An Open Letter To Red Sox Fans

I was on the Mets fan web site SheaBaseball tonight, and I found a great item written by a Mets fan named Adam Salazar, called "An Open Letter To Red Sox Fans." It is terrific, and I thought I would post it here (and I hope he doesn't mind if I post it). It hits the nail on the head about being a Mets or Red Sox fan (or both).

Please check out www.sheabaseball.com, as it's a good Mets fan site.

An Open Letter to Red Sox Fans
by Adam Salazar

June 28, 2006 -- Hey Red Sox fans! Despite this interleague series between us, I want you to know that all Mets fans root for your Red Sox. Everyone knows the history between our teams but twenty years, and a Red Sox Championship later, we hope there are no hard feelings from Boston to Queens.

The truth of the matter is Met fans consider those of you in Red Sox Nation as our brothers, bonded by a common hatred of the Yankees. Admittedly, we don’t have it nearly as bad as you guys do, facing the Evil Empire nineteen times a season, plus playoffs. But in addition to six subway series games, we’re forced to live in the same city as these wretched Yankee fans.

While you guys are insulated by the two-hundred miles between New York and Boston, we’re forced to rub shoulders with them on a daily basis. At work, on the subways, and all too often our very own dinner tables are infiltrated by these horrendously spoiled Yankee fans. Mets fans have been doing a slow burn for years as the Bronx Bombers continually grab the back pages of our local papers. The New York Daily News is the absolute worst Yankee homer paper you could ever imagine. It would damn near take the first no-hitter in Met history for the Mets to wrestle away a Daily News back page over a Yankee win.

Sox fans, believe me when I tell you that we’ve suffered with you guys for as long as we can remember. We’d never claim it’s as personal or painful to us when the Yankees beat you, but rest assured every single loss is felt by the Mets fanbase. Red Sox Nation, take solace in the fact that you have two legions of fans behind your cause. The Shea Faithful consider ourselves Red Sox Nation-backers 110%. We hate the Yankees with as much passion as anyone can muster. I’ll give Boston the nod of indeed hating the Yankees slightly more, but it’s hard to imagine hatred running deeper than it does in true Met fans.

In stark contrast to the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox supporters are diehard and loyal to their teams. Not to say that there aren’t genuine Yankee fans, of course there are, but let’s be honest, a huge percentage of the Bronx Bombers fan base have leapt aboard the bandwagon post-1996. These “new” fans were either casual sports fans or even worse they newly relocated to NY during the Yankees rise to prominence in the 90’s.

Many people are drawn to a city like New York to start afresh and there’s no shame in that, but I am disgusted by the amount bandwagon jumpers whose motivation is simply the fact that their own home teams don’t win enough. It’s an all too common phenomenon and the drill goes something like this: The bandwagon jumpers arrive from San Diego or Pittsburgh or wherever and immediately buy a Yankee hat. They’ve never rooted for the Yankees before but they’ve seen Jay-Z rocking a Yankee hat on MTV so they figure it’s a rite of passage. They go to Yankee stadium and are impressed because they know most of the names on the latest rotisserie style Steinbrenner team. Next they’ll concoct some excuse such as, their great aunt used to live in New York, so deep down they’ve always been a Yankee fan. Often within 8-12 weeks these newbie fans have become the loudest, most obnoxious yankee fans going. Makes me wanna puke!

They may be fooling themselves with this lame charade but I’m here to expose the Yankee fanbase as the true posers that they are!But don’t think I am not understanding and compassionate. I understand why these people root for the Yankees, the same reason the average Brit roots for Manchester United. These teams represent money and winning. Everyone likes to win and everyone likes money. This is why the phrase “Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for IBM” rings so true. But buying a ticket and a hat doesn’t make you a real fan and don’t think we Met and Red Sox fans can’t smell you a mile away.

These johnny-come-latelys have no idea what being a true fan is. Without failure you can’t possibly appreciate the spoils of victory. You can’t be a genuine fan until you’ve been through the lean times, and no, an early playoff exit is not considered a lean time. As a matter of fact, it’s impossible to have a lean time when your payroll soars well above the $200M threshold.

Am I a bitter Mets fan? Absolutely. Am I angry about being second fiddle to the Yankees in NY - a rightful National League town? Damn right! Do I relish every single Yankee loss especially at the hands of the Mets or Red Sox? Yes I do!! Mets fans have your back Red Sox fans. We hope to see you in the World Series come October.

And we hope to see you again in October too, Adam. Let's Go Mets!