OT Red Sox or Yankees fan? | The Boneyard

OT Red Sox or Yankees fan?

I’ve been a Yankee fan since 1962. In 1967 or 68 my dad took us to a game at the stadium, with tickets in the left field bleachers in the old Yankee Stadium, where left field was often referred to as Death Valley because of the high wall and lengthy dimensions. The Yankee glory years of the early 60’s were past, and they had become an average team of aging veterans.

My idol was Mickey Mantle, who was getting to the end of his career. Having suffered many terrible injuries throughout his career, Mickey used to hobble up to the plate like an 80 year old man. But he always swung the bat with tremendous force, and while he was nowhere near the player that won 3 MVP awards, every now and then he would run into a pitch and hit it a long way.

On this particular day, after Mantle hobbled to the plate he hit a line drive over the shortstop’s head in what I initially thought would be a single. Because I was all the way out in left field, I saw the ball jump off the bat a split second before I heard the sound of contact. What I heard next was the loudest crack of the bat I can remember.

The ball Mickey hit was a frozen rope that just kept going all the way to the wall in left center, where it finally hit the ground and took one giant bounce over the high wall in left center, some 400’ feet from home plate, for the longest, hardest hit ground rule double I’ve ever seen.

After watching the ball bounce into the stands, I looked back at the field to see Mickey rounding second base, realizing that despite his old, battered legs, he was thinking “inside the park” home run, the moment he hit the ball. The umpire stopped him heading to 3rd, and sent him back to 2nd base.

There was no Statcast back then. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the ball that Mickey hit on that day came off the bat around 120 mph.
 
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Yankees for me. The Billy Martin/ George Steinbrenner times were a lot of fun to watch. Can you imagine what that time would have been like with social media around !!!!!! As a kid of the 70's for your baseball news you listened to the radio, read your local newspaper and watched the Saturday game of the week or Monday night baseball and waited for the Sporting News to arrive in the mailbox.
 
Yankees since the 60's.
Most memorable moment ?
There were two, and they occurred in successive games.
Games 4 and 5 of the 2001 World Series.
In both games the Yankees were down 2 runs with 2 outs and one runner on in the bottom of the ninth. And in both games they hit a two out, two run home run to tie the game. The Stadium was magical back then.
 
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Red Sox. My idol was Carl Yazstremski, because I hit left and threw right just like him. I even copied his batting stance.

It's hard to believe that he has a grandson playing for the Giants :eek:

Favorite memory: 2004, of course.
 
Not much of a fan of the Junior circuit. Grew up a Cardinal fan. So much so, we were not allowed to say the "C" word (Cubs) in our house. :D

Daughter got us tickets for Cards/Red Sox for Father's day. Haven't seen them live in quite awhile.
 
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My teams in order of importance:

Geno's team - always
Red Sox
Packers (Yeah, as someone who grew up in Simsbury, I can't explain it but it is what it is)
Celtics
UConn men

Hockey has been dead for me as a sport since the Whalers moved.
 
Mets

My mom is a Yankee fan and Dad was a Red Sox fan, so of course, I became a Mets fan.

I am also a Yankee hater. The fans are horrible and made me that way!
 
Bosox fan. My favorite memory is 2004, even though I have great memories from visiting Fenway. Fans of other teams can’t appreciate how cathartic that championship was. I rank it right up there with the 1999 men’s basketball championship.
 
CL82 said:
Bosox fan. My favorite memory is 2004, even though I have great memories from visiting Fenway. Fans of other teams can’t appreciate how cathartic that championship was. I rank it right up there with the 1999 men’s basketball championship.
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My mom lived through the disappointments & defeats of 1946,1967,1975 & 1986. Believe you me she was beyond happy when the Sox finally broke The Curse.
 
Beemer said:
My mom lived through the disappointments & defeats of 1946,1967,1975 & 1986. Believe you me she was beyond happy when the Sox finally broke The Curse.
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Oh, it was emotional, surprisingly emotional.
 
