It’s a great time to be a Boston Red Sox fan right now.
But for New York Yankees fans like myself, I can report that this time period is not one of great joy.
This sense of despondency, which is amplified for a New York supporter living near Boston, is becoming all too familiar.
Boston fans are spoiled right now, much in the same way New York fans who grew up in the 1990s like myself were. It’s almost like living in a parallel universe.
I started watching the Yankees in 1996 — it was Derek Jeter’s rookie year and the team won the World Series. From there, the team would go on to win three more in a row from 1998-2000 before finally losing in the World Series in 2001.
What I didn’t experience was the 18 years it took them to win another World Series after their championship in 1978. I mean, after all, I was 7.
Even in their loss in the 2003 World Series, Yankees fans were still coming down from the high of beating their Boston rivals in the American League Championship Series the previous round, to extend the now long-forgotten, but I’m sure constantly deflating for Sox fans, Bambino Curse.
What my experience has been like in the second half of my Yankee fandom — I’m pretty sure that’s a real word — has been the complete opposite as it was in the beginning. It’s almost like a switch has been flipped on my whole mindset.
For a good decade there, I expected the Yankees to win. It was how I was introduced to them, and how I knew them. Now, it’s almost like I expect them to lose. Aside from a championship in 2009, since 2004, when the Red Sox finally broke through at New York’s expense, it’s been all Boston.
Maybe this is life’s way of balancing things out.
After all, even a Yankees fan like myself who — hate is a strong word — strongly dislikes the Red Sox, can empathize with fans who had only ever known losing, some of whom went their whole lives without seeing their team win a World Series. What fan is going to have confidence in a team that hadn’t won in 86 years?
But here’s what too much winning does.
Red Sox fans are now becoming the overconfident, obnoxious fans that people associate with New Yorkers, who use the 27 championships argument even when their team hasn’t won one in almost a decade.
On the lighter side, my co-workers couldn’t wait to playfully rub it in when I came into work following the Red Sox World Series win.
Even the team has become accustomed to winning, flipping around an 86-year drought to become the dominant baseball team this century.
So much so that the team and its fans appeared to ignore the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team they beat in the World Series, to instead focus on the Yankees.
Fans chanted “Yankees Suck” within minutes of clinching the championship against the Dodgers, a team they beat two rounds before the series.
Red Sox players even reportedly played the Frank Sinatra classic “New York, New York” that the Yankees play after winning games at the stadium, following their World Series win in the clubhouse on Sunday. The song was a jab at the Yankees and Aaron Judge, who played it at Fenway Park following the Yankees lone win against the Sox during their playoff series this year.
The manager, Alex Cora, even chose to take a shot at their rivals during Wednesday’s victory parade in Boston, revving up the crowd by saying “We scored 16 at Yankee Stadium. Suck on it,” referring to their blowout Game 3 win against the Yanks.
In the past 22 years, it’s 5-4, with the Yankees having a slight edge in the World Series over the Red Sox. Things are finally on an even playing field and I’m sure New York won’t forget the shots taken at them during this go-round.
Yes, 2018 may have been the Red Sox year, but next year is a whole new season.
