Before writing a 10 Things I Hate About the Red Sox, I have to address this misguided nonsense. If you have read The Ten Things I Hate Most About the Yankees then you know that I HAVE to respond with facts and truth. We can’t have this kind of hit piece floating around Bleacher Brawls without an appropriate response.
9. Joba Chamberlain
Joba Chamberlain was an absolute stud when he first arrived on the scene in New York so of course there will be hate from Boston fans. I understand that. However, the Joba Rules weren’t his fault. To put the situation in context, Joe Torre was managing for his job on a nightly basis. The Boss was looking for a reason to fire Joe Torre. Nearly every pitching change was questioned during the YES Network post game interview. Joe Torre got too much credit for the success on the 90s-00s teams as far as Steinbrenner was concerned. Since Joe was managing for his job, he was forced to play the hot hand out of the bullpen again and again, inevitably burning out reliever after reliever. Joba being a stud was protected by the front office. The Joba Rules were set in place by Cashman and were lifted as he progressed. To blame Joba Chamberlain for the Joba Rules are as braindead Boston fan as you can get.
Oh Joba Chamberlain threw at Kevin Youkilis?? You mean after years and years of getting plunked by Red Sox pitchers. Especially by Pedro Martinez who once lead off a game by hitting the first two batters, Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter, a Yankee pitcher finally retaliated? Boohoo
8. Billy Crystal
I don’t care.
7. Yogi Berra
You understood what Yogi meant in all of his famous Yogi-isms, didn’t you? Not every human being possesses the ability to be an eloquent public speaker. Yogi’s charm was his ability to get his point across in his own way of saying it. In a sense, he’s baseball’s Yoda.
To think he is one of the dumbest human beings in the history of sports means you don’t know Yogi. Here’s an interesting little tidbit on Yogi. A few of those Yankees from the 50s-60s teams bought some land in Florida. The land was deemed too swampy and useless, a developer came through and offered to buy the land. All other Yankees took the deal but Yogi. Come to find out that developer was Walt Disney who ended up paying Yogi reportedly $300,000 per acre for a tract of land that is now part of Epcot. Dumbest human being in sports? Not a chance.
6. George Steinbrenner
The accusations that if The Boss were still alive today, he would have murdered Jacoby Ellsbury is obviously a bit of an exaggeration. The Boss would have ripped Jacoby Ellsbury to the media on a daily basis which is what every Yankees fan would have loved to see. Even better, I would guess that Jacoby Ellsbury is the type of guy who would have cried over it too.
5. Jeter’s Reputation
Arguing Derek Jeter’s spot as one of the greatest players of all time is something Luke and I will have to do. It’s not something that can be summed up in a paragraph or two. It deserves an entire debate. With his inevitable Hall of Fame induction coming up in a few months, for being one of the greatest players to ever play the game, it’s something we’ll probably address soon.
What I do need to address right now is the ridiculous belief that Derek Jeter intentionally dove into the stands on July 1st, 2004. Derek Jeter was running at full speed when he made that catch. He takes step one, step two, then on step 3 hits the wall and his momentum throws him into the stands. There is no way he could have possibly stopped without destroying at least one of his knees. Have you ever run full speed over a distance of at least 100 feet then tried stopping within 2 ½ steps? If so then you would know even as a non athlete running at a lesser speed it’s utterly impossible. I fully expect Boston fans to be biased over Jeter but using The Dive as an example hurts their argument without any help from us.
4. Roger Clemens
I totally see Luke’s point on this. I get why Red Sox fans hate Roger Clemens and it makes me smile.
”As soon as he left us, he became the prototype for the ball-busting workout machine that the next crop of starting pitchers would strive to emulate. He’s the long-time girlfriend that dumps you and then immediately hits the gym and goes vegan to elevate herself from pretty girl-next-door to knockout dimepiece en route to dating the popular kid that stuffs you in your locker.“
3. Yankee history
Yankees history is a tradition that many of us are born into. It is passed down from generation to generation. Major League Baseball is the billion dollar industry that it is today because of the New York Yankees. Because of Babe Ruth. Because of Joe DiMaggio. Because of Mickey Mantle. There is no baseball history without Yankees history. I would probably be jealous too if my team contributed virtually nothing over a span of 86 years but I don’t have to worry about jealousy because I am a Yankees fan.
I don’t want to respond to a bunch of made up and false accusations because I could make those myself about some questionably charactured former Red Sox. I guarantee Red Sox fans want us to respect David Ortiz and he was **allegedly** just shot for sleeping with the wife of a local gang boss. And for the record, glad to see David Ortiz recovered. I hated seeing him on the field but he’s been a great ambassador for the game in the Dominican Republic. See? It wasn’t that hard to show respect where respect is due. The lack of respect for the greatest franchise in sports history is a reflection on that entire fanbase. They hate the Yankees more than they love themselves.
2. The Short Porch
ENOUGH ABOUT THE SHORT PORCH ALREADY!!! Whining about ballpark dimensions, especially a fanbase of a team that benefits from a 30+ foot wall 300 feet away from home player is absolutely pathetic.
Did you know that the right field wall does not move in for the Yankees and move back for the visitors. Did you know that either team can hit a ball for a home run at 315’ or more in Yankee Stadium? It’s in no way an unfair advantage because it is an advantage for both teams. Red Sox fans themselves have benefited so why are the still whining? Why?
Did you know what is a home field advantage? The Green Monster. There is a reason Left Fielders in Boston are considered good defensively because “they know how to play the wall”. Over time, a Red Sox Left Fielder gets a feel for how balls are going to play off the Green Monster. It gives them an advantage over a team that only comes into Fenway once a year. Every guy that ever comes through Boston sees their batting average drop 30 points after they leave because routine flyouts aren’t taking weird bounces for extra bases. 100% without question a homefield advantage but those fools focus on a Right Field that has benefited them time and time again.
I don’t know a whole lot about Ball Park Factor but here’s an interesting little stat showing Fenway as the 9th most hitter friendly park and Yankee Stadium at 29. See for yourself if you don’t believe me.
1. John Sterling
Some of those home run calls aren’t bad. A few are actually pretty good. He’s an old man, next thing you know Boston fans will be calling for that scumbag Pedro Martinez to throw him to the ground.
10. Roll Call
I saved this one for last because even a broke clock is right twice a day. I’ve personally never been a big fan of roll call. I even had partial season tickets in the bleachers one year and still didn’t really buy into it. Maybe because the final chant of “box seats suck” is nonsense. Box seats are a thousand times better than the bleachers. I know some Yankees fans love Roll Call (which is totally cool and I respect your opinion more than any Red Sox fan’s opinion) but I’m not one of them.