Fish Out of Water

One of the biggest rivalries in sports history is between the Red Sox and the Yankees; not to worry, I am of course on the side of the better team, the Sox.  I've been a fan through thick and thin; I rioted the campus of UNH when we lost the division and I screamed until I lost my voice when we won the World Series   It's a roller coaster ride with those boys, but I wouldn't chose any other team to be mine.  

A Red Sox game is always intense, but never more than when a game against New York roles into town.  Fenway is sold out, the crowd is fired up, and no matter what happens at the end of the game, we'll still remain ever faithful.  Unfortunately, the only time I have ever had the opportunity to experience the electricity of a Red Sox-Yankees game was in New York.  There are always some Sox fans no matter where you go, but one definitely feels out of place inside the Yankee Stadium, where your rivals completely surround you.  

We took our seats, in the mob of New Yorkers, dressed in their pin stripes and "Red Sux" shirts and not so easily watched the game.  You feel so awkward and uncomfortable; you don't even want to really cheer for your team because of the glares and comments you get from the people around you.  Perhaps if I had gone with a larger group of people, I would have felt a little more confident, but in our small group of three girls, I wasn't feeling so sure.  It is a surreal feeling to go through the opposite emotional spectrum than the rest of the crowd.  Every time we strike out Jeter or Matsui, I want to jump from my seat with a surge of excitement, but instead I am deafened by a roar of boos; and just about the time I am ready to throw my beer at the Ump, everyone else is screaming in approval.  You are so out of place, and reminded with every pitch and swing of the bat.  You are the outsider.  You are the odd man out, and in this riotous crowd, that is not really who you want to be.  By the end of the game you are only quietly cheering to yourself in order to escape the scowls and comments of the people around you.  You are excited to be watching one of the most extreme rivalries in sports, but cannot fully enjoy it because you are uncomfortable in your own skin, or in this case, your baseball hat.

We ended up losing the game, which seemed like an even larger defeat as we walked out among fans cheering in elation.  People around us were all talking about the game, about the quality of their players and about the lack of ours. Of course we were heckled and teased about our boy's performance that night, but in the end this was probably better.  I think I would have rather been teased by happy fans, than pushed around by sore losers.  I never hope for a loss, but in this case, it was probably for the better.