Posted on 08/25/2005 10:30:21 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Forget about strutting around in that ``Yankees Suck'' T-shirt next time you head over to Fenway Park to diss the Bronx Bombers.
In a bid to restrain some of Red Sox Nation's more unruly fans, the Sox have begun a quiet policy of effectively barring display of the blunt T-shirts inside Fenway.
Sox officials are strongly urging fans who show up with ``Yankees Suck'' shirts to turn them inside out. While declining to call it an outright ban, team communications chief Charles Steinberg claimed there have been no incidents where fans refused the team's request.
Team executives rolled out the T-shirt policy, first reported on Boston magazine's Web site, after hearing numerous complaints last season about the off-color put-down of the Yankees, Steinberg said.
The shirts themselves are sold before games by independent vendors hawking their wares on the streets around the ballpark.
``We are determined to keep Fenway a place where families feel comfortable,'' Steinberg said.
In fact, team officials have been frustrated enough to even muse among themselves about tamer put-downs fans could use, he said.
But Sox executives have stopped short of selling alternative T-shirts or offering official, sanitized chants.
``That would reek of some phony, synthetic corporate construction and would be rejected, as perhaps it should be,'' Steinberg said.
Still, the Sox may be on solid legal ground when it comes to forcing fans to cover up ``Yankees Suck'' T-shirts, according to one local legal expert.
Several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have upheld the right of private business and property owners to restrict offensive messages or speech, said Andrew Glincher, head of Nixon Peabody's Boston office.
And the move may strike a sympathetic chord among fans fed up with unruly behavior in the stands. ``I can't say it upsets me terribly,'' said Michael Rutstein, publisher of Boston Baseball and a frequent critic of the Sox owners. ``Some people are willing to draw a line at some point, and I guess I am one of them.''
I just came back and re-read my post. Let me explain something. I like our young pitchers, but why are we bringing them in with 40 left, heading into Oct. expecting them to perform at playoff caliber?
(so I guess I'm not done:)
Of course those psycho lib places in VT would have Yankees stuff all over them.
All I know is that cross the lake over to Plattsburgh, Champlain and Chazy and you're in Sox territory. The ironic thing is, if you have DirecTV on the east side of the lake, you get NESN and the Sox, on the west side, you get YES and the Yanks.
Give the libs Alex "Slappy" Rodriguez any day. He runs like a girl, just like they do.
I prefer the "Yankees Suck. Jeter Swallows" version of the t-shirt myself.
Well, they do suck. A bunch of metrosexual pretty boys. In the case of Jeter and Rodriguez, I would say, FULL BLOWN GAY!
I hear ya, but what are we gonna do? Paps already hit his projected innings for the year. We can't rely on his fastball for 6 innings every 5th day heading into Oct. And I know we're all juiced up to see the Hansen kid, but that ain't gonna get it done at this time of year either.
Paps shoulda been with the big team after the first month of the season, he's 24. As far as I'm concerned, we better hope Shelled gets it together.
I just don't see this team as having the pitching this year...then again, neither do the yankees. In the NL you have Houston or St. Louis' top three which could pretty much shut anyone down. St. Louis' offense is better though.
I think the Angels have a good rotation but not the balanced line ups that the Yankees and Sox can throw at you. Chicago has good pitching but a line up without the OBP potential of the Sox and Yanks.
Agreed on all of that. Our lineup 1-9 is sick, when Tito "falls" into getting it right:) And that can overcome a lot, but playoff pitching at its best? I don't think so. We gonna need buckets of magic to repeat.
And do you know how much other front offices hate us? We've screwed a couple over and that is going to haunt us for a good bit of time.
I was 22, and old enough to see it as a replay of 1967.
How about "Yankees Yank"? :P
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