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Do You Blame the Marlins for Smiling?

© Harold Friend

Yep, it is the greatest rivalry in sports. Renown New York Post journalist Joel Sherman, who will never be mistaken for Red Smith (who is Red Smith?) has written that Alex Rodriguez, the player often referred to as the best everyday player in the game by most "experts," has no clue with respect to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. Sherman quotes long time Yankees' coach Willie Randolph as stating "There is no way you can know. You can't know what it feels like or what it means. You can't read about it, talk about it or hear about and truly know what it means."

Well, the Yankees have added only one Alex Rodriguez to the roster and he will, according to Randolph, find out what it means when the teams meet. Sherman concludes that "The only way to comprehend the fervor, fever, and fanaticism of Red Sox-Yankees is to be part of the Red Sox-Yankees," which means that Sherman, you, and I, of course, don't know what it means and we never will, although some young man who might be reading this may someday play for either team, at which point he will know what it means.

What do the fans do? They buy T-shirts that have both A-Rod's name and a curse word on it, or if they prefer something more encompassing, they opt for a shirt that illustrates Derek Jeter performing a sex act on A-Rod. That's what the fans do.

What do the media do? They put the first game of the rivalry on prime time television, which is the first time a regular season game will be telecast in prime time since 1998 when Mark McGwire, he of the supplement Androstenedione (pronounced an-dro-steen-DIE-own), was setting a new single season home run record that lasted three whole years. That's what the media do.

What do the players do? Some get involved in a brawl with a Fenway Park groundskeeper who claimed that two Yankees attacked him for rooting for the home team. Others pick up rotund coaches one half their age and fling them to the ground in a fit of rage that they attempt to cloak as an act of self defense. Still others hit home runs in extra innings that win pennants. That's what players do.

The arguments that evaluate each team's merits center on name calling, obscene chants, and pejorative terms that have nothing to do with baseball. What would happen if Derek Jeter stated that he did what some of the T-shirts claim he did after the Yankees beat the Red Sox mercilessly? Most Red Sox fans would be thrilled. "Hey, did you hear what Jeter said? Ain't that great?" Losing the game would be an afterthought.

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