SEPTEMBER
25, 2004 --
It
is old (baseball) hat that the Boston Red Sox are subject to "The
Curse of the Bambino" -- a reference to Babe Ruth, sold to
the Yankees, after the Red Sox won the World Series in 1918.
Certainly with reference to the Yankees loss in the World Series to the Florida
Marlins, in six games, it is time to reflect that the Yankees have become subject
to a Red Sox rivalry curse.
After the Yankees defeated the Red Sox in the American League Champion Series,
last October, this writer traveled to Yankee Stadium, and found, en route,
fans in the streets acting as if their team had just won the world championship,
not merely the ALCS.
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The
various team flags flying high above Yankee Stadium.
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But the ALCS is
merely the required step in the direction of the World Series championship.
Post-season Yankee
play instructs, LPR advises, that if all effort and emotion is expended on the
league championship, defeat in the World Series is highly likely. And Yankee
fans,
too, might keep their emotions in check until another World Series championship
has been won by their team.
This lesson might be noted by Yankee players here pictured as they walked into
Yankee Stadium for the September 19 game against the Red Sox, won quite handily
by the Yankees.
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Johnny
Damon of the Red Sox outside Yankee Stadium on September
19.
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LPR hopes to be
at the Stadium, viewing outside the playoffs, for more photos of Yankees
-- and Red Sox like Johnny Damon, also pictured here. (There is no
indication that the bag from the Brinks truck at Yankee Stadium, September 20,
was going to any specific player.)
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Brinks
arrives at Yankee Stadium, September 20.
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Hideki
Matsui outside Yankee Stadium on September 19.
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Derek
Jeter followed by Ruben Sierra.
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Orlando
Hernandez, also known as El Duque, before the game on September
19.
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Jorge
Posada waving to the fans, also on September 19.
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The September 19
game was visited by at least two foreign dignitaries -- the President
of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, pictured here, and the Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi -- not
pictured, as LPR was pushed far back when he arrived -- leaving LPR to wonder
why the Guatemalan leader did not merit people getting pushed away from him,
too.
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Guatemala
President Oscar Berger on his cell phone outside the Yankee
Stadium press gate, September 19.
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Officials
from Qatar, with State Department aides, September 20.
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Next day, however,
LPR got a photograph of officials from Qatar, in front of the press
gate, joined by State Department officials and the captain of the NYPD
precinct at Yankee Stadium. (A short time later, LPR
was asked to take a group photo of the Qatar visitors and the State Department
aides.)
LPR also learned, September 20, that the New York Post and the Daily News dispatched
reporters to be on hand to greet the arrival of Yankee owner George
Steinbrenner, in case he had something to say. Having gotten a photo of Mr. Steinbrenner
the previous day, LPR left before his arrival to get the Qatar group
photo developed.
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George
Steinbrenner entering Yankee Stadium on September 19.
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The day before,
LPR noticed a bad traffic jam near the Stadium as the game with the
Red Sox was getting underway. LPR also noticed that people with orange
vests were apparently counting the number of vehicles in the area as
game time neared.
Something seems to be going on.
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Traffic
near Yankee Stadium as the game between Yankees and Red
Sox gets underway, September 19.
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Person
counting vehicles, apparently, near Yankee Stadium, September
19.
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Research to support
claims that traffic
near the Stadium is too heavy and a new ballpark must be built? But what about
all the traffic enforcment people. Couldn't they help ease traffic flow at game
time? Or they are needed only to serve summonses and raise great sums of money
for NYC -- in the name of ... substantial injustice?
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