The September disintegration of the Red Sox has been horrible for Boston fans on several levels. There's the obvious downside: anxiety and panic. But even worse for Sox fans has been the idea that the Rays will play several of their final games against the Yankees, which means Yankees wins are unquestionably good things for the Red Sox. This is not very palatable. From the Boston Globe:
Do Red Sox Fans Have To Root For The Yankees?
Like worried Red Sox fans everywhere this month, Tom Chapman has watched in pain as the team became unglued and frittered away seemingly insurmountable leads. But even as a shot at the playoffs increasingly appears to depend on somebody stopping the hard-charging Tampa Bay Rays, he just cannot bring himself to root for the only team in a position to do it.
It’s a Sophie’s Choice, except not as frivolous as choosing between living children. Rooting for your hated rival to do well? It’s ... unthinkable.
So here are the options available to the Red Sox fan:
Rooting for the Yankees to win
Sox fans are rooting for the Rays to lose, right? The rooting for the Yankees to win is a technicality, a lawyer’s trick, right? They aren’t really rooting for the Yankees, just against the Rays.
There it is, though. Just hanging there. If the Rays load the bases against CC Sabathia in the second game of the double header, any Red Sox fans watching might have to for the Rays to fail. Which, by default, means they'll be rooting for Sabathia to succeed. The Red Sox fan could even say things like, "C'mon, CC. Let's get them, CC. Easy does it, CC," which might lead to nausea, heart palpitations, and that sickness in Airplane! where the passengers regurgitated fertilized bird eggs.
No. They can’t root for the Yankees to win.
Rooting for the Yankees to win, but only as several of their best players get injured
Nope. It’s never acceptable to root for an injury in sports. First of all, it’s sports. Perspective, please. Second, save those injurious wishes for the competitors on “Dancing With the Stars” that you don’t have money on. If Chynna Phillips were to slip on a ham sandwich while dancing, for example, that would be especially ironic, and it would help me hit that parlay in Week 5. That’s okay. Society understands that, certainly. Rooting for injuries in sports, though, is never okay.
Even if you think of comically amusing injuries -- Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez both getting braces on the same morning by coincidence, and then colliding on an infield pop-up, which causes their braces to lock together, and then when Johnny Damon tries to help, he gets his beard caught in the braces, and the ensuing carnage knocks everyone involved out for the year -- it's still not acceptable.
Rooting for the Yankees to win, but only before some sort of cosmic event happens at Yankee Stadium to make Yankees and Rays players leave baseball and follow a higher calling
It doesn’t have to be religious -- it could be a UFO landing, for example, or a Wyld Stallyns song that makes everyone realize that we should all just give in to love -- but something could happen that would make several Yankees and Rays go the way of Grant Desme. That’s not like rooting for an injury, especially since everybody involved would be more enlightened.
But that’s not especially likely. If you can’t suspend your disbelief, you’ll know you’re rooting for the Yankees on some unconscious level.
Ignoring the Rays/Yankees series entirely and just focusing on Red Sox games
Bingo. This is the only option. Pretend it's some post-apocalyptic wasteland where there are only two baseball teams remaining. If you're having trouble picturing a post-apocalyptic wasteland, don't forget that the Orioles are pitching every half-inning.
The Red Sox, for all of their struggles, all of their fears of collapsing, are still in charge. They just need to keep winning. Worrying about the Yankees’ help isn’t necessary just yet. If the Red Sox win, they make the playoffs without it.
If they slip behind the Rays, though, there’s that final series in Tampa between the Rays and Yankees to look forward to. At that point, the choice is unthinkable. Root for the Yankees, or stay strong and hope that the Yankees lose, which means the Red Sox would miss the playoffs -- a fate that would certainly amuse the Yankees and their fans, which sort of ruins the point of rooting against the Yankees in the first place.
At that point, the UFO thing is probably the way to go.
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