As I sit down to write this column, the Yankees have just won the American League East for the eigth straight year against the anti-Christ’s of baseball, the Boston Red Sox. We all know how much Yankee fans hate Sox fans and vice versa. Lets just take a step back and realize how much hating each other actually is.
My first memorable experience at Quinnipiac was Game seven of the ALCS in 2003, my freshman year, when Aaron Boone was nice enough to crush the hearts of every Sox fan on this campus.
Having always experienced the rivalry with just Yankee fans, watching the Sox demise with hardcore fans made the experience even better. But little did I know that a year later, I would feel like them as the Sox somehow managed to take the final four games of the 2004 ALCS and knock the Yanks out of the playoffs. We all know what happened after that in the World Series, a phrase that I still can not bring myself to type, not even for the purpose of this column.
But it’s now 2005 and after an abysmal start by the Yankees going 11-19 and having their season saved with names like Shawn Chacon, Aaron Small and Chien-Ming Wang, watching them celebrate winning the division on Fenway soil just brings everything around full circle.
By the time this article is read, the playoffs would have already started and the Sox could be in it, or hopefully, at home watching the playoffs. But regardless of that fact, everyone can agree that Yankees/Red Sox series bring out the best of everyone on this campus.
Just like actually being at the game, the campus is electric and the outcome of the series is the only thing that people care about. Basically, if there is one thing that Yankees and Sox fans can agree upon is that we all love to hate each other when it comes to these teams.
That isn’t a bad thing either. Some people are smart enough to realize that the rivalry is the most fun experience that can happen to a school in New England (or the Tri-State Area, however you want to look at it).
Going into this weekend, every sports columnist used the phrase “this is the way it should be.” I hate to agree with such a clich