"Haterade"

     Sports tends to bring out the Haters in all of us.  People will say they hate the Red Sox or more commonly hate the Yankees, hell there is even a whole bunch of Yankeehater websites. This one lets you post your reasons why you hate the Yankees. 

    

   Alex Rodriguez may possibly be the most hated person in the M.L.B. right now. Actually, that is an understatement, A-Rod is the most hated person in baseball right now, possibly one of the most hated ball players ever.  If you do not hate Rodriguez you are not going with the the majority of baseball fans right now. 

    The NY Times recently did an article on the hatred towards Alex Rodriguez that I found pretty interesting.  Hating a player can be viewed as a sign of respect in some ways.  

    If a talented player on the opposing team consistently performs well, as a fan you might be obliged to hate them, if not definitely root against them.  There is a hint of envy when a Red Sox fan bashes A-Rod, or a Patriots fan will talk trash about Peyton Manning. 

   For several years the focus of my Red Sox hatred was directed at Curt Schilling. Since he has retired from baseball that has cooled a bit, but Schilling being Schilling he does not like to be out of the media spotlight for too long, and will run his mouth from time to time. 

   I had planned on listing the reasons why I hate(ed) Schilling, but have decided against it.  I found a list that does a good job of conveying my opinions so I will just link up that. 

  

 

Riding the Rivalry Returns....Again

As we speak the Old Yankee Stadium is being torn down and making way for NYC park space.  The times they are a changing...

So there will be a 2010 edition of Riding the Rivalry.   This year there will be featuring some new and returning faces to the Baseball Odyssey.  Personal Statements of the Riders will follow soon.

The plan, and remember with us nothing but our goal is set in stone.

July 31st will be the Departure Date from Yankee Stadium

August 7th: Arrival Date at Fenway Park.

I am well aware that the Yankees are playing the Sox at Yankee Stadium when we will be in Boston but, that is how the cookie crumbles.

Wish us luck

~ Johnny

Boycotting Dunkin Donuts

     Saying that people are pretty crazy when it comes to their coffee is an understatement. People are dedicated to a certain brand, and want their coffee just the way they want it.  It used to annoy me being stuck behind a person in Dunkin Donuts who wanted a half decaf/half French Vanilla Iced Coffee with a Splenda.  I would just think, "really".  

    Who the hell am I to judge a person on how they want their coffee?  If they want a Hazenut with breast milk, give it to them.  There are not to many places where a person can get exactly what they want for $2.75.

     My sudden enlightenment aside, I am going to be boycotting Dunkin Donuts for awhile.  I am a Dunkins fan, something that coffee aficionados have and will continue to judge me for.  However, I can not walk around with an Iced Coffee that looks like this:

I can not go through with it.  I bought one yesterday on my way to get some school work done.  The weather was nice, I had the windows down on the ride, a little sample of what summer was going to be like.  Get my Blice (black,iced) French Vanilla and as I am leaving the store, I encounter some former students of mind who are also enjoying April vacation.  One of them commented on my sox apparel, and I died a little bit.  Why is there no Yankee equivalent of the Red Sox cup?  Who knows?  There will be plenty of Starbucks for me this summer. 

"Well what are you doing out here?! Get the F in there!"

  I went down to Kenmore Square with $100 and a dream. I was about a week late, and a couple of hundred short.

    In the limited experiences that I have had around Fenway on game day there never seemed to be a shortage of scalpers hawking their tickets around the ball field.  I have seen them outside of Copperfields and right when you get off of the T @ Kenmore.  However, that was not the case on Sunday night. 

    Maybe I should not have been so naive and believed all those reports that the game was not even sold out.  The rumors of tickets available at face value was just too good not to believe.  My greed got the best of me.  

  Tim and I walked around Fenway Park while the game went on.  We did so many laps, that one of the sausage and peppers vendors recognized us.  He told us that he was able to get tickets for $25 last week no problem.  Tonight he heard that they were selling bleacher seats for $400.     We saw one scalper, and he was offering his one bleacher seat for $200.  At that point, it was already the 4th inning.  

It was nice to be down there though, despite the frustration.  The weather was warm, and plenty of people there had spent the weekend out in the sun.  The first sun burn of 2010 was accompanied by Opening Day, baseball was officially back.

   The bars outside Fenway were packed, with people waiting over 45 minutes to watch the game on a flat screen T.V. and pay way too much for a draft beer.  I forgot about the Drunken shuffle that is only heightened by sandals.  There were a few of girls shuffling on Lansdowne Street, that broke out the summer dresses before they lose the winter lbs.   

A man who could have passed as C.C.'s twin brother was leaning against a lamp post on the corner of Lansdowne.  He was wearing his Yankee gear and had the swagger to go with it.  He asked if I was waiting to get in to the Cask n Flagon.  When I told him that I was trying to get tickets for the game he looked me up and down and gave a little pep talk that is the title of the blog. 

         Taking my hefty African Tony Robbins' advice I soldiered on with Tim for another lap that was as fruitless as the previous two.  I had enough and headed back to the T feeling like I wasted a good amount of my evening.

The Yanks lost, so maybe it wasn't a complete waste.  It spared me having to endure the taunts of Red Sox fans while leaving Fenway Park.  Which, by the way I did not experience while I was walking around during the game.  Nobody bothered me or said anything to me while I looked for tickets.  Maybe the rivalry is fading a bit?  Or is it too early in the season to be angry?

Monday morning, one of my least favorite students and I had an exchange:

L.F.S.: "so, you ah enjoy that game last night?"

me: "I did. I fell asleep when the Yankees were winning."

L.F.S.: "well, we won."

me: "we?  I didn't see any 4 foot 9 Asian ball players. Who is we?"

I can't just inspire kids, I'm sorry

Play Ball!

After hearing reports and rumors that tonight's Opening Day was not sold out, I made up my mind that I was going to to the game.

So, in less than one hour I will take the 10 min T Ride to Kenmore and attempt to get scalped tickets. If all goes well, I will be crashing Opening Day.