Here's where I'm at with this: I was born in 1967 - the year the Bob Gibson pitched the Cardinals over the Red Sox in the World Series. Strangely, it was the only year that entire decade that the Celtics weren't NBA champions. Prior to that year, the last time the Sox were vying for a championship was the 1940's. The Red Sox fanbase wasn't a fraction of what it is now. Ted Williams played his last game in 1960 to a crowd of barely 10,000. In 1975 - when I was old enough to be an active fan - I watched the Red Sox steal Game Six, and then lose the series in seven. That was the beginning for me. And, I'm leading up to something. 1978 was, of course, the worst. Until 1986. In 2003, I was at the same bar I went to every Thursday night after work, with the same drinking friends I saw every week. In the 8th inning, when I saw Pedro falling apart, and when I watch that dumbass goober, Grady Little, RUN out to the mound, say a few words to Pedro and then leave him in the friggin' game, I walked out. After living through year after year of disastrous letdowns, I couldn't watch one more. Everyone looked at me like I was some sort of fool who was going to miss the Red Sox beating the Yankees to make the World Series. When I saw Grady run back off the mound, though, I just knew. I left the bar and had to turn off my radio to keep from hearing the tragedy. I stopped for gas, and the guy behind the counter had the game on television. It occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to sleep, and there was just about nowhere on the planet that I could go where I wouldn't have to witness the game. Then I had a revelation - the nudie bar. It was me, a couple other creepy guys, and about two dozen strippers. They had the game on television, but I was able to somehow keep myself from getting wrapped up in the game. I found out how the Red Sox had lost the next morning. In 2004, if you recall, in mid-August, the Red Sox were falling apart. I remember a whole bunch of Manny bitching, and I remember a stretch of losing. I had four or five games left in my season ticket package, and I gave them away. I still watched, but I wasn't going to let that fahking team kill me again. I watched the ALDS, which I expected the Sox to win, because I was convinced I was being set up again. Then, I watched half of the Game Three, blow out in the ALCS. Game Four, I didn't start watching until my buddy called me on my cell phone just before Dave Roberts stole second. To bring this long, drawn-out, story home, the 2004 ALCS was contrary to everything I'd ever experienced as a Red Sox fan. Never before - NEVER - had a miraculous finish gone in the Red Sox favor. The World Series was almost anticlimactic.
So basically you gave up on your team until it became clear they'd win... Very Pats-esque just sayin'
So I was watching a team that NEVER made the postseason while he was watching a team that nmade a WS and won multiple div titles. You don't think a Yankee fan of my age was more hungry to see a winner?
But still, how can you say one way or another that '96 was so much better for you than '04 was for him? There's just no way to quantify that. Everyone else is different. You don't know how he felt. Maybe the pain of '99 and '03, and seeing a Yankees dynasty made it even greater when the Sox finally won it.
Junc unless your a 25 year old, and we know you're not. What you're saying is ridiculous. NEVER mde the playoffs? I count 6 times between 76-95... I guess none of that really happened or I guess you just became a fan in 96. It's funny how you're happy to claim the 26 championships when it works for you but in this conversation we're supposed to believe the Yankee fanbase in there mid/early 30's were deprived until 1996. Give it a rest.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3273421 After new Yankees boss Hank Steinbrenner lambasted the notion of Red Sox Nation, Boston principal owner John Henry has offered an olive branch to his American League East rival. Henry has decided to make Steinbrenner the newest member of Red Sox Nation complete with membership card and certain perks that only members can obtain. "I'm a big Hank fan," Henry wrote in an e-mail to several media outlets, including the Boston Herald. "Just to ensure he knows how cool Red Sox Nation is, [Saturday] we officially inducted him as a member of Red Sox Nation and we are sending him his membership card giving him access to an array of options including our newsletter, bumper stickers, pins, Green Monster seats and a hat personally autographed by David Ortiz." Steinbrenner responded Sunday to Henry's offer and said that while he respects Henry, he has no plans to join Red Sox Nation as a card-carrying member any time soon. "I'm not gonna join Red Sox Nation -- honorary or not -- I'll respond to that later," Steinbrenner told the Boston Globe. "Trust me I'm never going to join Red Sox Nation. But John Henry's a great guy." Steinbrenner has explained quite succinctly just what he thought about the concept of Red Sox Nation in a recent interview. "Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [expletive] that is," he said in an interview with The New York Times' Play magazine. "That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans. "Go anywhere in America and you won't see Red Sox hats and jackets, you'll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We're going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order." Hank Steinbrenner's interview, in the March 2 issue of the magazine, reveals a great deal of his personality and his style. He is not afraid to speak his mind, and he appears to have little sense of regret when he does, saying there was a need for him to take control. "Everyone was hiding in their rooms. You can't do that and be a leader. You have to step up and take a position," he said. He's not the only person who feels this way about the Red Sox. Hank's younger sibling, Hal Steinbrenner, who runs the business side of the Yankees, made similar, though not as vicious, comments in an interview with GQ.com on Feb. 19.
Agreed. I used to root for the Red Sox to beat the Yankees when they played, if only to irritate my Yankee fan friends and family, and because the Yankees are hateable. Now, the Red Sox are just as hateable, if not more so because of the rest of Boston/New England. I hate it when they play now, there is no good outcome from it.
I agree. 2004 was kind of cool, but 2007 was not. I hated the Red Sox in the 1980s, especially Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs. The Red Sox and Yankees have always been my two least favorite AL teams.
I was 3 when they played in the World Series in '86. They won the division in '95, and then were second fiddle until '04, losing the ALCS in heartbreaking fashion twice. It's not like I was watching the Atlanta Braves in the 90's.
This whole "nation" thing is really gay and tiresome. Like your ancestors were forced onto a reservation or something.
I love the passion Hank has but until he follows his words which he has shown twice this offseason he doesnt, I take what he says with a grain of salt.
Where did I say '96 for me was better than '04 for him? I said '04 for him wasn't better than '96 for me but I never said '96 for me was better than '04 for him. We both waited a long time to see our teams win. Here was my quote: "Trust me, there's no way '04 was more special for you than 1996 was for me and other Yankee fans around my age who were babies the last time the Yankees had one. They were probably equally as special but b/c you guys had gone 86 years didn't make it more special for someone in their 20s who had only "suffered" for about 20 years or so." What does 1976 have to do w/ anything? I can vividly remember the Yanks around the early 80s. I only slightly remember the '81 WS so that was 1 playoff appearance until 1995 and in reality I don't remember anything from that '81 WS except the result. I don't calim I was around for 26 Championships but it's part of the history of the franchise. it's funny how you discount those before I coluld remember but in this argument you want to bring it up. The bottom line is as a kid I suffered w/ the Yankees more than Sox OR Met fans, as an adult they made up for it but it took a long time to wait before I even saw a playoff series. So then you were 5 in '88, 7 in '90, 12 in '95, '15 in '98, 16 in '99. If you take away '86 and '88 you still saw 3 div titles and 5 postseason apps which is 5 more than I saw by the time I was that age.
The point remains, you don't know that. You have no way of knowing how he felt. I know you love to argue junc, but you can't argue someone else's emotions. Sure you might think they were equal, but you can't just make a blanket statement like '04 WASN'T better for him than '96 was for you. You'll never have any way of knowing.
