You're killing me.

by a lot.

Much more than the Yankees. Their fans are by far the worst.
There are actually some Yankee players who just ooze class--Jeter, Matsui, Posada, Rivera, even A Rod.
How anyone can root for Manny and Schilling is beyond me. BTW, Beckett seems to be a really nice guy too.

and the more I've thought about it, the more irritated I am about the whole Kevin Millar throwing out the first pitch thing.  I think it shows disrespect to the Orioles organization to ask Millar to do it.  There's about 100 retired players who are also fan favorites they could have asked, but they have the gall to go and ask a current player from a division rival? Who does that?

is being seen by Yankees' fans as a new low in terms of "classiness" by the franchise, however.  First, Georgie threatening to fire Torre during the series with Cleveland; then, dragging the whole thing out, making him a deliberately low-balled offer, and saying, "Gee, we woulda had him back, but apparently Joe doesn't want to manage here any more..." instead of admitting that they wanted to get rid of him.

George is apparently losing his marbles a little bit, and his sons are sorta officially in charge of the operation (though George still retains veto-rights of some kind on big decisions).  So people are blaming the little Steinbrenners for the way they did this.

I dunno, maybe they read some of your accounts of how Wolfe dealt with the city of Oakland, and thought, "Hey, now there's an idea!"

Also, the Giuliani deification and the "God Bless America" during the 7th-inning stretch?  Ugh.

'zackly.  I like.

articulations of it I've seen.  Very well said.

Just perfect.

Thank you for posting that.

Yankee fans do in fact think they're great fans -- in particular, they have a sort of, "Anyone we like is by definition the best because 'we' have seen the best, and only the best can make NY fans love them!" vibe.

Before Boston won in 2004, I always said that Yankee fans believed that the WS belonged to them, and that any other winner was trespassing on their private property; while Red Sox fans believed that they were the most morally deserving fans in the world, and that any other team winning represented some great crime against justice.

Now, it seems like the Red Sox have dropped the "Look at how much we love our team even though we suffer!" crap and are just overbearing assholes.

But if they ever turn crappy again, people will dump them, as they always did.  The only Boston team that draws big, loyal crowds even when they suck is the Bruins.

you beat OaklandA23

West Coast version which is one of the reasons I can't stomach that team.  I will say that at least Yankee and Sox fans understand baseball...the same can't be said for the beach ball crew down here.

snot-nosed member of Red Sox Nation (not a New englander, by the way) on BART after a ballgame...this has never, ever happened to me from a Yankee fan 9or any other baseball fan), not here and not in NY.
The jerk was pissed that I declined to beat the snot out of it, claiming to the other Sux fans that I didn't care about my team.

(by the way, this was after a four game series when the Sux took Game 1. I didn't see these cretins after GAmes 2, 3, or 4, all won by the A's.)

I did a write a book on it (not a plug). Well I wrote a segment in my book on it, where I discuss the NY-Boston rivalry, and how I came to hate the Sox more than the Yankees (even before '04).

That hatred has increased even though I know two Red Sox fans, who happen to be endearing people, and friends of my oldest brother (there are always exceptions).

I went so far as to ask what did they know about suffering? Their failures, while storied, were far and few between, while the A's shortcomings were here and now, and happening on an annual basis.

But let's take a look from the other side, just for a second. And maybe we'll see the difference between Boston and those other long-suffering fans (Chicago and Cleveland).

Imagine going that long without winning a title. Imagine your fiercest rival winning 26 titles during that same time. Imagine that fiercest rival reminding you of those 26 titles every chance they got. Imagine a drudged up Curse, brought on by the trading of the sport's most famous star to that fiercest rival. Imagine your most painful losses being against that same team. Imagine the media playing on that Curse and those horrific defeats. Imagine being reminded- constantly- of those failures, even the ones that happened 20, 30, 40 years before you were born. Imagine the rest of baseball catching on, with their "1918" chants (no one does this to Cub fans).

And maybe we can see how no one wore gloom on their faces like Red Sox fans. It wasn't so much wanting to win. They didn't want to lose. They didn't want to hear any more about 1918 or Babe or Bucky or Buckner or Boone losing Game 7 in '46, '67, '75, '86 World Series. To them, all other baseball fans (led by their fiercest rival) were the obnoxious ones.

So they planned and plotted and multiplied and set out to exact revenge on the rest of us. That they did it (turned obnoxious) before actually winning anything, well, I always wondered about that, and to that I have no answer.

Now whatever possessed me to defend the "Nation" is beyone me, so I will accept my firing from this site gracefully.