I May Have Taken a Pause in My Red Sox Fandom, but My Hate For the Yankees Will Flow Throughout My Body Until the Day I Die; GO RED SOX!

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Over the last year and a half, I haven't pulled any punches with my thoughts about Red Sox ownership in the wake of the Mookie trade.

​-The CEO of a Dodgers Fan Group (I Guess That's a Thing) Put Up a Billboard Outside of Fenway for Thanking the Red Sox For Trading Mookie Betts
-As if the Red Sox Weren't a Big Enough Joke Already, Lebron James Now Owns (Governs) Part of Them!
-I Want to Believe But I Don't Know If I Can
-Well, This (Potentially) Changes Everything
-Not Only Do the Red Sox Suck at Paying Generational Talent, but They Suck at Twitter Too!
-It Looks Like The Dodgers Are About To Sign Mookie to a Giant Deal
-Some Telling Stats About The Future of The United States of America
-How to Induce Vomiting (in New England)
-Mookie Betts Buys Groceries and Pizza For People Shopping and Working in Tennessee
​-John Henry FINALLY Addresses The Mookie Betts Trade (and I Address My Future as a Red Sox Fan)
-After Nearly A Week of Hold Ups The Curse of Mookie Is Official (R.I.P. My Red Sox Fandom)
​-So You're Telling Me There's a Chance?
-I Officially No Longer Love The Boston Red Sox

​I still wholeheartedly disagree with the way they handled the Mookie Betts situation and always will. I know he was banged up this year, but what's been one of the Red Sox most significant issues?...defense. I think Mookie's 4.2 WAR (which is low for him) and elite outfield defense could've still helped with that. But what do I know? I only lived and died with Red Sox baseball for 18 years. I just hate how ownership pissed away money on terrible deals for YEARS, then decided that this was the time to stop spending like the world is ending (which it medium key is). They're worth fucking billions, so of course, they'd rather trade away one of the best players to ever wear a Red Sox uniform than pay taxes. 

I've missed baseball a lot this season. Last year, it was easy to avoid with COVID, but I've felt like part of me is missing this year. It's so crazy to me that I don't know the storylines and quirks of this team. Growing up if the Red Sox lost to the Yankees, I'd have to avoid Sportscenter to avoid reliving the actual pain it caused me. This season there were times I didn't even know they were playing each other. I still can't believe I didn't watch a single baseball game in its entirety this season. YoutubeTV dropping NESN and the stupid blackout rules didn't help...yay I can actually watch the game tonight...


With the Red Sox in contention all year, I had too much pride to be like, "okay, I'm back," because at almost 30 years old, I'm still worried about being called a bandwagoner even though I've forgotten more about the Sox than most diehards know (I went to a tour of Fenway in '06 and knew more about the team than the tour guide). I've decided to wait until next year to dive all the way back into my fandom. When my friend invited me to Red Sox-Yankees (first game after the ASG break), and I got a notification that the game was postponed due to a COVID outbreak when we were 20 minutes outside of New York, I knew this probably wasn't my year.

Next year I’m gonna try to dive back into baseball fandom, I still don’t FW ownership but my post-Mookie abandonment only really hurts me. That being said my hatred for the Yankees will never die, *scumbag Tom Werner voice* LET’S GO RED SOX!, LET’S GO Red sox, LEt’s go red sox”

— Doz #hiredozo (@DozonLife) October 5, 2021

This year I learned how much cutting the Sox out of my life hurt my day-to-day life. It's one less thing to talk to friends and keep in touch about, I missed going to Fenway (which was my favorite thing in life before Covid) and not to suck my own dick, but I know a ton about baseball. Throwing away all that knowledge is not ideal as a blogger.

​One thing that never changed throughout my time away from the game is my hate for the Yankees. I loathe everything that team represents. They're stuck in the 1950s with that no beard bull shit. 

Am I terrified that the one game I am actually invested in two years is setting me up for heartbreak? Yes, but that's good; it'll make my dead ass feel alive for at least a night. Plus, since I'm not as emotionally invested in this as literally any team from 2002-2019, it won't really hurt, I just don't want Yankee fans to have this over us. My hate for the Yankees is more potent than my love for the Sox at this very moment. If you've been with me at DOL since the beginning, you know how much I loved the Red Sox; I blogged about them constantly, my first ever DOL blog was about how I thought the 2016 Red Sox would be good (they were). I was one of the biggest Red Sox fans around; I watched every game, I could recite stats better than family member's birthdays (which says a lot because I'm actually good pretty good at that). I was exactly what you want in a fan, passionate and knowledgeable. 

I still hate ownership and don't want to spend money supporting a team that decided to pretend they're the Kansas City Royals, but I don't hate them enough to root for the fucking Yankees. Are you kidding me? 

I wish the Yankees were + money to pull the ole emotional hedge, but I feel semi-confident with Gerrit Cole on the bump. He's 2-2 with a 4.91 ERA against the Red Sox this year, and he SUCKED in the 2015 NL Wild Card Game (SUPER relevant for tonight), AND he got shelled by the Sox in the 2018 ALCS while he was cheating with the Astros. Please win tonight, IDC if you get swept by Tampa, just win tonight.

P.S.

If this game comes down to Verdugo in a do or die situation I'm not saying I'm gonna root for the Yankees, but it'll make a potential loss much, much easier to swallow if he's the one who fails.

Double P.S.


Here's a much better Wild Card related video.