Seamus McG™	Male 31 years old SLINGER, WI
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It’s a well known fact… Boston is a baseball city. We eat, sleep, breathe, and live for the Boston Red Sox. Of all the things that Bostonians hate, from potholes to lack of parking, high rent to bad winters; the one element that unites the city, if not the entire region, is the united front of New York Yankee hatred. Few things in Boston are more hated than that team from the Bronx. Yankee hatred is not a pastime… it’s a lifestyle that many Bostonians embrace.

Here’s a quick tale… It was February 3, 2002 and the New England Patriots had just won their first ever World Championship. A riotous group of people had begun to congregate in front of Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston. The large group chanted, “P-A-T-S!” and “U-S-A!” It wasn’t long before the group began a familiar chant in unison. Within minutes, the few thousand celebrators began screaming, “Yankees Suck!” over and over.
The point of my story is this… no matter what time of year, or even what sports championship we are celebrating, Yankee hatred transcends baseball in this region. Don’t be surprised if you hear this chant anywhere around the area, no matter what event it may be.

So, you may be wondering, why do the Yankees suck if they have won so many championships? Well, my inquisitive reader, when we say “SUCK,” we do not mean it in the crappy sense. We use the word “suck” to describe the arrogance and no-fun style play of the Yankees. They look like cleanly-shaven, baseball-playing robots. That sucks. A roster that includes an asshole like A-Rod sucks.

Growing up, I don’t always remember feeling Yankee Hatred. I can, however, clearly remember the EXACT moment when the fire and passion of Yankee Hatred was ignited in my soul… October 17, 1999… also known as “The Night the Umpires Chose the Winner.” When what Sports Illustrated describes as Chuck Knobluach’s “Phantom Tag” on Jose Offerman (he clearly wasn’t tagged) was ruled as an out, Fenway Park descended into complete pandemonium. The game had to be stopped as thousands of fans protested the bullsh*&t calls by throwing whatever trash they had onto the field. I remember watching the chaos at home, wishing I could also throw something. I decided against it when I realized I’d just be trashing my own living room, but that didn’t change how angry I felt.

There are deep ties that bind these two teams that have lead to this rivalry. When Red Sox owner Harry Frazee traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, the modern rivalry was born. Bucky Dent is another important figure in the historic rivalry and although I wasn’t yet born, my father can tell the tale of the crushing three-run homer in October of 1978.

More recently, when the ALCS came back to town in 2003 for Game 3, brouhaha erupted when Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez believed Roger Clemens was, in typical Clemens fashion, aiming for his head. A bench-clearing brawl ensued and resulted in Don Zimmer being tossed to the ground by Pedro Martinez. Tempers flared once again later in the bullpen between two Yankees pitchers and a Fenway crew member!

Red Sox Nation was able to get their retribution in 2004 when the ALCS ended in the greatest choke in MLB history and the Red Sox went on to win the World Series. Ah… But the rivalry lives on. Johnny Damon’s betrayal for a relatively mere $4 million added a new chapter to the tale.