The Red Sox-Yankee’s rivalry is one of the most bitter rivalries in professional sports. In fact, USA Today once called it “the fiercest rivalry in sports.”
I love going to Sox-Yanks games. I’ve been to them in Boston and New York and it’s always a good game. I wear my Boston gear to New York, andYankees fans like to remind me how much my team sucks, how many championships they’ve won, etc. But I never feared for my safety a game.
I enjoy a good baseball fight. A good bench-clearing brawl doesnt happen all that often (kinda like a good goalie fight in hockey.) But with the Red Sox andYankees, a good brawl is always lurking around the corner.
This isnt something new. To name a few:
We can go back to 1938 when Joe Cronin of the Sox and the Yanks Jake Powell fight on the field and beneath the stands at Yankee Stadium. (Both are fined and suspended for 10 days.)
1952:Jimmy Piersall and New York’s Billy Martin exchange blows in the tunnel beneath the stands at Fenway Park.
1973:Munson and Fisk duke it out after a collision at the plate.
1976: Lou Piniella barrels into Carlton Fisk at the plate in Yankee Stadium, and Sox pitcher Bill Lee cracks his collarbone in the subsequent fight.
2003:Yankees bench coach Don Zimmerlunges at Pedro Martinez, who throws the 73-year-old to the ground during a brawl in a playoff game. Later in the game, Yankee reliever Jeff Nelson and right fielder Karim Garcia get into a fight with a Fenway Park groundskeeper after he cheered for Boston in the Yankees’ bullpen.
2004:Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek and Alex Rodriguez exchange heated words after A-Rod is hit by a pitch. Varitek shoves Rodriguez in the face, and a brawl breaks out.
May 4, 2008: The rivalry is offcially out of control.
Ivonne Hernandez of New Hampshire was arrested and charged with second degree murder for running her car into a crowd of people outside a Nashua bar, killing 29 year-old Matthew Beaudoin.
The incident was allegedly caused by the crowd’s chanting ‘Yankees Suck’. Hernandez, a Yankee fan, claims she wanted to scare the group when she aimed her car at them, assuming they would jump out of the way. Hernandez is now being charged with 2nd degree murder and being held without bail.
A young man is dead because of his love for an American pastime. A game.
I’m not saying that I’ve never heard or seen people getting into fights over the Red Sox-Yankees before. I have even been known to exchange a few choice words. But Matthew’s family now has to deal with the fact that he died at such a young age for no good reason.
It’s times like this that I step back and realize, it is just a game.
