To me, the highlight of the Redsock love-in came in game six, when Erin Andrews, the FOX in-stands commentator, interviewed 80-something year old Arthur D'Angelo, whom she described as a guy who works in a t-shirt store across from Fenway. He's been going to games all his life, but this would be the first World Series championship at Fenway. Old guy who works in a t-shirt store. The fact that D'Angelo is a famous Boston businessman - a multi-millionaire - just got in the way of things. (At one point, he himself noted that he'd "done pretty good" for himself. HE couldn't even hack the hype.)
You better believe it would have been different in Yankee Stadium, where it's a foregone conclusion that everybody in attendance is rich or famous. No poor allowed inside without working credentials. Fox treated the Boston crowd as if they paid $5 tickets.
Face it, folks: Boston has it both ways. They win three championships in 10 years, and they're still framing themselves as the long-suffering fans, the underdogs. And they did this to honor those people who were killed or injured in the Boston Marathon bombings. OK, fine. But here's a history lesson:
When the Yankees in 2001 lost in the final inning, ending a quest to restore hope for a city that had been hit 3,000 times harder than Boston, you know what happened? The Arizona Diamondbacks mockingly played "New York, New York" over its p.a. system. And Boston fans took to the street to celebrate the Yankee loss. It was such a crass turn of events that - God bless him - even Peter Gammons cried foul.
In the eyes of the media, the Yankees remain the Evil Empire. We buy pennants. We cheat on steroids. We play egomaniacal nutjobs. Whether it's the Mitchell Report or a college football announcer interviewing a millionaire, one lens gets aimed at New York and another points in the direction of Boston. I guess we might as well accept it, eh? Boston gets it both ways.
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1 comment:
Erin Andrews: great body, not much else going on, not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Where's that Heidi chick the red sux used to have? She's ready for prime time.
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