Any college student in the Boston area who is a native New Yorker faces the same initial reaction whenever they tell anyone in their hometown where they attend school, “You better not become a Red Sox fan!” The actual exclamation comes in several forms, but the sentiment is always the same. It’s as if to New Yorkers, the decades-old baseball rivalry between the two cities is the only cultural aspect of Boston worth discussing, and stepping a foot in Boston is guaranteed to convert everyone into worshippers at the altar that is Fenway Park.
Up until last week, in my mind, the relationship between the two East Coast metropolises seemed to be filled with jokes about accents, loud brawls in sports bars, and general animosity, simply because of baseball. As a native of Rockaway Beach, a small neighborhood of New York City, who attends Boston College, I have deep ties to both cities, and I often felt guilty for expressing my love of Boston in fear of seeming disloyal to my home.
However, that all changed this past Sunday when I was fortunate enough to get to attend the New York Yankees’ famed captain since 2003, and player of 20 years, Derek Jeter’s last career game at Fenway Park (Hey Dad-thanks for making that possible!). I had previously heard horror stories of Yankees fans getting yelled at profusely or worse, physically assaulted, at Red Sox home games, and vice versa, so I was a little nervous of what could happen if I expressed too much Yankees pride. I was taken by surprise by the fact that not a single negative word, or fist, was thrown in my direction. In fact, the way the Red Sox team and fans treated the occasion is something worthy of applause.
When I first saw the words “WITH RESPECT 2 DEREK JETER” displayed on Fenway’s world-renowned Green Monster scoreboard, I smiled at the kind gesture, figuring that would be the extent of the Jeter-honoring. But not only was his name displayed on the scoreboard, former Red Sox players presented him with a similarly green sign bearing the popular phrase, “RE2PECT” (Jeter is #2. Get it? New Yorkers are nothing if not clever). What finally brought me to tears, and is probably the only baseball-related event that will ever do so, was when Peter Frates, former captain of the Boston College baseball team, and founder of the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, came onto the field to greet Jeter after a video played of him doing the challenge. It was in this one moment where I saw the only two places I’ve ever called home, New York City and Boston College, truly unite in both love of baseball and greater causes that go beyond sports. While not quite as emotionally moving, watching throngs of Red Sox fans stand to applaud Jeter’s exit after his last at-bat in the third inning was something that sums up what it means to “be a good sport.” The two cities were able to replace their rivalry with re2pect, and succeeded in once and for all squashing any perceptions I had of hatred between them. Seeing the outpouring of support from the Yankees’ arch nemesis for Derek Jeter made me proud to be a New Yorker, and prouder than ever to call Boston my second home.
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