One of them is the 1945 "Billy Goat" curse at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago cubs.
Legend has it that William Sianis placed a curse on the team after stadium staff refused to let him enter with his pet goat. The team hasn't played in the World Series since 1945.
Superstition in stadiums can also cut the other way and help a team.The Texas Rangers languished in their old stadium from 1972 to 1993, until they moved into a new ballpark the following year. Since then, the team won three division titles. More recently, the Tampa Rays may be cursed by their own new stadium, which was partially built over a cemetery.
Over the past decade, the team had the worst record in all of Major League Baseball four times and finished last place in their division nine times.
As for the buried emblem of hated Boston, the Yankees say they aren't the least bit worried.
"It sounds like a tall tale, and it would take more than a Red Sox T-shirt to put a curse on the Yankees," said team spokesman Howard Rubenstein.
john.doyle@nypost.com
The Red Sox are playing the Yankees in Boston tonight!
I know, I know! Most of you don't think 'SPORTS FAN' when you think of me and that is true I guess, but there are some exceptions to that rule. I LOVE to watch sports if someone I care about is playing. I used to watch a friend of mine play basketball every week and I LOVED that. It probably helps that he is pretty amazing at it, but I really miss that. What I never admitted as a teenager is that I loved it when I watched my brother or sister in a basketball game. I didn't go often and would have never confessed to enjoying it so much (sibling rivalry and all), but I really did!
I also feel pride in where I come from and the sports teams are a part of that. New England, and Bostonians in particular, have a real attachment to their sports teams and none have captured our hearts over the years like the RED SOX. Even through an 86 year dry spell we believed damn it!
I admit to hearing some stories that are a little crazy, for example there was a guy who bought the house Babe Ruth was born in and ripped it down trying to break the curse. You know that idiot was out the night we won the World Series buying everyone beer and taking all the credit, when it is our dear Red Sox and all the fans, even the normal ones without enough money to buy a house just to rip it down, that deserved the credit. Believing is enough! I think that guy is nuts, ok? I said it, but the insanity of RED SOX fans and their persistence in believing and loving the team (even though they broke their hearts in game 7 of three different World Series before we finally won in 2004) is part of their charm! Boston fans don't give up.
Anyone who knows about Red Sox fans knows about the hatred we have for the New York Yankees. They say we always route for two teams, the SOX and whichever team is playing against the Yankees! I was once impressed with an encounter I had with a Korean guy in a bar in Daegu, South Korea. It was right after we had won the 2004 World Series. And yes, I had watched it at 8am my time and I did cry when we won. So, anyway, I am in this bar on the following Saturday night and quite drunk and this huge Korean walks by (he really was a large man and not just for a Korean) and he is wearing a New York Yankees jacket. Well, in my excitement (and inebriation) I gave him a shove and got in his face and yelled, "YANKEES SUCK!" I know, this is really NOT AT ALL like me. It took a moment for my friends to recover from the shock and start to grab me, but before they could he said in really bad broken English, "No, No, No...I like Red Sock, My girlfriend buy" as he grabbed the jacket and made a disgusted face. We hugged and bonded over the Red Sox recent win and my European friends thought we were both crazy! I was so surprised that he knew immediately that I must be a Red Sox fan. The word of the rivalry has made it to Asia folks!
With all of that said, and even with our success, a Boston Red Sox fan has pulled yet another stunt in order to assure our victory over the Yankees and possibly to get back at them for the "Curse of the Bambino." I have to say. I like this one. Harmless and yet adorable. I approve! I will think of it every time the Red Sox are playing at the new Yankee Stadium starting in 2009. Please see the New York Post article below for this clever fan's attempt to put a jinx on those dastardly Yankees! I LOVE IT!
I hope you are all well and the Sox will kick some Yankee BUTT tonight! GO SOX!!!!!
FROM THE NEW YORK POST:
HIGH'JINX' HITS YANKEES
By JOHN DOYLE, CHUCK BENNETT and JEREMY OLSHAN
NEW YORK -- April 11, 2008 --The new Yankee Stadium may be cursed!