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Yankee fan here. My wife is a Red Sox fan. Our three sons are Yankee fans. Our two daughter-in-laws are Yankee fans. Our two oldest grandsons are Yankee fans. The two younger ones aren't fans of any team yet.

We all have our team jerseys. The number our are favorites. And yes my wife has her Red Sox jersey - Big Poppy. Oldest grandson wear #99 - Judge. Oldest son wear #23 - Mattingly. I wear #7 - Mantle. Second son wears #2 - Jeter.

Be a fan since the late 50's. I have seen games in the old Yankee Stadium with the three monuments in center field, the remodeled Yankee Stadium and the new one.

Now that we live in central Florida, both the wife and I enjoy watching the Rays play.
 
GoUconn7961 said:
Yankees (I live closer to NY than MA)

Best memory? Bucky Dent or the Pine Tar incident (that was good fun)
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I'm a lifelong Red Sox fan, but the Pine Tar Incident is one of my favorite baseball memories, too. I can't think of another that was more hilarious.

Favorite Red Sox memory is probably going to Fenway when I was 10 or 11. Dwight Evans was in his first year or two, and we had right-field box seats. It's one thing to see someone with a great arm on TV, an entirely different thing to see it from 50 feet away. He was playing long-toss warming up, with someone probably 200 feet away. Dewey would throw a strike to that guy, and he'd throw the ball back to Dewey with two or three bounces.

When my daughter was little, my aunt gave her a pink Red Sox cap. When the Sox and Yanks were on national TV, I'd watch and tell her the Red Sox were playing the evil Yankees. Of course, if the Yankees were evil, the Red Sox had to be good, but that didn't flow off the tongue well, so they became the Benevolent Red Sox and the Evil Yankees. When the daughter was in kindergarden, my wife was taking her and a friend somewhere, and heard daughter telling friend about the baseball cap that had a B for Benevolent Red Sox.
 
huskeynut said:
Yankee fan here. My wife is a Red Sox fan. Our three sons are Yankee fans. Our two daughter-in-laws are Yankee fans. Our two oldest grandsons are Yankee fans. The two younger ones aren't fans of any team yet.
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We have some friends who were in a mixed marriage. He's a Yankees fan, she a Red Sox fan. He's Jewish, she's Christian. They compromised. They raised the kids Jewish and rooted for the Red Sox.
 
Red Sox since I was a kid in the late 50's. Favorite memory has to be seeing Ted Williams hit a HR in 1960, his last year. I heard the crack of the bat, and we just knew it was gone. Like Beemer, I also adored Carl Yaz. I batted left and threw right and also copied his stance. Or maybe he copied me, let me see if I still have a pic of me in 1959 batting in Little League. In '59 I was at the ripe ol age of 10.
 

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I remember going on our annual visit to the family site at a cemetery in Killingly, Ct. at Christmastime in 2004. We left our flowers and then drove around to see stone after stone decorated with signs and Red Sox items saying..."They won, Dad, they won!" and other personal messages. It was a truly happy and sad moment at the same time, and one I'll never forget.
 
