To The Front!

Q: How can you spot the Red Sox fans at Yankee Stadium?

A: They're the ones looking at the field.

Tonight I had the opportunity to participate in the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry for the first time in The House that Ruth Built, and the experience managed to disappoint me on a wide variety of levels.

I arrived at about 6:45 to my seats in the uppermost of upper decks in right field, just inside the foul pole. As the national anthem was played, the stadium was about half full - not just in my section but also throughout the entire lower bowl. I gave the fans the benefit of the doubt and sat down to score the game.

The Big Schill came out and looked like garbage even from five hundred feet away. I got the feeling we were in for a long day when Damon and Jeter started off the game seeing four balls in the first six pitches taken - Curt can't really "pitch to contact" if he can't find the strikezone - and Matsui cemented my fears with a home run that disappeared under my deck.

By eight o'clock, the place was packed and I had the distinct feeling this wasn't going to be our night. It was also around this time that the Yankee "faithful," who had now been "watching" the game for upwards of fifteen minutes, began finding other ways to amuse themselves. Whether this entailed taking pictures of themselves with their friends, talking on their cellphones to people sitting in other areas of the stadium, or responding like one of Skinner's pigeons to the awful noisemaking stimulators employed at ballparks with less saavy fanbases.

Another hugely annoying element of my seats (which weren't great but were by no means terrible) was the fact that the stadium provided almost no game information during play. Whereas Fenway provides the lineup on the Diamondvision in addition to several out of town scoreboards, batting statistic summaries, pitch counters and even pitch types, my vantage point at Yankee Stadium afforded me a view of the out-of-town scores and a "K Counter" (which was stuck at 1 for five innings; what a useful and informative tool). In an era where pitch counts are all-consuming, how can you not have one that is visible from anywhere in the stadium?

By nine o'clock, with the Yanks comfortably ahead by six runs, the fans at the Stadium seperated into two distinct groups: those who went home, and those who started or contributed to fights. It was during this period of the game where Ramirez doubled and was knocked in by Lowell, and I may have been the only person in my section who saw the sequence because there was apparently a much more interesting fight between a drunk guy wearing a Matsuzaka shirt and a drunk guy wearing a Munson shirt. Good times. I mean, its only a game featuring your most intense rival - why would you look at the field?

Now don't get me wrong - there were plenty of terribly embarassing Red Sox fans on display at the ballpark tonight as well. One of my biggest pet peeves regarding replica jerseys worn by fans that have last names on them when no names appear on the actual jerseys (this really only happens with Sox home jerseys and either Yankee jersey). Anyone who owns a #2 New York jersey with "Jeter" in arched lettering isn't really telling anyone they don't know, and those people with "Ortiz" across the back of a white #34 jersey are just as bad. In an case, the worst Sox perpetrator in my section was a skinny drunk obnoxious white kid wearing a home Sox #10 jersey with "Crisp" proudly displayed across the back.

What's the thought process there?

Anyways, this kid was gone long before the seventh inning stretch, and as the more obnoxious Sox fans were tossed out of the stadium, the ravenous Bronx denizens started heckling anyone wearing Sox paraphenalia in an attempt to rile them enough to get the boot. This was apparently more interesting than the actual "game" that I thought everyone had come to see.

By the bottom of the eighth inning, the stadium was three-quarters empty. I couldn't believe my eyes. The score was 7-3, and I could have walked down to seats in the first row on the field. There were so many empty seats in the lower bowl that I'm sure you could see it on TV. I turned to Jeff the Yankee Fan (thanks for the tix!) and said, "Is it always like this?" He frowned a little bit and nodded yes, sadly acknowledging that his fan base sucks.

Now I know its a Wednesday night - but its Sox/Yankees! There is absolutely no way Fenway clears out that significantly during a four-run contest, especially when the Sox are winning. I couldn't believe it.

So there you have it. Disappointing effort from the Olde Towne Team in what may be my only opportunity to see them live, disappointing effort from our rival's fanbase, and disappointing effort from Yankee Stadium itself.

And as I left and the chants of "Boston Sucks" poured down from the 15,000 or so hardy individuals who had managed to survive all nine grueling innings, I looked out towards center field where the pennants of all the American League teams are situated in an order corresponding with the current standings - and the red and blue "Boston" flag fluttered proudly at the far left of the display.

Can't get disappointed about that.