Baseball's Fault Lines Show Stress In Arizona
Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry Is a Super Bowl Subtext
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Saturday, February 2, 2008
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 1 -- Friday marked the point in Super Bowl Week when fans finally arrived en masse, bringing with them their team's branded apparel and clever insults for the opposition. And so as Patriots fan Rob McDonagh walked through Scottsdale early Friday afternoon, it was not surprising he drew taunts from New Yorkers. Instead, it was the nature of those taunts -- coming in February, in front of television analysts breaking down football strategy, in a downtown packed with Super Bowl memorabilia shops -- that stood out.
"Twenty-six championships!" McDonagh heard from the crowd. "How does that feel?"
McDonagh was, at the time, wearing a Boston Red Sox jersey. Naturally.
The run-up to Sunday's game has focused on the Patriots' quest for undefeated football immortality and the Giants' attempt to stop them, and the majority of fans strolling through the streets of Glendale, Scottsdale and Tempe are wearing the emblems of one of those two teams.
But there also are hundreds if not thousands of fans in greater Phoenix wearing Red Sox and Yankees hats, showing off Fenway Park and Mickey Mantle T-shirts, bringing baseball's best rivalry to bear on a football game that has taken on significant geographic ramifications.
Patriots fans are quick to point out they feel no natural hatred for the Giants. Many old-time New Englanders, in fact, grew up rooting for the Giants before Boston got its AFL franchise in 1960, and are more accustomed to rooting against the Jets. And Giants fans counter by discussing their great hatred for the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, traditional football rivalries based on history and divisional status.
And yet.
"It overflows, of course it does," Boston fan Tom Morgan said of the baseball rivalry. "It goes back generations."
"I'm a Yankees fan. I hate the Red Sox, I hate all sports teams from Boston," New York fan Tom Ward said. "They can go to hell."
"We like to stick it to New York just like we stuck it to them in the World Series," Boston fan Steve Reilly said. "Now we're going to win the football championship, and we're going to win the basketball championship, too."
"They call Chicago the second city, but Boston's way below that," New York fan Sal Minardi said.
"It definitely means more to beat the city of New York than any other city, there's no question," Boston fan Greg Menzel said. "That's the city. If we've got to pick somebody to beat, it's them."
