Yankee Fan Frustration Is Building

I witnessed it on the streets of Manhattan yesterday.

As many of you may know, I walk around New York wearing my Red Sox hat. It's the one with the traditional "B", so anyone who knows anything about baseball knows what it is. Despite living in the great city of New York, I have gotten many more compliments and nods from fellow Red Sox fans over the years than I have gotten disparaging or nasty comments shoved my way about showing off my fandom. The number of Red Sox fans living in our great metropolis is larger than you might think.

I was heading to the library in midtown yesterday afternoon to pick up a CD I had reserved for me and was on 40th Street across from Bryant Park. I had just walked out of the subway station on 6th Avenue and I noticed there was a group of three guys sitting next to a building that was undergoing some outdoor reconstruction. One of the guys looked right at me as I walked toward them, and by the look on his face I had a feeling some snide comment was coming. And I was right. (They were actually inside some makeshift fence, so none of them could walk directly up to me.)

I had on my iPod, with a song by Robbie Robertson currently on. And one of these neanderthals started with some really loud abuse, yelling some rude things about Boston. I carried on walking, and as I passed them, gave them "half a peace sign." (You know the one, with the index finger down.) I continued on my merry way, and I could make out the imbecile calling me a "f*****g queer" among other colorful language.

I responded to those lovely sentiments by once again showing him who was number one again. (Using the finger between the index and ring to show him.) All the time never looking at this moron. I wouldn't waste two seconds of my life getting into an altercation with this creep by acknowledging him or verbally responding to it, but I did make sure I wasn't being followed, and of course, this coward made no move towards me.

Incidents like this are extremely rare for me, and it sure won't keep me from showing off what team I root for. I'll never understand people who do things like what happened yesterday. I've known many good Yankee fans who support their team, and many who were flat-out assholes. That idiot just reinforces the Yankee fan stereotype.

And I think that jerk realizes his team is going nowhere this year. I suppose that fact is just hard for some entitled people to deal with, especially with boys from Boston currently in first place.