Can Boston and New York Fans Hate Each Other Again? (Can't we all just not get along?)

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Every so often, the eternally-at-odds cartoon animals Tom and Jerry, faced with some new and strange challenge, would put old grudges aside and join forces: there would be an exaggerated handshake, backed by a snippet of “Auld Lang Syne,” and the two would defeat their unexpected foe together. It was rare and thrilling—a clever right turn, a hopeful statement that even the bitterest of enemies can find common cause. Yet as fun as these moments of amity were, it was relief when, after the crisis had passed, either Tom or Jerry would get that devious glint in his eye, and the durable war between cat and mouse was resumed.

Last Tuesday, a day after the attack on the Boston Marathon, the New York Yankees extended an unusual branch of friendship to the Boston Red Sox, their rivals to the north. The Arizona Diamondbacks were in town, and both teams were observing a belated Jackie Robinson Day, but most everyone seemed to be thinking of Boston. On a large screen outside the stadium, the Yanks and Sox logos were shown on either side of the phrase “UNITED WE STAND.” There was a moment of silence before the game, and in the middle of the third inning, Neil Diamond’s song “Sweet Caroline” came on the public-address system—an homage to the Red Sox tradition of playing it in the eighth. It was a breezy early-season night in the Bronx; the stadium was about two-thirds full. A camera panned the crowd as the song played: it found a few fans in Sox gear; some in the stands sang along while others looked a bit bemused or faintly suspicious (or just cold). Video evidence aside, the moment will likely live on as the time that Yankee Stadium rose as one in solidarity with Boston—and a little bit of mythology in this case is just as well. The Yankees were classy all around on Tuesday, at a time in which even small gestures meant something real. The Red Sox noticed. All of us in Boston noticed. Even Neil Diamond noticed, tweeting: “Thank you NY Yankees for playing ‘Sweet Caroline’ for the people of Boston. You scored a home run in my heart. With respect, Neil #OneBoston.”

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The Yankees and Red Sox, cat and mouse (or mouse and cat, depending on your reading of history), had formed a mutual-appreciation society. And we Sox fans in Boston embraced it. After all those years of crowds assembling to chant “Yankees Suck” at baseball and non-baseball occasions alike, no one was going to step forward and tell the Yankees, in effect, thanks but no thanks.

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So I like to think that there were Yankees fans who squirmed just a little when they heard “Sweet Caroline” last week at the Stadium. And that somewhere in their inscrutable minds, some fans this past weekend looked upon the sights at Fenway Park—at David Ortiz skirting F.C.C. regulations in his fiery pregame speech, or Neil Diamond hopping onto the field to sing along with himself in the eighth, or the Sox coming from behind to win and “Dirty Water” blaring at the end—and felt a tinge of distaste, and maybe, for a second, smirked. If Boston fans can’t quite bring themselves to start hating New York fans, then perhaps we can do the next best thing, and goad New Yorkers into hating us again. Can’t we all just not get along?

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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/04/can-boston-and-new-york-fans-hate-each-other-again.html