I’ve lived in New England/NYC my entire life, so I’ve been hearing this Redsox/Yankees stuff since before I could talk. One thing is for sure, fans of the two teams hate each other, and the teams. Now, given the history of the two teams, I can understand why most Red Sox fans really detest the Yankees and their fans, but why is it so mutual? What exactly have the Red Sox done that have pissed off the Yankees and their fans so much? It couldn’t have been all of those series that they won, or all those players that they stole that helped them win all of those series…for the most part the Yankees have always come out on top of the Red Sox, so what do they have to be so angry about?
oh, and all of you who are planning on responding “Boston sucks, end of story” … at least explain why you equal sucking with hatred.
I’m about as far as possible from being a baseball fan, but I just just did a quick, informal poll of the Yankee fans here in the office. I can sum up their responses with this:
“We don’t hate Boston. That would be like hating a kitten who is about to be run over by a steam roller.”
I wasn’t born a Yankee fan. I was turned into one the day I got married. My FIL came up to me, grabbed me, hugged me, and whispered into my ear these words.
Welcome Phlosphr to our family. You are now officially a Yankee.
So, much like a vampire, I was not born into the affliction, but turned into it.
Know back to your OP: The rivalry is not only ingrained, but based in a history of territoriality, dominence, and pure, unadulterated fire.
Essentially, both teams are notoriously mega-machines of the baseball realm. Put two alpha males together and you are just waiting for the nuke to go off.
They are both good teams coming from two very old cities, sports has always been something that can be bet on and inferred about. Playing on the gamblers and loyalists shoulders was always a fair way to raise the almighty $$$$…
In all, I really do not know where the hatred comes from, I’ll wait for a more voracious fan to come round and answer the Q.
As someone who grew up in N.Y. but has always disliked the Yankees, I think the premise of the OP is incorrect.
Yankee fans care only about winning and to some extent, validating their self-image through identification with a winner. While it is inevitable that there is joy in repeatedly deflating the hopes of a close competitor (and sticking it to those “Yankees Suck” chanters), the Red Sox are just another piece of road kill on the way to a championship. It’s the Sox fans who really get into the competitive aspect of the rivalry.
I disagree. I’ve been around more than my share of Yankees and Red Sox fans, and Yankee fans are the most annoying people on earth. They can’t sit still if there is someone wearing a B cap within their line of vision or scent without standing up to comment negatively…or in some cases (usually within NY limits), deliver a “well deserved” physical beating. When the Red Sox screw up, it can make the front page of the New York Post.
I’ve always seen it as a immature form of bullying, or kicking the team when they’re down.
Just for the record, I am neither a Yankees or Red Sox fan (even after moving to NYC, I can’t bear to have my name listed amongside these people), but i am currently rooting for the Red Sox, solely because I want to see both sets of fans finally shut up about this whole matter. Not to get off topic, but I predict very bad things going down between these two teams’s set of fans, now that Boston is beginning to finally redeem themselves in this series (either they embarass the Yankees on their home field by pulling off the first 0-3 comeback in history, or they throw more fuel on the fire by not just letting themselves be immediately swept – either way, one team is going to have a reputation that they won’t be able to live down til next season)
I can’t say I hate them, I’m a lifelong Yankee fan and I pity them more than anything. Yankees are to Red Sox as the Road Runner is to Wile E Coyote. The coyote cares about the road runner far more than the reverse. My dream series: Yanks go up 3-0 in the playoffs. Red Sox come back to win 3 straight close games. Now it’s 3-3. Red Sox rally for 3 in 9th inning to tie the game. Then in the 15th inning of game 7, the Red Sox score 3 times. In the bottom of the 15th, the first two Yankees strike out. Then a slow grounder to first- through the legs! Then a strikeout- ball gets by the catcher! Then a hit batsman loads the bases. Then Derek Jeter lifts a fly to left- Manny Ramierez runs straight back and lunges for the ball- it bounces off his glove- over the fence for a grand slam!
BobLibDem - I would pay any amount of money to see that game. Mind you half my family would be dead from joyous heart attacks but it would still be awesome!
The whole rivalry between Boston and NY since Revolutionary times
The fact that Babe Ruth was sold from Boston to New York
The “King of the Hill” mindset that Yankees fans have, especially knowing how desperately Red Sox fans want to get up that hill.
