“Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans.”Go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”
Whoaaaaa there, cowboy!
Hank Steinbrenner’s comments to The New York Times’ Play magazine has made waves in the sports world, both for the absolute ludicrousness of the comments and for the unspoken glee that we have yet another irrational Boss running the Yankees (the only time a Steinbrenner learned to keep his hands off the team, they had a dynasty).
John Henry, the owner of the Red Sox, fired back tongue-in-cheek and with considerably more class than Hank, inducting Hank into Red Sox Nation and sending him a membership card chock full of goodies that he can use as a member. (Hey John, send me one too so I don’t have to pay to be a member.)
Let’s talk about Hank’s comments.
Red Sox Nation was indeed a creation of the Red Sox — the membership portion of it, that is. The real Red Sox Nation, the one where you don’t have to pay to be a member of and includes all Red Sox fans, has been in existence from the very beginning. The Red Sox saw a marketing and financial opportunity in this fandom and took advantage of it. That works for me, as it’s more capital for the Red Sox. But to use it as a term of derision and then turn around and proclaim this Yankee country? Smacks of being a hypocrite. Will there be Yankee Country memberships coming out soon? Don’t bet against it.
He also seems to think that the Red Sox are backed by ESPN. Funny, because most Red Sox fans think that ESPN bows down to the Yankees. ESPN Insider Buster Olney has run a few e-mails from Red Sox fans blasting him for being a closet Yankee fans, Yankee fans have done the opposite. ESPN is a large sports media outlet that follows the big market teams and the storylines within. As a journalistic enterprise, it is their job to present news in a fair and balanced way and I have a very tough time thinking that they would purposely side with the Red Sox — or Yankees, for that matter. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and for Hank to say that about ESPN just goes to show how stupid he is. (Or smart, I suppose, to stir up controversy. But if he really does believe that, then he’s back to being stupid.)
Hank then directs us to “go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets.”
I’m not going to waste any time on this comment other then to wonder if Hank has actually been anywhere else in America other than The Bronx and <s>Legends</s> self-serving Steinbrenner Field, their spring training home.
“We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”
The Red Sox were baseball’s power in the early 1900s before the Yankees took over. The universe went all a kilter after that and we’ve seen two World Wars and three other regional wars (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq) ever since then. Since the Red Sox have won, have there been any wars? No, there has not. Hmm… could it be that the Red Sox were the one that restored the universe to order?
Sound ludicrous? Well, so does Hank’s comments.
Actually, I was happy to see those comments. The last couple of years, despite the media circus only increasing in frenzy, there has been something missing from the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry. With the Yankees stumbling majorly in 2007 to start the year and the rivalry being pretty much a non-factor in 2006, there hasn’t been that sort of hatred on each side for a long time. God forbid, by the time 2007 was drawing to a close, I actually felt the Yankee games were nothing more than a tight intra-division game! Hank’s comments has put that notion to rest, and the flames of the rivalry have been fanned.
As Larry Lucchino said, the Red Sox are more than happy to be the Rebel Alliance to the Yankees’ Evil Empire.
The opening salvo of the War of 2008 has been fired.
Enjoy the ride.