“FEELING LONESOME DOWN THERE?” The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankee rivalry is probably the most intense in baseball. Tee shirts insulting the other team are big sellers at both ballparks. I have been told that there is an imaginary line in Connecticut, passing near Hartford, which is a rough divide between Red Sox fans and Yankee fans.
Annalisa has a friend who is a staunch Yankee fan. She recently told me that he has told her that he always feels nervous in Boston, even though there is no way for anybody to know that he is a Yankee fan.
I remembered a time in the mid sixties when the Red Sox were struggling—before the 1967 Red Sox miracle season. I was at a White Sox game. It is the custom for fans of the home team to stand when the home team comes to bat in the seventh inning (“the seventh inning stretch”). The fans of the visiting team stand earlier, at the beginning of the inning when the visiting team comes to bat. As a White Sox fan, I stood up when the time came, and there were a few other White Sox fans standing around the stadium.
The voice of a twelve year old fan rang out—“Feeling lonesome down there?” After a pause, everybody laughed.