Ok, my curiosity is piqued...

[Gretl]

On reading the preceding bits and talking to Madd this morning about the fights between the Red Sex and the Yankees (oh my, I just noticed my typo... *giggle* I'm leaving it anyway!) and their respective fans..


Somebody jump in and tell me why the two teams have as much animosity towards each other as they do? What's the deal? What's the history?

(yelling for Foffie to jump in)

[madd74]

hehehe, yeah, she told me what it was, and I do not remember it... I will make sure to remind her to inform us all

[Foffie232]

The curse of the Bambino, to put it mildly...

On January 3, 1920, the New York Yankees purchased the contract of one George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sucks for $125,000 and a $350,000 loan against the mortgage on Fenway Park (where the Red Sucks "play").

Once Ruth moved over to the Yankees, things went straight downhill for the Red Sucks. Ruth put all his energy into how much the Red Sucks snubbed him and helped become the proud papa, so to speak, of Yankee Stadium (aptly nicknamed The House That Ruth Built). On April 18, 1923, Yankee Stadium opened with a 4-1 win over the Red Sucks. Babe Ruth hit the stadium's first home run.

Since the Babe moved over, the Red Sucks haven't won a World Series. They haven't done much of anything except lose. Bostonians hate New Yorkers when it comes to sports. New Yorkers despise Bostonians. Throw into the mix the fact that both teams are in the same division and ALWAYS competing against one another in the standings and you've got yourself a heated rivalry.

Now... about the incident from the other day.... Pedro is a head hunter. Pedro Martinez, the pitcher for the Red Sucks the other day, is one of the nastiest pitchers in baseball. He deliberately throws at players' heads. He goes out of his way to start confrontations. He is consistently involved in confrontations and he never lets anything drop. On top of all of those things, he's one of the best, if not THE best, pitchers in the game. He started the game by hitting Yankee Karim Garcia in the left shoulder. Garcia is a lefty so his left shoulder was the one farthest from the pitcher. For Pedro to hit Garcia in the left shoulder, he would have to be aiming for his head or his back. Pedro has pinpoint control.

Garcia glared at Pedro, a few choice words were spoken (some of which being from Pedro stating that if he had wanted to hit Garcia in the head, he would have... which, in all honesty, is probably true), and both teams were warned.

In the fourth inning, Roger Clemens, also known for being a head hunter and also one of the best pitcher's in the game, threw a high pitch that was slightly inside but still over the plate pitch to Manny Ramirez. This pitch insighted a riot on Ramirez's part. After watching the replay about 6 gagillion times on Sports Center, it is ABUNDANTLY clear that Roger was not aiming for his head.

The rest of this story gets ugly.

Both benches clear and Don Zimmer (the Yankees Bench Coach) goes straight at Pedro Martinez. Pedro threw the 72 year old Zim to the ground, slicing the bridge of his nose. It was just a sick attack. I can't think of ANY reason to throw a 72 year old man to the ground... especially one as respected as Don Zimmer. (Then again, I guess he's not respected in Boston...)

As a result of the altercation, both Pedro and Zim were fined (a day later) but no one was suspended.

But the chaos doesn't end there.

In the 9th inning, the Red Sucks did something positive in the game and a Fenway Park grounds crewman working in the Yankee bullpen pumped his fist in the air. This action was apparently taken wrong by the bullpen dwellers (namely, Jeff Nelson) and a mini-riot in the bullpen ensued. Right fielder Karim Garcia jumped the bullpen fence and got involved. There were a few fists thrown. At the end of the scuffle, Garcia left the game with an injury to his hand (I believe it was cut) and a day later, criminal charges were thought to be brought against reliever Jeff Nelson and Karim Garcia.

I haven't been home all day so I haven't caught up on the updates as of yet, but should anything of any importance happen in this area, feel free to pick my brain.

[madd74]

and to point out, the second curse (which, there are no damn things such as curses) is explained as well... so you give us a double history lesson, well done