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Always a Yankee fan since the '50s. Caught the tail end of their 5 straight World Series championships. Still enjoy watching Game 7 of the '52 Series (Billy's catch in the 7th with the bases loaded), a game where Casey used all of his top 3 pitchers -- Lopat, Raschi and Reynolds (the last of whom had pitched the day before). This was a series where the Yanks had to come back 3 times -- losing the 1st, 3rd and 5th games, and having to win the final 2 at Ebbetts Field. Grew up learning my baseball by listening to Mel Allen. Most memorable games -- Larsen's perfecto in '56; the entire '58 Series (where the Yanks had to come from down 3 games to 1, winning the last 2 in Milwaukee); the very exciting '62 Series. Memorable games I attended -- the final game of the '77 Series, when Reggie hit 3 HRs on consecutive swings (he actually hit HRs on his last 4 swings in that Series, homering in his last at-bat in Game 5 in L.A.). Was at many W.S. games, including clinchers. Was at David Cone's perfect game. Loved Mickey and Yogi, and saw lots of Jeter, but my favorite player of all time was Hank Bauer, the ex-WW2 marine who still holds the record for hitting safely in 17 consecutive World Series games. Roger Maris wore his number after the trade over winter 1958, but to me, Yankee #9 will always be Bauer. Next was Gil McDougald, a versatile infielder who, in his career, made the starting lineup of the All-Star Game in different years as a 3rd baseman, a 2nd baseman, and as a shortstop. Also got to see Ted Williams, who Mel Allen taught us Yankee fans was "the greatest natural hitter of all time." Joe DiMaggio is quoted as thanking the good Lord for making him a Yankee. I say to my older brother, thank you for making me a Yankee fan. He's not perfect, though. He was a big Johnny Unitas fan, and really rubbed it in when the Colts beat my Giants in the first-ever overtime NFL championship game.
 
Yankee fan since the M&M boys had the home run tournament. I still don't understand why Roger was never really embraced by the fans. Today players come and go every couple of years. I was at the stadium and saw Mickey "check swing" a ball into the right field seats. Good memories.
 
My wife is a Yankees fan, and her favorite memory is going to Yankees games versus the hated Red Sox with her late Father [who died before we met at the young age of 45, still playing baseball until a year before he lost his battle with Esophageal cancer.

My youngest son and I are Red Sox fans. Best memory is watching the Red Sox win the 2013 Series vs. St Louis with his "adopted" grandfather at Frank's house. Frank played competitive ball until his early sixties, and was a very funny man until his death six years ago at the age of 87. Frank and my dad were both born in 1929.
 
60 miles from Philly, 90 from NY so a fan of both until the 1964 collapse by the Phils, so all-in for the Yankees ever since. My Dad taught me that if my team didn’t win you root for the team in your division, so in ‘67, ‘75 and ‘86 I was rooting for the Sox. That stopped in 2004 when I got bombarded with hate from the Sox fans who worked for me at the time. I was always hoping for my true friends, who thought they’d go to their graves without a World Serise win, to experience what I had many times and for them in ‘04 I was happy. The rest, well we’ll leave that be.
 
When I was a little kid I rooted for the Yankees but not anymore.
Back then a baseball card of a Yankees player used to be a treasure.
I knew all of the Yankees players but didn't care much for Mickey Mantle because Roger Maris was my hero.
Their HR competition spilled over into our Yankees neighborhood fandom about who was the better player.
I stopped rooting for the Yankees soon after they traded Maris to the Cardinals.
I didn't hate them but just stopped rooting for them under most circumstances.


I'm a diehard Twins fans because my dad rooted for them.
He said, "Always root for the underdog." Plus he was born & raised in North Dakota.
The Twins were originally the Washington Senators, one of the original charter teams of the American League.
My favorite baseball moment is probably Game 7 of the 1991 World Series when Jack Morris pitched the complete 10 inning shutout against the Braves winning 1-0.
He made 122 pitches, which at that time was the longest extra inning WS game 7 since the Senators won the 1924 WS against the NY Giants in 12 innings by a score of 4-3.

When the Red Sox play the Yankees I generally root for the Red Sox, especially because Big Papi David Ortiz played for the Twins before he played for the Red Sox.
And it helped that my wife is a Yankees fan who loved Jeter, and I could really get under her skin by rooting for the Red Sox.
And Johnny Damon and Pedro.

The Twins were lucky that I didn't stop rooting for them after they traded Rod Carew to the Angels.
In 1977 Carew hit .388, and stole home 17 times in his career.
Carew went to high school in NYC but didn't play high school baseball.
The Twins discovered him playing semi-pro baseball in the Bronx of all places and signed him up.
I don't know how the Yankees ever missed signing Carew right out of NYC.
That must be the biggest Yankees blunder in history.
Go Twins!
 
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