Do you collect players you don't like?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by packs

I think the rivalry has died down but I mostly blame the new Yankee Stadium for it. I find the new stadium to be sterile and dull in how it's laid out. Old Yankee Stadium shook and you were hung over the field in the upper deck. Everyone on top of each other. The old no man's land that the bleachers used to be for visiting fans. One time I saw a guy get his hat set on fire out there during a play off game.

But new Yankee stadium feels like you're sitting in a mall. Makes it hard to get fired up.

Interesting take on things.

Another part of it may be the teams being more aggressive about keeping the fans in line. Not that that's bad, things are more family friendly, and more welcoming to people who paid up for a ticket instead of some people who only had a buck or two into a bleacher seat. Things could get "interesting" back in the late 70's early 80's at Fenway.
Like someone threatening a guy with a Mets hat.. (Pre-86)
Take that thing off or else!
But it's the Mets?!
I don't care, it says NY so lose it!

Or a couple people carrying a Yankees sign painted on a sheet around the aisle between what was then the upper box seats and grandstand. Someone while still seated, reached up with both hands, grabbed the top and yanked down tearing it in to three parts.

Today, both would be ejections, the last for sure, the hat one maybe just a stern warning.

And I've seen pics of the bleachers in the 60's, a crazy anything goes party like scene. One showed a guy who brought a cooler full of spaghetti and was giving it out.

A local rivalry, made a bit wilder, by some angst. The Sox weren't a bad team in the 50's, but weren't good enough. That lasted till 67, and since then both teams were contenders. A couple decades of coming in just behind the rival team will always heat things up a bit.
And some of the players did stuff that added fuel to that. Like Mickey Rivers hitting Bill Lee from behind... Made it easy to dislike "them"

2004 changed a lot. No longer second, and no team simply forgetting to play in August...
That calmed things down a lot.

But historically, the two teams are so intertwined with each other it's hard to really hate them.