I’ve never completely understood how intensely Red Sox fans’ identity is bound up with hatred for another team. “The Red Sox hate the Yankees; the Yankees hate to lose!”

When I lived in DC, I used to hang out at a Capitol Hill sports bar near Union Station (Kelly’s Irish Times) that had one of the earliest sports packages that, in this case, featured regional New England teams, especially the Patriots. Unsurprisingly, it attracted a diverse group of New England expats of which I was the only one from Vermont. Once during a wide ranging conversation, I asked “if a genie were to grant you one of two wishes, which one would you take:?

Option 1: The Red Sox would always defeat the Yankees when playing each other but they would never win another World Series;

Option 2: The Red Sox would never defeat the Yankees when playing each other but they would win numerous World Series (say, one every few years) for perpetuity.

The literally pained expressions on their faces was amazing. They could not pick an option, while another patron (this one happened to be an Orioles fan) responded with incredulity “are you kidding ~ World Series, World Series, World Series!”

Oh well, another of life’s mysteries.