Hank Steinbrenner: the gift that keeps on giving

So this morning I supplemented my partial season ticket plan by purchasing tickets to the first Yankees/Red Sox series of the season at The Stadium, and to be honest, I was kinda pissed I had to do this. Back in the day, the Saturday Plan (basically tickets to every Saturday home game, minus Old Timer’s Day) came with a bunch of perks: the option to keep the same seats for the playoffs, the ability to get tickets for either Opening Day or Old Timer’s Day, and a crapload of games against the Red Sox. Now? They give you a game against the Sox, one against the Mets, and then jack sh*t. And I’m sorry, but one game against the Sox just ain’t gonna cut it.

Fuming after the cost of my tier reserved seats easily soared into triple-digits, I needed something to cheer me up, something to let me know that the 2008 season was going to be different– that the Yankees would do everything in their power to visit pain and sorrow upon Boston like the Giants did in Super Bowl XLII. Well, after Hank Steinbrenner’s latest verbal grenade, I’m feeling a whole lot better about things: Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans. Go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.

A lot of people are going to paint this as another example of Hank putting his foot in his mouth, but honestly, isn’t it about time someone said something like this? Ever since they laid down like dogs in ‘04, the Yanks have been playing the “We’re better than that card,” refusing to say anything even remotely controversial about the BoSux. Well, losing gracefully is for Pop Warner scrubs and not the team that has baseball’s highest payroll with nothing to show for it since 2000. And kudos to Hank for calling a spade a spade. ESPN’s been stockpiling its ranks almost exclusively with New Englanders– where every kid north of Hartford must worship the Boston “B” or risk being sacrificed at the altar of Red Sox Nation. Goodness though, it’s only spring training! You’d have to think the regular season trash-talk will go up a few notches, no? I dunno if anything can top Hank dropping a humongous deuce on Sux Nation, but if this is a sign of things to come, then at the very least we’re all in store for an entertaining ‘08.