No Sympathy From Me, Ever

I read an article earlier today by Mike Vaccaro in the Sunday New York Post about the Mets loss in Game 7 earlier this week. It was an interesting one about the Mets fans attempting to get over that horrific loss. But in the middle of it, he wrote a paragraph that I absolutely disagreed with, and I even sent an email to him expressing my disagreement with him over it. Here is the paragraph in question:

Yankees fans emerged as proud as a group as ever two years ago when, collectively, they went through the atrocity of a blown three-games-to-none lead against the Red Sox. No matter what you might have thought about Yankees fans before that, no matter how "easy" it may have seemed to have followed the pinstripes, you had to acknowledge this: going through that, living through those four straight losses that grew louder and lousier by the moment, is something for which even the most ardent Yankee hater had to have quiet sympathy pains. You make it through the other side of that with your fandom intact, you never have to apologize for anything ever again.

Uh, no Mike. Those arrogant, obnoxious Yankee fans got EXACTLY what they deserved on the night of October 20, 2004. It was their comeuppance for decades and decades of their feeling so superior to everyone else, that winning the World Series was somehow "their birthright" as Yankee fans. They REVELED in all of that "1918" and "Curse of the Bambino" BS, and enjoyed pouring salt into the open wounds of Red Sox fans at every opportunity. On that fateful night, Red Sox fans, as well as Yankee haters worldwide, had absolutely ZERO sympathy for what those fans were going through. Our attitude was more "it's about time for them."

Sympathy pains? You've got to be kidding. I ENJOYED EVERY MOMENT of their historic collapse. And I still do. Their fans can talk all about their 26 championships (and you know they always will). But this monumental choke also goes on their resume. And it will always be there.

Vaccaro is one of the few New York writers I have respect for, but he was way off base with that paragraph. For us Red Sox fans, the historic comeback was a gift for all of us who stayed with them through all the tough times. We all enjoyed that Game 7 night immensely, and we always will.

(While I have known a few good Yankee fans in my lifetime, I am of course, speaking about them as a group. It has always been my policy that I don't dump on good Yankee fans I know, and I never will. Those are the Yankee fans who left me alone during the Sox most horrific moments. I think of that famous line: "Those who show mercy will also know mercy", and it applies here.)

It was such a pleasure also just to see the long faces and the shocked looks on the faces of the Evil Empire denizens that night. The tables had finally turned, and a new era in baseball history had just dawned.

Sorry. No sympathy from me to them. Ever.