Most of the Yankees fans I know rooted for the Rays to win the World Series. That would be like me cheering for the Nationals if they clashed with the Red Sox in late October.
Maybe the Yankees fans I spoke to (who are also New York Giants fans) were already in NFL-mode and were taking their anti-Eagles sentiments out on the Phillies. Maybe the Rays’ jump from last place in 2007 to first place in 2008 was too much of a feel-good story to root against. Maybe they just liked the mohawks.
I understand that fans with no stake in a series are inclined to root for the underdog (the Rays were the underdog in terms of star-power and payroll), or for their team’s league, but shouldn’t there be an unwritten rule in the imaginary “Book of Fandom” that states that no fan shall, under any circumstances, root for a team in his/her team’s division, unless the outcome directly effects his/her team?
Sure, the 108-year Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is more than twice as old as the Mets-Phillies 47-year dispute that has heightened since Jimmy Rollins’ and Carlos Beltran’s tit-for-tat preseason guarantees, but that doesn’t mean that Yankees fans should forget about the other teams in the AL East.
It feels like not all that long ago the Mets’ most heated division rivalry came against the Braves. Today it is against the Phillies. This is not to say that the storied Yankees-Red Sox rivalry will fade if Boston is in last place and New York is battling Tampa for first, but a new rivalry may bud, and eventually blossom.
Where will that benevolence toward Tampa be when the Rays make their bid for the division again next year? At what point does the AL East stretch beyond Boston and New York to include Toronto, Baltimore and now, Tampa?
Yankees fans, the Rays are your enemies. They are one of the four teams that you should want to lose at all costs, unless their opponent is in the Wild Card race with the Yankees.
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