I believe in and follow a consistent set of rules that pertain to being a sports fan. Bill Simmons published an extensive and nearly perfect list of rules that I printed out and kept a number of years ago. While I don’t think that these shirts require a rule per se, I think it’s necessary to make a declaration about just how bad they are.
The first failure of shirts of this type is that they are born out of defensiveness. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and based on rivalry, some Yankee fans feel they need to make a response. No verbal or graphic response is sufficient compared to what is won and lost on the ballfield. This is a lame attempt to make Red Sox fans feel bad. It doesn’t work, and getting defensive makes you look bad.
Gloating over 26 world titles doesn’t work anymore, either. It’s no less impressive a feat, it’s just that it only works to anger Red Sox fans in context of The Curse. Part of The Curse is that “the Yankees always win.” That’s not true any more. I was six years old when the Yankees won the World Series in 1978. I don’t remember it. Outside of The Curse, it makes no sense for me to gloat about victories that I never experienced and that never really gave me joy on any personal level.
What makes the fact that someone would wear this shirt even more appalling is the way the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. It required the single-greatest collapse in the history of professional sports by the Yankees themselves! You’re going to wear a shirt to make it all better, sweetie?
We have a mixed marriage in my family and we were all together for a baby shower last summer. I told my cousin’s father-in-law that since The Curse was over, the fun was gone for me. I knew since Boston won it all I couldn’t possibly say anything about the Yankees or the Sox that would bother him ever again, or at least bother him in the same way as it did when he was a cursed and tormented soul.
The Red Sox and the Yankees have been evenly matched for many years now. It seemed that Boston never won because they never really could. They weren’t supposed to. Now that there is no Curse, I’ve lost the superiority I had as a Yankee fan. The Sox have just as much a chance to win now as the Yankees do. It's been over two years, so let's face it.
The first failure of shirts of this type is that they are born out of defensiveness. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and based on rivalry, some Yankee fans feel they need to make a response. No verbal or graphic response is sufficient compared to what is won and lost on the ballfield. This is a lame attempt to make Red Sox fans feel bad. It doesn’t work, and getting defensive makes you look bad.
Gloating over 26 world titles doesn’t work anymore, either. It’s no less impressive a feat, it’s just that it only works to anger Red Sox fans in context of The Curse. Part of The Curse is that “the Yankees always win.” That’s not true any more. I was six years old when the Yankees won the World Series in 1978. I don’t remember it. Outside of The Curse, it makes no sense for me to gloat about victories that I never experienced and that never really gave me joy on any personal level.
What makes the fact that someone would wear this shirt even more appalling is the way the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. It required the single-greatest collapse in the history of professional sports by the Yankees themselves! You’re going to wear a shirt to make it all better, sweetie?
We have a mixed marriage in my family and we were all together for a baby shower last summer. I told my cousin’s father-in-law that since The Curse was over, the fun was gone for me. I knew since Boston won it all I couldn’t possibly say anything about the Yankees or the Sox that would bother him ever again, or at least bother him in the same way as it did when he was a cursed and tormented soul.
The Red Sox and the Yankees have been evenly matched for many years now. It seemed that Boston never won because they never really could. They weren’t supposed to. Now that there is no Curse, I’ve lost the superiority I had as a Yankee fan. The Sox have just as much a chance to win now as the Yankees do. It's been over two years, so let's face it.
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