JASON GAY
August 19, 2012
The Zombie Red Sox Trudge On
"Before Boston arrived, the Yankees played a series with its recent playoff nemesis, the Texas Rangers, and it's been proposed that Texas, not Boston, is now New York's primary rival. There's no doubt the Rangers are a better team than the Red Sox. But even if the Rangers beat the Yankees in 10 successive playoff series, and the Red Sox retire from the sport to start a bed-and-breakfast in Hyannis, could a Texas rivalry ever get as highly pitched as New York's feud with Boston? Geography and a century of confrontation still mean something, even if the aggression feels diminished, in a down cycle. Yankee fans do not walk around wearing T-shirts that read MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. PUNCH A RANGER FAN IN THE FACE. They do make shirts like that which say BOSTON FAN, though—I saw a gentleman wearing one near the concession stand on Saturday. Apparently, Red Sox fans can buy a Yankee fan version. So classy! Get one for grandma.
You could not buy that loathsome shirt at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. You could, however, purchase a T-shirt with Yankee and Red Sox logos that read, flatly, AL EAST DIVISION MATCH UP. This T-shirt had a certain factual, hyperbole-denied charm—one could imagine its scrupulous screen-printer, one eye turned to the AL East standings, taking a red pen and crossing out BATTLE, CONFLICT, SHOWDOWN, CLASH, and even FACE OFF. Division Match Up! Has a T-shirt ever done less to announce itself? Years from now, were you to wear it to a barbecue, would awestruck guests gather around and ask, sotto voce, "Were you really there for the 'Match Up'?"
But this T-shirt is honesty. And this is also where the Red Sox, so triumphant just a few years ago, live in late August 2012. There is a month of meaningful baseball to be played, but barring a miraculous revival, none of it will involve Boston. Another season has fallen apart, perspective is lost, September will be for the zombies. By the way, the Red Sox won, 4-1, on Saturday. Division Match Up fever. Catch it."
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