It was 20 years ago this month when the Boston Red Sox were able to send home the New York Yankees in one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. After years of trying to defeat the Yanks, this deep-seated despisal for the opposing team goes back decades. If you aren’t familiar with a fan from either franchise, nothing can degrade the loyalty each city has to its team, nothing.
So, what fan base roots for any team to beat the New York Yankees in the playoffs? That’s right, Red Sox Nation will do anything not to see its biggest rival advance. With Game 1 of the American League Championship Series underway on Monday, the fans and players loyal to Boston will be on their couches rooting for, you guessed it, the Cleveland Guardians.
BoSox Fans Never Jump Ship
Just like that, Boston’s best coping tool for no playoff contention is taking every ounce of dismay and using everything they have to simply will the Yankees out of the playoffs. Boston and Red Sox Nation is in a league of their own with some of the most loyal and tough to deal with fans. Boston Red Sox fans will do just about anything to see their team succeed. Well with this season’s tragic outcome of a .500 season and no playoff position, Boston fans need somewhere to put their disappointment.
They all know and have known for years, that the best place to put that animosity of another season’s defeats is right on the back of the New York Yankees. Red Sox Nation will never be disloyal to their home team, but what they will do as a collective group is cheer for anyone to send the Yankees packing up for the rest of 2024. This week, it happens to be Terry Francona’s old home, the Cleveland Guardians.
New York matches up with Cleveland this week for the American League Championship Series (ALCS), best out of seven games. Both ALCS and NLCS are played in a 2-3-2 format where games 1, 2, 6, and 7 are played in the ballpark that has home-field advantage and the remaining games are played in the ballpark with the team that falls second best. Game 1 of the ALCS starts in New York on Monday.
The Underdog Is the Heart Of Red Sox Nation
Rooting for the underdogs is a well-known feeling for those Red Sox fans who have been a part of the “curse of the Bambino” until everything changed exactly twenty years ago for the franchise with their first World Series win in 86 years. Before that, it felt like a large part of the 1990s was about being destroyed in the playoffs by the New York Yankees, as the tension grew over the years the angst for opposing teams grew. You would be shunned by your family, friends, and co-workers if you happened to live in one area but openly were a fan of the competition.
The New York Yankee and Boston Red Sox rivalry is considered one of the best in all of sports history, so it is only fitting that all of Red Sox Nation will be rooting for the Guardians to take home the ALCS. With the Yankees having the better record and home-field advantage overall, they have the upper hand.
Stranger things have happened in the playoffs as we saw 20 years ago, Boston was down three games in the ALCS against the Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox were nervous. With one of the greatest sports comebacks of all time, the Boston Red Sox won the ALCS sending the Yankees home and retaining the World Series in 2004.
Boston Red Sox Cheer On Cleveland Crushes
From the barstools, couches, and homes of Boston this week Red Sox Nation will rally around Terry Francona’s former team, Cleveland. They will be cheering for the team that, statistics say, is not the one favored to win so the New York Yankees can end their 2024 season.
Somehow Boston Red Sox fans tend to find the dark horse in the race against the Yankees and hope for the best-case scenario. Needless to say, there will be tough competition next year in the American League, but that is not what this week is about for Boston Red Sox fans. It is about one thing: Knocking out the New York Yankees this October and since the Boston Red Sox can’t do it, you better believe they will be hoping someone else’s will.
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