Philosophr’s “Two Alpha Males” comment - they are in the same division, so by definition there is a bit of a rivalry just on that
A classic New York attitude of “let’s see if you can take it” where NY’ers look for the hardest button to push and push, hard. In the Red Sox case, the buttons are numerous and painful - and New Yorkers love to push 'em…
We don’t like them because they hate us. It’s childish I know. But, there is great satisfaction in getting over on people that despise you year after year after year. What makes it that much sweeter is that Boston is a great team. It’s not like we are beating some 2nd rate shmoes, the Yanks really have to put out to win - and they always manage it when it counts
I’m an Indians fan living in Red Sox Nation. I’ll root for the Sox over the Yankees, but personally I think Sox fans are the most annoying people on earth. They just will not shut up about the Yankees. There’s a segment on the Sox postgame show here called “State of the Empire” wherein they talk about the Yankees. Every single move the Sox management makes is analyzed in context of the Yankees-Sox rivalry. And a lot of moves that other teams make are analyzed by how they will affect the Yankees. It’s nuts. I seriously think they’re happier when the Yankees lose than when the Sox win. That’s probably what makes it easy for Yankees fans to hate them.
This native Bronx gal also lived in heart of Rd Sox Nation half her life, and it was sorta sad. A polite New Yorker, when pressed on the matter, smiles and shakes her head slowly and says nothing.
For some reason this doesn’t placate the natives.
As I write this, it’s the bottom of the 14th inning in the ALCS. That ain’t a typo. So the Sox are still alive. But if we don’t get them now, we’ll get them tomorrow. They are but speed bumps on the road to the Series, where everybody knows, in their hearts, the Yankees always belong.
I’m a Yankees fan, living in the land of O’s. Presumably I inherited the Yankees gene from my maternal grandmother, who watched baseball and roller derby on a little B & W TV while hooting and hollering. Why that was her team is anyone’s guess-she was Canadian, and my grandfather was a Bostonian. They lived in New Jersey.
As for the Sox-I don’t hate any of them, individually or collectively. Game four was won fairly, with some excellent offensive and defensive play. Game five was frustrating, and I screamed at the TV more than once, but still-no hatred of the team or those who root for the Sox.
Sorry I can’t address the question posed by the OP, because the only thing I hate is losing, and bad calls-not the winning team or superior players.
Looking forward to hearing New York, New York in the next day or so…
As a Yankee fan, I’ll say that the Red Sox fans focus* waaaay * more on the Yankees than Yankee fans focus on the Red Sox. It is fun for us to poke sticks at the little jibbering Red Sox fans from time to time, to watch them get hopping mad.
Red Sox fans always and without fail, talk more smack about opposing teams than they do with their own club. When it comes to the Yankees they are like a fawn lost on that lonesome highway…with no where to go. They may win one now and again, (like last night ) but in the end they will not be fast enough to beat the house. Sorry fellas, we’ll keep throwing you some scooby snacks from now and again, but in the end you’ll have to make it across the road for us to pay you any mind. Enjoy last night’s festivities RS fans. Deep down you know it won’t last.*
This is just my experience talking, but Yankee fans like to say they don’t care about the rivalry, but it doesn’t seem like they can go five minutes without badmouthing the Sox. Case in point:
One of my coworkers is a Yankee’s fan. He found out I was a Sox fan a couple days after I started working. It seems he can’t go an hour without some kind of snide remark about how the Yankees are the best team ever, and the Sox will always lose. I, on the other hand, never badmouth his team. Do I hate the Yankees? Yes. Do I make it a requirement that I let everyone know I hate them? No. Apparantly, he doesn’t have the same mindset. Again, that’s just one guy, though I have known other fans similar to him, but I’m not going to badmouth all Yankees fans, even though 90% of the ones I’ve met seem to badmouth my team and me. OK, maybe I’ll badmouth them a little.
What annoys me most about Yankees fans, actually, is they are so damn cocky and full of themselves. “Our team us the best team on Earth! We’ve one a jillion world series!” OK, good for you. So your team has a lot of money to buy good players. What would happen if the Yanks went a century without winning a world series? Would they have even half the fan base they have now? If all the current Yankee’s fan’s kids grew up watching them lose time after time, and their kids did the same, and so forth, what would happen? I think there might be a lot more Mets fans in the world.
) but in the end they will not be fast enough to beat the house. Sorry fellas, we’ll keep throwing you some scooby snacks from now and again, but in the end you’ll have to make it across the road for us to pay you any mind. Enjoy last night’s festivities RS fans. Deep down you know it won’t last.*
