The Red Sox are now the "new" Yankees

[Bake]

They are now officially the team everyone loves to hate (except their die-hard fans, of course). They are no longer the underdogs, fighting "the curse." No longer the scrappy also-ran. They are now, officially, the best team money can buy, and everything their fans hated about the Yankees.

Bake

[NightWatcher]

1. no way, the yanks are always the yanks

[Submariner]

2. Actually, the Red Sox had a huge following during away games this

past couple of years. It is a blue collar town in a blue state with a team that represents, and is identified with working class schmucks like me. We will never be comparable with the Yanks.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. The Yanks are in a blue state too my friend

just sayin'

edit - too not to

[Bake]

7. How much did the Sox pay for Dice K?

Not exactly "blue-collar."

Bake

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. ROFL

The "blue collar team" from the "blue collar town." Fucking hilarious.

Apparently, the Bronx is the fucking heighth of luxury these days..., while all the working stiffs trudge home from the iron works to their condos on Beacon Hill..., or watch their beloved Red Sox in the union halls dotting the Back Bay. :rofl: No, don't tell me. Southie! Roxbury! Yeah, we don't have anything like that in New York...:rofl:

So desperate are they for their disintegrated "underdog" label that they start associating with a class critique! This is truly beautiful.

By the way, the big story about the Red Sox HUGE away game fanbase was that it SURPASSED the Yankees away-game fanbase this year. That's why it was in the news. Your evidence contra the OP is actually evidence in favor.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

17. Boston is a blue collar town?

:shrug:

[Submariner]

28. Somerville (my hometown), Medford, Malden, Southie, Dorchester,

East Boston, Charlestown, Chelsea, make up the greater Boston neighborhood. They are blue collar liberal towns. We were the fan base that went to all the Fenway games in the '50s/'60s/'70s/'80s and '90s. Now that the out of state yuppies moved to the city and ticket prices are through the roof, we watch the games on TV from local taverns.

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. Bronx, most of Queens

Most of Brooklyn, and still a healthy part of Manhattan.

There's no difference between the Yankee fan base and the one you mention in Boston (including the effects of gentrification through the late-90's and into the 00's). It's a silly claim.

[madinmaryland]

20. Latte drinking and cognac drinking New Englanders!!1!!

[Submariner]

31. Stick with Maryland

since you know zero about my neighborhood. "Latte drinking and cognac drinking". :rofl:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. Either way the Yankees are the Yankees

with our rings and such

[Bake]

8. And the Yankees will no doubt pick up a few more in the future

Bake

[SoxFan]

5. I call bullshit!

Alex Rodriguez made more in 2007 than Jonathan Papelbon (best closer in majors), Mike Lowell (World Series MVP), Dustin Pedroia (AL Rookie of the Year favorite), Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima, Kevin Youkilis, and Josh Beckett (AL Cy Young favorite).

Combined.

I'll also point out that Papelbon, Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Delcarmen, and Youkilis are products of the Sox farm system, as is likely 2008 starter Clay Buchholz.

[DS1]

6. 26. There's a long way to go

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. hee hee hee

you said it - not me

[edbermac]

10. Only the Yankees are entitled to spend hundreds of millions?

Is that in the Constitution somewhere?

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. No, only the Yankees are allowed to get shit for it

That's in the Boston City Charter.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. So be it.

My love for them was never due to those reasons. Likewise, this was not the basis of my hatred for the Yankees.

So if we're the new "Yankees," I'm okay with that. I'd dispute the notion, but it matters little.

[MissMillie]

14. I suppose I can see how some might think this way

some of us, however, don't think of a team in terms of money or even championships.

Some of us, when we look for a team to cheer for, think of "heart"

It's an intangible that the Red Sox have down to a science.


We love our dirt dogs.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

19. Yankees fans don't think in terms of money either

but that's what everybody screams when we win

[MissMillie]

21. well, I'm not one of the ones who scream that

in fact, before this thread this is the first time in the post-season that I've seen anyone accusing the Yankees of being only about payroll. Some posters here made it sound like that's all that we've ever said about the Yankees.

Although I have to admit that I took joy in the Red Sox fans who threw $1 bills at Johnny Damon when he took to center field at Fenway in his Yankee pinstripes.

Your team does have some players w/ heart. And some that are just plain lethal (Matsui comes to mind...)

