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A RED SOX FAN SAID TO A YANKEES FAN
May 20, 2008
Last night I was riding along on my pallet jack when I got a text message from my girl saying that my boy Lester pitched a no-no. I was stoked, let me tell you. I hauled some major tail over to my buddy who is also a Sox fan and told him about it. Then I made it a point to haul over to the only true Yankees fan I have EVER met and rubbed it in his freaking face!! Normally, I'm good with handling things like that and don't find it necessary to say such things to somebody, but he had it coming. When I got to work at 4:00 yesterday afternoon I was talking to him about the upcoming game. I told him that Jon was born one day after I was and how sweet it would be for him to pitch a no-no after everything that he's been through and to push the Skanks even further back in the standings. He actually had the balls to say to me that Lester doesn't have the stamina to pitch for that long. My reply to him was that with the cycle Lester has, he can do anything as long as he utilizes ALL of his pitches at the right time. Man do I hate Yankees fans. So then once we were done talking about Lester, I asked him, "So how does it feel to be 6 games back and growing?" He said, "It's still really early so you need to stop talking about it." Of course I didn't stop. I went on and on and on about how not only is their pen in poor condition, but the majority of their starting pitchers are washed up and the only skill their defense has is in thanks to steroids. I expected him to blow up in my face, but he didn't. He said, "You know, Jesse? I'm man enough to admit that I'm disappointed with my team right now. Not because of their record, but because of the fact they have managed to damage the reputation of a team players like Munson, Joltin' Joe and the Babe built." I had nothing to say to that because it was at that point that I realized I had just met my first true Yankee fan. I gave him a respectful nod and continued on with my business. He shouted after me, "But Lester is NOT capable of pitching a no-hitter." I ignored him.
Sorry for the tangent. So now we fast-forward to when I get the text message. It took me a minute to find him because he was off somewhere else in the factory momentarily. I finally tracked him down after I dropped a pallet off and shouted loud and proud what my boy Lester had just accomplished. He said, "And, sir, I eat my words." I hopped off of my pallet jack and had a pretty long conversation with the guy about Jon Lester and what he's been through health-wise. I said to him, "If a man has stamina enough to fight off cancer, then he has MORE than enough stamina to pitch a no-hitter. Not only that, but he's one of many to represent proudly the team that Williams, Doerr, Yaz, Pesky, Rico, Freddy, Jim Ed, Spoke and Lonborg (just to name a few) built." He said to me, "I have respect for you, Jesse. I will also admit that the Sox have more heart than just about any team I've ever watched play the game. They always have." My point to this story is that something special happened last night. Not only did my boy pitch a no-no, but a Sox fan and a Yankee fan have discovered that we can have a civilized conversation about baseball without ripping each other's heads off. I also learned that TRUE Yankees fans do exist. They are few and far between, but they are out there and they are fun to have conversations with. I talked with him about baseball for awhile. I look forward to it again tonight.
On a topic-related note, our boys are setting this season up to go in the record-books EARLY. I just made this comment on somebody else's blog. Country pitched his 1,000th K, Lester pitched a no-no, our Captain has caught for almost 5 no-no's, Jacoby almost broke the steal streak record and Manny will hit for over 500 homers this season. Talk about ramming that curse 6 feet under the Earth! We have a lot to be proud of. We have a team full of heart. We always manage to do that and I am proud of that.
Please feel free to share a story with me. This team has a way of making me feel great at the end of the day win or lose because I know that whether we won or we lost, we did it while giving it our all.
GO SOX!
-BoSox Hooligan - RSM™
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