Dear Sars,

I’m a big fan of all your sites, and I also really agree with your stance that it’s okay for fans of other teams to berate Yankees fans, but the other direction is not okay.Thus my question…

I’m a Yankees fan, and I’m from California.Now that I’m in college (still in California), I get a lot more “Why do you like the Yankees?” and “The Yankees suck! You have no heart!”I never really know what to say to them.I guess I take it more personally than I should.I always end up getting really frustrated and then usually go back to my room and cry to my parents.Do you have any advice on what to say to these people?I’m especially worried about the aftermath of the ALCS.

Thanks,
CA Yankees fan

Dear CAYF,

I think you respond the way you would to any other semi-inappropriate comment; you smile and say, “I’m sorry you feel that way,” or “Why would you say something like that to me?”But don’t take it so personally — remember, it’s not like these people put forth a decent argument as to why the Yankees suck.They just go straight to “you have no heart,” which, whatever.

You have to keep in mind that people who don’t even follow baseball hate the Yankees; it’s just this knee-jerk anti-establishment thing for them.And it’s an opinion they’re welcome to, but it doesn’t mean you have to take it seriously.If someone wants to have a substantive discussion about the team, great, but most people who default to the heartless-bastards argument don’t have anything else to say, so just patiently “uh-huh” them over and over again until they drop it and get on with your day.

Hey Sars,

Yaaaawn. Too many late nights…I have a couple of baseball-related inquiries. Born and raised in Massachusetts, so big Sox fan here and I’m so sorry for your loss…(hee…sounds like I’m at a wake).

Anyway, I am a baseball fan first, Red Sox fan second, Yankee disliker third. My husband however is Yankee despiser first, Red Sox fan second. Though he is obviously excited at our prospects, last night he told me that he didn’t care if we got swept in the World Series, as long as we beat the Yankees. I was perplexed by this. I think he is one of those individuals who would believe that a world championship wouldn’t have counted if we had played Minnesota instead. And nearly 100 percent of our media around here is submitting that a World Series win will be anti-climactic now. Yes, last night was probably the most exciting game I’ve ever witnessed (and frankly, it would have been even if I wasn’t a Red Sox fan! How can you not get wrapped up in the theatre?). However, I do not think it could compare to the excitement I’d feel winning a World Series for the first time since 1918. My husband is an intelligent and thoughtful person otherwise, and I just don’t understand why he has such a Yankee complex. I mean, he doesn’t wear the shirts, or chant the chant, but to say you don’t care if we get swept in the series as long as we beat the Yankees? I just can’t identify with this mentality. Any thoughts?

Secondly, I am pretty pissed that I don’t feel safe attending a championship clinching game in my city. What. The. FUCK. Is with the people who destroy other people’s property after their baseball team WINS a game?? I mean, if you LOST the game, it would still be hideously wrong, but I could understand it a bit better. We WON! You don’t need to torch that dude’s Honda! He lives in Boston! He’s probably a Sox fan! And now he has to come up with a big insurance deductable! We are trying to get tickets to a game, and it’s gonna have to be Game 1 or 2 because you know, Halloween night, Game 7…I’d like to live to see the fucking parade. I feel bad for the people who have kids. Why aren’t there more cops, with their horses and their batons? I mean, I know that if the media got ahold of a cop billy-clubbing a college student, there would be outrage…but where is the outrage for the drunken displays of destruction after a fucking BALLGAME?? Does this sort of shit happen in New York after a big win? It makes me embarrased to be a Sox fan.

Thanks for your thoughts,
zzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Dear Z,

My amateur psychoanalysis of that mindset is that, because Boston is perceived as this star-crossed team, the narrative isn’t as satisfying without an enemy — and if the enemy is “unfortunate trades” or “bad luck” or “weak long relief,” it’s not a good story.If the enemy is the Yankees, though…you see what I mean.

