Chew on this one, Boston

October 30, 2007 by Benjamin Kabak 20 Comments

No team has ever paid more for a World Series championship trophy than the 2007 Boston Red Sox did. They had an opening day payroll of over $143 million, nearly $30 million more than the Mets. The Red Sox broke their own record in this department that they sent in 2004. So the next time should Sox fan whines about the rich Yankees and claims the Sox are scrappy underdogs who don’t buy trophies, punch them. Or direct them here.

http://breakingballs.riveraveblues.com Caleb

In related news, no team paid more to fail to win a pennant than this year’s Yankees, paying $190 million pre-tax to break their own records set last year, the year before that and the year before that one. In 2003, they set the record for highest payroll to lose a world series at $164 million.
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Ben K.
  
  No one’s debating that point. Leave it to a Red Sox fan to change the tenor of the debate. Pay attention to the overly rich team behind the curtain.
Marsha

The Red Sox should just admit that their big payroll bought the pennant. I know it’s been said, but it’s worth repeating that only 7 players on the 2004 team were here to win their second rings.
wayne’s world

http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30C17F93D5C167493C0A8178BD95F438785F9
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Ben K.
  
  And that, folks, is a letter my dad wrote in the 1970s. Scroll down after you open the PDF.
  - Marsha
    
    Before you were even born. And I guess not much has changed in the last 30 years.
RZG

Who’s going to fall for that? Which team has spent more than $143 million in more than one year and didn’t even make it to the Series? That’s falling into “Was Watching” territory.

You have to have a better comeback than that in you.
deadrody

No, no, Ben, that’s not it. Leave it to a giant LOSER Red Sox fan to comment on a Yankee fan blog. The very definition of PATHETIC. Only made worse by the fact that instead of celebrating a WS victory, he is here, commenting on Yankees related news.
RZG

I’m a Yankee fan and I think Ben’s retort is ridiculous. It sounds like he’s at the playground and after he loses he goes “Oh, yeah? You dress funny.”

Is an arrogant Yankee fan any worse than an arrogant Red Sox fan?
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Ben K.
  
  The sense of humor around here is rather lacking today :)
  
  That is, after all, Caleb from our sister site. I’m just ribbin’ him.
http://yankeesetc.blogspot.com/ Travis G.

but their still scrappy, right?… and lovable… and underdogs… like always. please say they are… aren’t they?…
deadrody

Well, there is a FRONT PAGE story in the Boston Globe today about a reporter they sent – in full Red Sox fan regalia – to NY, to the Bronx to get Yankee fan reaction to the Sox winning.

Does ANYONE here think that line of thinking would even come up when the Yankees win ?

And, sorry if I’m not privy to the inner workings of Yankees vs. Sox fan blog ball busting. I’ve seen many pathetic Sox fans trolling the comment sections of Yankee fan blogs. It is apparently quite an epidemic.

PS, the answer to the question is NO. The yankees do not define themselves through the Red Sox. The opposite is clearly, 100% true.
- Victoria
  
  The reason a Boston reporter would go down to New York to get fan reaction is that it’s still relatively not commonplace for the Red Sox to win the W.S., a novelty if you will. By that same token, the reason that, as you point out, a New York reporter wouldn’t come up here to Boston to get fan reaction is that it’s not (at least in the overall scheme of things) such an out-there event. I’m not trying to do the equivalent of starting a 1918 chant; I’m just pointing out the reason for something you’re inaccurately criticizing.
Victoria

To respond to the greater point, I think what Ben is saying is not that the Yankees don’t also have an extremely high payroll, but as I say to my many friends who are Red Sox fans here, it’s no longer legitimate to use that point in a Red Sox-Yankees debate, because both teams’ payrolls have skyrocketed and are not significantly different from each other. It’s a nuanced point, and it really has nothing to do with playground-style whining about the Red Sox’ winning the World Championship; it’s just that Red Sox fans continue to use that as an argument against the Yankees, but it is, at this point, invalid at least coming from their mouths.
- Marsha
  
  That’s what I said above, just not as eloquently. Plus being in NYC as opposed to Boston, I am not surrounded by Yankee-hating Red Sox fans who judge themselves by all things Yankee.
http://mybaseballbias.com JMM

Larry Lucchino:

“We aren’t the New York Yankees — the old Yankees, anybody’s Yankees,” Lucchino declared. “We’re different from your father or your grandfather’s Red Sox.”

“But we ain’t trying to be no Yankees.”

Master of the English language!
beantownbosoxh8er

The way I see it is that they in all reality spent $200 mil.
the posting fee no matter how you slice it is money spent towards this team. $143m + 6mil(gagne)+ posting 51mil=$200mil.

And living here I can say without a doubt the Sox need to measure themselves against the yankees. The rivalry was a farse it was jealousy on their part and it is showing now. Like a jilted old girlfriend that has to come flaunt their new boyfriend in a desperate attempt to make us jealous.
They as a whole Hate the Yankees more then they love their own team. Pathetic.
- http://yankeesetc.blogspot.com/ Travis G.
  
  i’ve been saying that since i went to college in Boston. sawx fans would rather the Yanks lose than the Sox win. they never admitted it but that’s the vibe i always got.
http://jeteupthemiddle.blogspot.com Jeteupthemiddle

Weren’t the 2006 Red Sox the team with the highest payroll to not even make the playoffs?
- Andrew
  
  Yes, but no one ever mentions that. Apparently in Red Sox land it’s “World Series or bust”.