A Red Sox Fan Lovin' Those New Yankees

The blogs in Boston are filled with the usual teeth-gnashing now that the Yankees have snatched another free agent out from under the Red Sox. Once again, Theo Epstein and John Henry, the team's general manager and principal owner, are the Harry Truman and Dean Acheson of the drama, the ones who, to Boston's faithful fans, "lost China" -- or, in this instance, the first baseman Mark Teixeira. The Cold War imagery is apt, of course, because another of the Red Sox brain trust, Larry Lucchino, famously described the Yankees once as the "Evil Empire."

Everyone is asking: Who could have let this happen? How can the Red Sox stand pat as the Yankees fortify themselves? There is great unhappiness in -- I'm hate the hackneyed phrase, which the Boston Globe and everyone else invokes to death -- Red Sox Nation.

Not me, though. I couldn't be happier.

First of all, let's face it: without the Yankees to hate, baseball is a bore. And unless the Yankees are throwing around their weight, spending wildly and buying themselves pennants, they're dangerously less loathsome. The trends in this regard have been ominous these past few years. The villainous Steinbrenner Sr. is fading from the scene. The team has actually developed a few of its own players, like Joba Chamberlain, rather than going out and buying ringers. Most alarmingly, they've become inept, missing the playoffs last year for the first time in ages. It's not the same without them.

To Yankee haters, particularly Red Sox fans, this cannot stand. What better way to restore the Yankees' traditional repulsiveness than to spend more than all of the other teams combined this off-season -- a half a billion dollars -- on three new players -- Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett? How much more odious can a team be than one that has baseball's four top earners on its payroll? What more could we hope for than the spectacle of watching them all flounder next year, of choking in the clutch, of failing to cohere, of clashing in the clubhouse? For a mere $500 million, the Yankees have restored their traditional obnoxious. To me, that's money well spent.

For Red Sox fans -- the real ones, not the ones who jumped on the bandwagon when they went to college "in Cambridge" or began rooting for them the last few happy years -- there is another dimension to all this. It's hard to say so, but pulling for the Sox has simply not been the same since they starting winning World Series. Their games, even those against the Yankees, just aren't consequential anymore. They've become -- well, only games. Even when they blow a big lead in the late innings, it's no big deal. Secretly, most of us miss getting disgusted with them the way we used to. Throwing up our hands, turning off our televisions exasperatedly, anticipating calamities and then watching them unfold -- these were all part of their charm. Here, too, it's just not the same.

We'll never go back to their old ineptitude; the team is simply too rich, its payroll exceeded only by the Yankees. Even the greatest Cassandras on the Boston blogs can't predict terrible things for the Sox next season. But as long as they keep losing free agents to the Yankees -- and by failing to fork over a measly million or two more out of their huge exchequer -- we can once more muster some of that old-fashioned, all-knowing anger at them. It feels good. A few more signing fiascos, and we can relive our childhoods. Tom Yawkey and Pinky Higgins and Pumpsie Green will no longer seem so remote.

The Sox need a catcher, and another starting pitcher, and help in their bullpen. All the money they'd earmarked for Teixeira will be deployed on other, lesser mercenaries. But with but two months until pitchers and catcher show up for spring training, only one thing can make this off-season complete, and it's entirely out of their hands. Only one thing can make next year's endless number of Red Sox-Yankees games come to life, can fully restore the Evil Empire -- can make it, if it's possible, even evil-er.

Please, please, please, can the Yankees now sign Manny Ramirez?

Comments

[BigBluebELIever]

Enough with this nonsense about the Yankees buying players, and not producing their own. I am not disputing the fact the Yankees do so, but the Red Sox are no better.

In fact, an examination of the key players for the Red Sox' last two World Series and the Yankees reveals the Sox core entirely consisted of free-agent acquisitions.
Red Sox: Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, Tim Wakefield, even Jason Varitek (none of these guys came through the farm). The two exceptions I could think of are Dustin Pedroia and Pappelbon.
Yankees: Jeter, Mo, Posada, Pettitte, Bernie Williams (all came through the farm). Sure AROD, and the new acqusitions, along with Moose, Giambi, Paul O'Neill, etc all were from outside the farm.

My overall point is that Sox fans must admit their organization is just as complicit.

[bostongreen]

You really need to check your facts. Ortiz, Varitek, Lowe, Youklis, Lester, Papelbon, Pedroia, Lowell, Beckett, Masterson, Ellsbury, and Buchholz were all acquired through trades or developed through their system. The Red Sox have a much stronger record of developing or acquiring players through trading. Yes, their payroll is astronomical, but it pales in comparison with the Yankees. There should be a salary cap and the Yankees should not have received money for their new stadium.

[Eyewideopen]

Go Yanks!!!!!!!!!

[frenchie25]

New York, New Players, New Stadium, New Pennant!!!
Can't wait for the Boys of NY Summer!!!

[RobinSeattle]

"Red Sox fans who really understand that their own fandom was never really based on baseball, but rather on the self-flagellation that came with cheering for a cursed team!"

Albeit a team that has won two world championships in the last five years while the Yankees have pulled up a big goose egg for the entire decade to date.

The Yankees,.t­hough, face two big risks: Burnett and Sabbathia are somewhat injury prone and with the workload that Sabbathia had last season, especially down the stretch, you could see a lot of money sitting on the sidelines in the last two months of the schedule.

Chamberlain, as big a boy as he is, has been likewise intimate with the DL. It is imperative that the Yankees begin to develop young pitching and they really haven't been able to do that recently in a significant way.

Texeira will rake, but if they pick up Ramirez, you still have one old team. Damon, Trick Knee Matsui, Rivera, Posada, Jeter, and now you are going to add Ramirez to that?

And what if Cano slumps again? He is the only younger player they have now that the Yankees system has groomed. That puts more pressure than ever on A-Rod and there are big questions as to whether he can handle it.

So the Yankees have lots of names, but how that becomes a viable world series contender is still an open question for me right now.

[ParaplegicNomad]

As a Yankees fan, I want to commend you for this piece. It's nice to know there are Red Sox fans who really understand that their own fandom was never really based on baseball, but rather on the self-flagellation that came with cheering for a cursed team! Over the last five years, we've seen more than Yankees - Red Sox become "just another game," but - worse yet for all of baseball - the Red Sox have become "just another team," with nothing but localized sentiment to distinguish it from all of the other franchises in the sport. The Cubs have taken over the mantle of the historic underdog. With apologies to Chicago and the sacrifice they would have to make, I hope they stay that way for a long time - for the good of the sport!

PS - The Yankees will always be historically good.

PPS - Doesn't that just burn you up?

PPPS - Not that I'm gloating or anything.

PPPPS - Ok, I totally am.