Friday, February 29, 2008
Ball Games
In Slate, Emma Span has an interesting piece on why so many Yankees fans and some Red Sox fans are delighted that their teams didn't sign Johan Santana, to whom the Mets just gave 700 kajillion dollars.
Five years ago, the Red Sox probably would have been all in. The Yankees certainly would have. But the war between Boston and New York has entered a new phase.
That phase has to do with greater cultivation of minor league talent and savvier statistical analysis.
Meanwhile, Red Sox fans have undergone an identity crisis after the team's two World Series wins. The Sox spent $51 million last year on Daisuke Matsuzaka's negotiating rights alone and $70 million on desultory outfielder J.D. Drew. During the 2007 World Series, just after Alex Rodriguez opted out of his New York deal, Boston fans—who would have welcomed the third baseman before the 2004 season, when a trade with the Rangers fell apart at the last minute—desperately chanted, "Don't sign A-Rod!" In other words: We don't want to be any more like the Yankees than we already are.
No offense, Sox fans, but in some ways your team already is the new Yankees. Dubious signings like J.D. Drew, sky-high ticket prices (the highest in baseball), fans for whom anything but a Series victory is untenable—that small-town charm of the BoSox is gone, baby, gone.
And maybe that's all right; maybe winning a couple World Series after all those decades is worth some subtle and probably not so great changes in the team's character.
But Sox fans still like to posit that the Yankees are the "Evil Empire," and these days, that just ain't so—at the very least, there are now two such dominions. ¶ 9:38 AM
Five years ago, the Red Sox probably would have been all in. The Yankees certainly would have. But the war between Boston and New York has entered a new phase.
That phase has to do with greater cultivation of minor league talent and savvier statistical analysis.
Meanwhile, Red Sox fans have undergone an identity crisis after the team's two World Series wins. The Sox spent $51 million last year on Daisuke Matsuzaka's negotiating rights alone and $70 million on desultory outfielder J.D. Drew. During the 2007 World Series, just after Alex Rodriguez opted out of his New York deal, Boston fans—who would have welcomed the third baseman before the 2004 season, when a trade with the Rangers fell apart at the last minute—desperately chanted, "Don't sign A-Rod!" In other words: We don't want to be any more like the Yankees than we already are.
No offense, Sox fans, but in some ways your team already is the new Yankees. Dubious signings like J.D. Drew, sky-high ticket prices (the highest in baseball), fans for whom anything but a Series victory is untenable—that small-town charm of the BoSox is gone, baby, gone.
And maybe that's all right; maybe winning a couple World Series after all those decades is worth some subtle and probably not so great changes in the team's character.
But Sox fans still like to posit that the Yankees are the "Evil Empire," and these days, that just ain't so—at the very least, there are now two such dominions. ¶ 9:38 AM
Comments:
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I'll give it to you, Rich, you're hammering this one home over time. Sooner or later, some pseudo-Sox fans (probably in FAS) might believe you...
- Egret
PS Yankees suck.
- Egret
PS Yankees suck.
# posted by 
: February 29, 2008 11:09 AM
: February 29, 2008 11:09 AM
When will RB and everyone else on this site understand that there are more teams than the Yankees and the Red Sox?
Go Tigers!
Go Tigers!
# posted by : February 29, 2008 5:41 PM
: February 29, 2008 5:41 PM
Rich, if you are so relentlessly negative about the Red Sox, some of us Sox fans may not buy your baseball book....
# posted by : March 1, 2008 9:59 AM
: March 1, 2008 9:59 AM
I hope I don't sound relentlessly negative about the Sox, because I'm not. What they've done in this decade is impressive—and, by the way, great for the rivalry. And as much as 2004 was painful from the Yankee fan perspective, that was a great Sox team and they deserved to win.
Also, the Sox organization was a real pleasure to deal with during the writing of my book——couldn't have been nicer or more helpful.
Really what I meant is that the identity of the team has shifted, become slightly more complex and complicated than the nostalgic image of the team conveys...and there are times, I think, that Sox fans don't want to admit that, because it's convenient to label the Yankees the Evil Empire....
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Also, the Sox organization was a real pleasure to deal with during the writing of my book——couldn't have been nicer or more helpful.
Really what I meant is that the identity of the team has shifted, become slightly more complex and complicated than the nostalgic image of the team conveys...and there are times, I think, that Sox fans don't want to admit that, because it's convenient to label the Yankees the Evil Empire....
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