Not guilty

I have been a New York Yankee hater for more than 45 years. I can’t ever recall rooting for the Yankees in any game or series. And, although not a Boston Red Sox fan, I have certainly always favored the Red Sox (my father’s team) in their storied rivalry with the Yankees. Until this year, that is. For some reason, I’m rooting for New York in their gripping series with the Boston, the fifth game of which is being played as I write this. It wasn’t a deliberate decision. I just found myself rooting for Yankees pitches to be called strikes and for Yankee hits to fall in.
My first reaction to these reactions was guilt, sort of like when I started voting for Republicans. Then, I tried to figure out why I was rooting for the Yankees. I concluded it mostly had to do with the attitiude of Red Sox fans, who constantly try to glorify themselves as uniquely long-suffering victims, even though they have actually had as much (or more) to cheer about in the past 45 years as the fans of many other baseball teams. But reaching this understanding didn’t help. I still couldn’t believe I was rooting for the Yankees and I continued to feel guilty.
But now the New York Times, hometown paper of the Yankees, has come out in favor of the Red Sox. I learned about this from Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online and I am deeply indebted to Mr. Goldberg. For it is clear that the Times is supporting the Red Sox for precisely the reasons that I am not, and therefore it is clear that I longer need to feel guilty about rooting for the hated Yankees in this particular series. Instead, I can feel proud of my instincts.
HINDROCKET adds: I know what you mean, Deacon. I was a Red Sox fan once, but no more. Any team that relies on former Twins like David Ortiz and Todd Walker is in more trouble than Pedro Martinez can bail them out of. In the photo below, Walker is trying to get to a line drive that went for a single.
capt.sge.ord58.151003000249.photo00.default-389x255.jpg
He never got to those balls when he was a Twin, either.

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