It is something you are born with. It’s like a natural instinct that becomes stronger with time. It is the loyalty you have to your team, which for some is tried the moment they walk into their dorm room freshman year and realize they’re living with the enemy.
“I wouldn’t have minded living on the same floor (as a Red Sox fan) but actually living in the same room I knew would be interesting,” said junior Yankees fan, Vince Mercandetti.
Like many, Mercandetti learned the hard way.
“We couldn’t be in the same room during the playoffs. I had to go to another Yankee’s room to be with other fans,” he said.
When the two teams play each other, Sox and Yankees fans need to agree on whether to watch the game on Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network, YES or New England Sports Network, NESN.
Junior Red Sox fan Dave Shepard lived with three Yankees fans his freshman year.
“We actually had a huge argument about what channel we’d watch it on,” he said. “So we decided we’d watch it on the channel of whoever was playing the home game, but that never worked and we always watched it on YES.”
“I would just demand and demand and demand to watch it on YES until he would finally give in,” said Jeff Snyder, one of Shepard’s roommates.
Deciding TV channels is not the only issue that can arise between Yankees and Sox fans living together.
Snyder recounted a story of waking Shepard up at four in the morning to taunt him about his Red Sox loyalty.
“He woke up and didn’t know what was going on so he undid the bar holding him in his bunk bed and javelled it at me,” he said.
“One time I did throw a punch at him, I missed, but I did throw a punch because we got in a fight about Red Sox/Yankees,” Shepard said.
The two were not always violent. Snyder recalled changing the wallpaper of Shepard’s computer to Yankees players when he was not around.
Some fans were fortunate enough to outnumber the rival in their room. Senior Red Sox fan, Andrew Balise said he was not worried about living with a Yankees fan.
“There were two other Red Sox fans other than myself (in my room) and he wasn’t a huge fan so he wasn’t too much of a hassle,” Balise said.
Many Red Sox and Yankees fans learn that enemies can become friends.
“A bunch of my friends here are Yankees fans. At first it was like ‘oh, okay,’ but once I got to know them they turned out to be pretty cool,” Balise said. “I didn’t base my impression on the fact that they were Yankees fans, but it did cross my mind.”
“We’re still actually very good friends. We’re fraternity brothers,” Shepard said. “We still argue a lot but most of the time I just ignore him.”
“Even though I was always right and he was always wrong, we came out better friends,” Snyder said.