A devilish Boston fan working on a concrete crew at the $1.3 billion stadium covertly buried a Red Sox T-shirt under what will become the visiting team's locker room to jinx the Yanks, two construction workers told The Post yesterday.
"In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor's clubhouse. It's the curse of the Yankees," one worker said. "Nobody knows about it. It's in the floors, it's buried."
The workers say they now fear that they unwittingly helped hex their beloved Bronx Bombers.
"I don't want to be responsible for sinking the franchise," said a second worker, who witnessed the sabotage. "I respect the stadium."
The Post has withheld their identities because they are not authorized to speak to media.
This latest hex is above and beyond any typical ritual - like wearing a lucky shirt or hat - that fans typically do to boost their luck.
"It sounds a little unprecedented to me," said Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.
"I guess if the Yankees go 86 years in the new ballpark without a win we'll know if we are on to something," he said, referring to Boston's previous infamous losing streak after they sold Babe Ruth.
"If I was a Yankees fan, that is my house. I don't want a Red Sox [T-shirt] under my house," he added.
Chris Wertz, co-owner of the Red Sox bar Professor Thom's in the East Village, laughed at the ingenuity of the worker. "I won't be surprised in the least bit to see that visiting locker room torn up and relaid right away," he said. "This what makes the game special for baseball fans. It's not a mean thing, but something they will take seriously."
Red Sox fans, he said, will see the buried garment as a good-luck charm, especially after years of seeing the retired numbers of four legendary players displayed in Fenway Park.
It has long displayed "9" for Ted Williams, "4" for Joe Cronin, "1" for Bobby Doerr and "8" for Carl Yastrzemski - which comes out to 9-4-18, the day before the World Series that resulted in the last Red Sox championship until 2004.
Baseball historians said these kinds of superstitions are not something to be scoffed at.
"Curses start off very easily. It's all the power of suggestion and they take on a life of their own," said Dan Gordon, co-author of the 2007 book "Haunted Baseball." "Even the 'Curse of the Bambino' didn't really take off until the 1980s. Before then it was just hard luck," he said.
Mickey Bradley, co-author of "Haunted Baseball," said a worker is said to have buried an unknown good-luck charm in a water main trench of the current Yankee Stadium back in 1920. "Prior to that, they never they won a World Series," he said. Players can also bring curses to their teams.
"Look at the curse of A-Rod. The Yankees haven't won since [Alex Rodriguez] came to their game. There's probably more to that than a T-shirt," said Peter Nash, author of "Boston's Royal Rooters," a history of Red Sox fans.
"This just takes the rivalry to whole new level. If you look at 2004, the Yankees were up three games. If Boston lost that, seriously, the whole franchise would have been decimated," said Nash, who performed with the rap duo Third Bass before writing about baseball.
"I think there is a curse in effect already. Maybe the Red Sox T-shirt is like the icing on the cake, a nice little F-you from Boston," he said.
The year 2004, of course, was the year the Red Sox broke their own curse and won the World Series after beating the Yankees in the playoffs. Still, stadiums have long had their own curses.
One of them is the 1945 "Billy Goat" curse at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago cubs.
Legend has it that William Sianis placed a curse on the team after stadium staff refused to let him enter with his pet goat. The team hasn't played in the World Series since 1945.
Superstition in stadiums can also cut the other way and help a team.The Texas Rangers languished in their old stadium from 1972 to 1993, until they moved into a new ballpark the following year. Since then, the team won three division titles. More recently, the Tampa Rays may be cursed by their own new stadium, which was partially built over a cemetery.
Over the past decade, the team had the worst record in all of Major League Baseball four times and finished last place in their division nine times.
As for the buried emblem of hated Boston, the Yankees say they aren't the least bit worried.
"It sounds like a tall tale, and it would take more than a Red Sox T-shirt to put a curse on the Yankees," said team spokesman Howard Rubenstein.
john.doyle@nypost.com
posted by Unknown | 10:14 AM
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