I EAT MY WORDS. YOUK IS NOT A PUKE

It wasn’t that long ago when my friend and I spent the day at Fenway watching the Yankees beat the Red Sox from the Green Monster Seats.  I remember it well.  Each time Kevin Youkilis stepped up to the plate I gloriously screamed in front of several dozen Red Sox fans, “Youk, you are making me puke.”  I mean, look at his ridiculous batting stance and let’s not overlook his Duck Dynasty facial hair.  Curious if he will take it down a notch now that he is coming to play for an Ivy League team vs. that garbage over in Fenway. 

“FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal says Kevin Youkilis will be decked out in pinstripes and goatee-less next season.”  Naturally, we have to make this move even more dramatic as the former Red Sox player will take the field against Boston as a Bronx Bomber in Yankee Stadium on, yes, you guessed it, April Fools Day!  I mean, this couldn’t get more comical.

I am laughing at myself, but as Ben Franklin (HERE) said, “Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.” 

And we have swooned those guys from Boston before.  Johnny Damon who shaved his locks and beard for pinstripes, ironically another third baseman with a beard, Wade Boggs and let’s not forget the ultimate selling and formation of the Curse, Babe, “The Great Bambino” Ruth.

I even have to say, that even when our guys crossed over from 161st Street to Yawkey Way, they got their own dose of the hex that lasted more than 80 years.  Mike Torrez got stuffed by shortstop Bucky Dent as he sailed a home run over the “Monsta” in the one-game playoff for first place in 1978.  God knows what would have happened to Swisher Sweet if he would have lowered himself to the becoming a Red Sox. 

According to the 2005 article “Jerkball” published in New York Magazine (HERE), “The trivia, the historical ironies, the Joe D. vs. Teddy Ballgame debates—it all contributes to the richness of the Yankees–Red Sox melodrama, and stokes the animosities. For the fans, that is. Pro athletes, by and large, don’t know the history of their sport and don’t care. Hitting, pitching, and catching a baseball are hard enough without cluttering your mind with Johnny Pesky anecdotes.”  I think for the most part, this is true.  Players need to stay focused on playing well, staying healthy, and improving their game.  They can’t get caught up in the nostalgia of a hard-core rivalry.  That’s for us fans.

But I can’t help but say, that this rivalry is not your ordinary rivalry.  It is deep seated and raging with both on the field and off the field stories, quotes, and yes even headline-like t-shirts flooding the walkways and subway stations approaching the respective ballparks.  There are even many versions of the “Youk the Puke” tee.  I guess you can get that for a steal because now Youk is a Yankee!

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof




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