I don't hate the Yankees. I love the rivalry. I think it's healthy for sports.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

23. I have a Matsui jersey!

Here's to many years of bickering!

:toast:

[Mrs.Matcom]

33. Brava!

Very well said MissMillie!! Only those true fans can understand the 'dirt dogs'! :hug:

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

15. I agree!

Yankees Lite................. in the interest of full disclosure, I was born and raised in Detroit, where they have played baseball as long as either the Yanks or Sox. But often, to listen to the announcers, the American League only has two teams.

[Fran Kubelik]

16. Meh.

They played well. I'm a Yanks fan, but I am all about watching some good baseball. Who has time to hate?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

18. Hence my congrats thread

they earned it




but I do still hate em!

[MissMillie]

22. I've been biting my tongue on this since early this morning

but I can't hold it in any longer.

I like your congratulatory thread. It took a big person to write it.

It just seems a bit disingenuous considering you spent the better part of the playoffs posting "*****YAWN******"

I guess I'll just have to try and give you the benefit of the doubt.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

24. What was I supposed to post? "Yay"?

:hug:

[MissMillie]

25. general rule of thumb (for a lot of us, anyway) is

"if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all"

:hug:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

26. Hi - I'm ChavezSpeakstheTruth

nice to meet you!

[rockymountaindem]

27. This is a circular argument that has to end

The basis of the championship-buying complaint against the Yankees started at the beginning of the 1990s dynasty when they were far and away the wealthiest team in baseball. Since they started the big money game of recent years, they're going to be tagged with being the worst offenders, as it were, for awhile. Make no mistake that Steinbrenner led the charge into this current era of high payroll dominance by big market teams, and the backlash by everybody else.

That being said, I think it's dumb to continue to deride the Yankees, or any team, for having a big payroll. That seems to be what you've gotta do to compete these days (except for the Dodgers, who have a huge payroll but continue to suck anyway). Big money success is the nature of the beast, and upsets like those of the 2003 Marlins are the exception, not the rule. Even though the Yankees have brought us to this point, we are where we are and there's nothing any of the teams will be willing to do to establish any kind of real equity.

Therefore, the real problem lies with the league itself and the maladiministration of Bud Selig, not with any individual team or group of teams. Unless the league is going to be serious with measures like a salary cap, or a luxury tax with real teeth, this trend of payroll inflation will increase. Yes, the Red Sox started down this path to compete with the Yankees. Other teams have started doing it for similar reasons. Lately the Blue Jays and their big-time new owner Ted Rogers have been making similar moves with an eye toward long term big money success in the newly renamed "Rogers Centre" (bad name, great place to see a game). To use an apropos right-wing cliche, it's just the free market at work. Until the league steps in with solid payroll controls, all this whining about teams buying championships is just that, whining.

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. Couldn't agree more

It's the gentrification of baseball.

I would add one proviso: once your neighborhood is gentrified, it's a bit disingenuous to still pretend you're working class. One of the problems, as I see it, is that self-representation lags far behind the cold economic facts you stated so well. Now, I won't begrudge anybody their little marketing fantasy, but I will note it happily when it masquerades as reality.

:-)

[TZ]

32. I agree it certainly appears that way

to those who are not particularly fans of either team. The difference between the Yanks and the Sox is razor thin. Both equally deserving of criticism, but also both successful ultimately. I am sort of sick of both teams though. Too bad nobody else in the AL east is likely to compete with them anytime soon.

[hellbound-liberal]

34. I agree with you, Bake. The Red Sox have won the bidding war for the World Series this year

And they will probably be among the heaviest "investors" in another title next year. I am happy to say that I haven't been a fan of professional "sports" since free agency began, players became mercenaries and salaries went through the roof. I much prefer college sports, though they too are becoming increasingly tainted with money, high school sports and anywhere else where people are playing for the love of the game. Rooting for a "team" where the owner is determined to bring home a championship regardless of the cost doesn't appeal to me at all.

[rug]

35. The Red Sox are the new Oakland A's.

[MissMillie]

36. I don't know what that means

:shrug:

[rug]

37. The A's had 3 good years in the 70s but were far from a dynasty.

[MissMillie]

38. ah

well, that could be true. Given the amount of young talent we have (Pedroia, Ellsbury, Drew,...), anything is possible.