Turnabout is Fair Play and Long Overdue

Is it just me or has the city of New York become obsessed with the Boston Red Sox over the past few months? In just the past ten days, the New York airwaves and tabloids are just brimming with news and analysis of every word that comes out of the Boston Red Sox spring training facility in Fort Meyers Florida. Hey, sox fans have always been obsessesed with the Yankess but we are in the midst of seeing a reversal of historic proportions.

Dan Shaughnessy had a nice column on this subject in Saturday's globe (http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/02/19/they_have_sox_on_the_brain/), but I think it only scratched the surface of what is going on in Yankeeland. Dancing Dan's column correctly pointed out that the New York tabloids are covering the Sox as if they are one of New York's own. Each has a beat writer based in Fort Myers and each is there to catch and report every nuanced comment that may concern the Yankees. The only subjects that get more attention in the New York Post then the Sox are the two Michaels: Jackson and Lohan. I didn't think it was possible, but the Post is possibly more committed to seeing the Sox lose then they were to seeing that other Bostonian lose this past November.

While Dan did a nice piece, I think it only told half the story. Its true that the local scribes in New York have "sox on the brain," but this obsession pales in comparison to the legions of obnoxious Yankee fans who are only now coming to grips with last year's debacle. They are an angry lot who cannot believe that they will never again be able to break out the old 1918 chant. Case in point, I was at a bar the other night and a Yankee fan I know came up to me and without saying hello, just started railing at Trot Nixon. He was furious at Trot Nixon for standing up and saying what every player in major league player believes: Alex Rodriguez is an arrogant and self-involved guy whose teams tend to fail. His friend then jumped in and started hacking away at the Sox for their inability to handle sucess with dignity and class. This would never happen in the aftermath of a Yankee championship I was told. This may or may not be true, but is it really worth discussing? There was a huge college basketball upset brewing right in front of our eyes and yet all these guys wanted to talk about were some fairly tame comments from Trot Nixon. If this is any indication of the obsession that exists within Yankeedom, I can't wait to see the reaction of Yankee fans when Kevin Millar slips up and refers to the Yankee third baseman as GAYROD.

The same theme was heard all over the New York airwaves during the past week. Granted, its a slow period for sports, but that does not explain all the Sox-related calls that made it onto the call-in shows. Its February, but all anyone wants to talk about are the Red Sox and a few innocuous comments that have managed to escape confienment in Fort Myers. In a perfect world, the Sox should have kept their comments to themselves. I don't mind a few players taking AROD and Giambi to task, but enough is enough. Nonetheless, it doesn't merit all the attention its getting. However, the only reason it is getting so much attention is that Yankee fans and their apologists in the local media won't let this story die.

And why is this the case? Because Yankee fans are now obsessed with the Red Sox and what they won last October. Its not just that the Sox won last year. Its how they won that still peeeves Yankee fans. And I think Yankee fans are only now coming to grips with the fact that they lost something last October that can never be reclaimed. Yankee fans were always insufferable, but becasue they always had the upper hand in this rivalry, at least they were slightly complacent. But this complacency vanished last October when Johnny Damon clocked that Kevin Brown pitch into the rightfield seats of Game 7. At that point, Yankee fans lost their 1918 chip and they are now an angry lot. The masses want it back and they are now obsessed with its recovery. They are like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings. They seek "my precious" since it gives them the power to settle all bar room disputes in their favor. They long for those days when possesion of the chip made them feel superior to those from the North. What they do not understand is that the chip - the chip to control all other chips - was destoryed last year within the House that Ruth Built. Its gone and it ain't coming back!