My explanation sounds maybe a little condescending to the Nation, which isn’t how I mean it; part of it is how the media chooses to remember these things, and that they have column inches to fill, and hey, that kid who got hit by that Manny home run lives in Babe Ruth’s old house wah wah wah.

But…take Bucky Dent.(“…Please.”)He throws out the first pitch the other night, and Sox fans are OUTRAGED, they think it’s a SLAP IN THE FACE, how dare they trot out this enemy of the rebellion to taunt us blah blah blah.And these same fans know full well that Dent did not hang a fat pitch to himself, and that Dent did not tie a 14-game lead in the division into a noose and hang the Sox with it — Torrez and the team did that to themselves.They know this.But instead of blaming their manager, or acknowledging that Bob Lemon got the Yankees’ shit together and drove to first place behind a monster year by Ron Guidry, they’re like, “Bucky Fucking Dent, aaaaaaaarrrrrrr!” because it’s more satisfying emotionally.

And that’s understandable.Part of why people feel so strongly about baseball is that it plots itself so well so much of the time.But sometimes I feel like the seething hatred of the Yankees on the part of some Sox fans takes a lot of credit away from both teams’ legitimate accomplishments, that making it all about the Bombers doesn’t acknowledge all the times the Sox had to show up on a broiling day in July and play two against, say, the Jays, or all the season serieses they won against teams like the Tigers — yeah, it’s not a good team, but you still have to go out there and execute and take it seriously, which Boston did, all year, and especially in August.And Sox fans, mostly, aren’t dumb.Like I said, they know this stuff.It’s just not as tidy if you can’t identify a single nemesis and vanquish it.But I still don’t really understand putting the loathing of the nemesis first.A baseball season is too long for that to be fulfilling, in my opinion, but I’m not a Sox fan; maybe it’s different for y’all.

I’m sure Yankee fans have fucked shit up after victories; I remember going out in the street after we won in ’96, and it was just a total party in the street, strangers hugging each other, people opening their windows and “wooooo!”-ing out of them — but it was a very positive, friendly feeling with lots of horn-honking and laughing.But I didn’t take a tour of the city, so cars may have gotten lit up elsewhere, I don’t know.It wouldn’t surprise me.There’s always some nimrod who thinks firing a gun into the air and waiting for the bullet to fall on, like, a baby or something is a good way to support his baseball team; I don’t doubt that happened.

Can you explain the “Curse of the Bambino”?I knew it was about Boston trading Babe Ruth away, but I thought it was “applicable” to the Sox going the whole way and winning the Series.Yet this morning on GMA, they held up newspapers that announced the curse had been broken.Is that the case?Because silly me just figured the Astros were going to automatically win the World Series since they’d be playing Boston.

BTW, if you run this on Friday and for some reason the Cardinals pulled it out Thursday night, try to keep the hilarity to a minimum, please?I’ll be miserable enough already.

Lighting candles for the Rocket and Oswalt

Dear Sorry That Didn’t Work Out,

My understanding of the Curse has always been that, after Frazee sent Ruth to New York in exchange for the hundred grand he needed to finance his actress girlfriend’s play, Ruth — who correctly perceived this as a dick move — told him on his way out the door that they’d never win another championship.And they haven’t.I can’t find any documentation to support my impression that Ruth actually cursed them, but I probably picked it up from the Fireside series, and I don’t have time to go through all three volumes and find the citation.Anyway, if that isn’t what happened, they should probably start calling the “The Curse of Damn, Frazee Was An Imbecile.”

In recent years, though, I think the definition of the Curse has expanded to include any situation in which the Sox lose, get screwed out of a good trade, fall victim to a weird bounce, catch colds during a rain delay, et cetera — and the Curse has become even more strongly associated with the Yankees because Curse-y things have befallen the Sox during games against the Yankees so many times (Dent, Boone, sing it if you know the words).

Strictly speaking, I think they have to win a World Series to break the Curse.

[10/23/04]

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