AVON, Conn. — Apples and oranges. Coke and Pepsi. Black and white. Day and night. Even and odd. On and off. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
Were I to drive either 111 miles southwest or 110 miles northeast, I would arrive at two key though contrasting locales, according to Google Maps because I believe all I read on Google in particular and the internet in general. So too are newspapers rife with thoroughly believable print.
Greetings from Central Connecticut, renowned as the battleground state of one of the best rivalries in sports, both professional and amateur. Heading southwest lands me at Yankee Stadium, home of the 27-time World Series Champion New York Yankees Baseball Club. Barreling northeast lands me at Fenway Park, home of the nine-time World Series Champion Boston Red Sox Baseball Club. A host of the past weekend’s family event is a Yankee fan who explained to me that central locality is largely why he chose living in this area.
At times at each others throats, both teams command fierce, fervid loyalties from the fandom with representation throughout the world. When considering the records of each team over the decades, another comparison, attributed to a long-time radio broadcaster, often is cited: the hammer and the nail.
And, according to the now-late Chuck Hinton, the Yankees brighten and bless every single place they set foot.
Having touted himself as the last 300-hitter to play for a professional baseball team in the nation’s capital, Hinton was kind enough to speak with me many years ago when I was writing a regional story for a now-defunct Maryland/Northern Virginia newspaper chain. My paper was The Prince George’s Journal and the chain, with publications in suburban DC counties, printed a Sunday story centering on topics pertinent to the regional readership.
And my assignment that go-round, which was late 2000/early 2001, was efforts to bring baseball back to the nation’s capital.
Hinton — who played several seasons for the Washington Senators, who left DC in 1960 — later in life was head coach of the Howard University baseball team. He was talking about what it was like being a pro athlete in DC, how supportive the city and region was of pro sports and the boon to regional economies when locales like restaurants and hotels are humming, noting the fan bases of each team will arrive in force for those establishments when their visiting squads square off against a team to relocate to Washington.
‘Everyone loves when the New York Yankees come to town’, Hinton told me, hardly expecting a rejoinder from a journalist who quietly listened intently and lapped up much of what the retired pro baseball player presented as part of a strong case as to why DC would support a team.
‘Boston Red Sox fans don’t!’ I immediately blurted, which implicitly told the man he unknowingly stepped into the smack-bang dead center of the rivalry.
At that point, he and I talked baseball, which entailed one of those fond occasions when I could put down my pen and pad to shoot the moon.
I mentioned to him that Roger Clemens, who pitched for the Red Sox for 12 years through 1996 before signing with the Toronto Blue Jays for two seasons, was making a comeback to greatness since signing with the Yankees in 1999. Hinton told me: ‘He never went away’, with the likelihood being high that neither of us knew Clemens would be implicated in baseball’s steroid scandal within years.
As the Yankees presently sit atop the American League East, another baseball guy I know from my reporting days is quite enthused.
Our paths crossed in 2002 when he was prosecuting and later won a conviction against an embezzler whose name happened to be ‘Henry’. Since then, the wise man will not stop prattling about how: ‘I’ll be dancing in October’, a reference to the Yankees winning another World Series.
So, while noting the Yankees have prevailed in a single, solitary Fall Classic in the 20 seasons since we met, some simple math reveals said wise man is batting .050, thanks to the 2009 World Series.
By contrast, had I opened my mouth and blustered like him, I’d be batting .200 given the Red Sox have won four times as many World Series during that time period — 2018, 2013, 2007 and 2004.
But, nonetheless, he still doesn’t get it.
With the Red Sox holding a 26-27 record this past Sunday, they occupied fourth place in the Al East. With that in mind, his bloviating continues.
‘Your season is still young. .500 is still a possibility’, he told me this past Friday, then advising Saturday as to whether I should drive southwest or northeast once the family function concludes. ‘When it ends, I’d drive to Yankee Stadium: you’d have a MUCH better time’.