Yanks-Sox, Round 3

Here we go again.

Yanks-Sox, round 3 for 2009.

The two best records in the American League going head-to-head. The way it should be.

It never gets old.

Even with the Yankees appearing, on paper, to be an overfed brahma bull in a league of dairy cows, I'll pull for them. I think about those terrible Yankees teams of the 80's that the childhood Jason pulled for without question - collecting the baseball cards, studying the box scores, watching every game while doing homework. The investment of time paid off in the 90's with well-assembled and home-grown teams that captured the souls of Yankees fans everywhere.

Then the unbelievable happened. The Sox caught up and surpassed the Yankees in the 2000's.

I don't simply cheer the uniform, but rather root for the history, the tradition, and of course the $2,500 field box seats. Swallowing the Yankees present incarnation is the bitterest of pills. But I purchase a jar every March, and keep taking them until October.

Being a Yankees fan in New England does not make me universally popular. My friends who were raised in the area fully understand this rivalry and probably better understand my resistance to changing sides than my local friends who were raised elsewhere do.

The true fans are born into it and allow for fate to take them on the ride.

I am indeed a bit of a non-conformist. I'll gladly admit to that. I suppose if I lived in a National League city (Denver, San Fran, Milwaukee, wherever), I would probably cheer for the local team. Why not?

But being from New York, even years removed from truly living there, the Yankees are my team.

So here we go again, Sox-Yanks. Wouldn't have it any other way.