But this goes back much longer than a few weeks ago. This is about Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone (that is, Aaron Freaking Boone), and more. The overall inferiority complex Bostonians feel in regard to New York is centuries old, but it is not reciprocated off the playing field. Outside of sports, New Yorkers generally donât care much what happens in Boston.
Here is all you need to know to explain the differences between the cities: The last two New York City mayors grew up in the Boston area and are fans of the Red Sox (they were both re-elected too, despite the local news media poking fun at their roots and sports allegiances).
That could never â in 100,000 years â happen in reverse. No way a New Yorker would ever become mayor of Boston, unless he or she publicly renounced the Yankees and forced Dunkinâ Donuts to give out free crullers in perpetuity.
Not that Red Sox fans canât get along with a segment of New Yorkers. During a series in September at Fenway against the Mets this year, fans of both teams united in their one core belief, that the âYankees suck.â
The pain for both is deep. For many years, Yankees fans crushed the souls of Red Sox fans with chants of â1918,â a cruel reminder that the Red Sox had not won a World Series since that year, in part because the Red Sox sold Ruth to the Yankees.
All Red Sox fans could come up with in retort was, âYankees suck.â As juvenile as it was, it fit the mood nicely and it stuck because for a long time, the only way Bostonians could get back at the Yankees was by proxy. They had the Celtics and the Patriots, who did so much for the self-esteem of New Englanders before 2004.
So, of course, during the Patsâ championship parade in Boston after their first Super Bowl championship in 2002 â something their fans had waited 42 seasons for, guess what they chanted?
