Now here is something you don’t see every day: a Boston area car owner with enough respect for the Yankees to put their symbol on the back windshield. I don’t want to think what would happen to this car if it was ever discovered by inebriated Red Sox fans.
Should have rear-ended him!
Think that’s bad for sports fanaticism? Consider the Constantinople Nika Riots in AD 532, with such violence between the Blue & Green chariot-racing team fans that Emperor Justinian called on imperial troops to restore order. Now more than just sports was at issue there, but not even Brit footie hooligans required those measures.
Then there was the 1969 Football War between Honduras & El Salvador. All in all, there are worse places than America for this problem.
Ah, the Football War. The last time that piston powered fighter aircraft engaged in combat. Honduran Major Soto shot down 3 Mustangs and Corsairs, about 9 million worth of collectible aircraft in today’s pricing…
Boston U. student from Jersey, in Mommy’s hand-me-down Honda is my guess.
The worst of the Fenway bleacher thugs have been priced out of the joint for years now. Drunk clowns in the street, though, who knows.
That’s my theory as to why Disney theme parks are so expensive: high gate prices keep out the riff-raff.
I see a lot of corner-damage on bumpers these days. Maybe it’s the lousy rear visibility.
BTW, here in AZ, it’s UofA vs. the ASU “Scum” Devils. During jury selection, we were actually asked if we would deprecate the testimony of an ASU grad here in Tucson. Not caring a whit for university chauvinism, I was dumbfounded.
or more likely a Yankee’s fan who lives in MA.
I had thought American sport was free of the hooligan element that used to infest British sport especially soccer.
The only thing that would be worse is a sticker that says “Boston S**ks” which used to be a favorite chant at the old Yankee Stadium.
There is no such thing as a “back windshield”.
It is a “backlite”. It is not a “windshield” because only to the front of the car is there ever any wind to shield the driver from. The glass in the rear does not shield the driver from the air that would hit the driver’s face when the car is moving ahead. The English description of the “windshield” is the “windscreen” – a word which also makes clear the purpose of putting a piece of glass in front of the driver.
According to Safelite Auto Glass, it is called the rear (or back, same thing) windshield. There are lots of names for parts of a vehicle. I think everyone understood what Edward meant anyway.
Here’s the link if you still don’t believe me:
https://www.safelite.com/auto-glass-repair-replacement/rear-windshield/rear-windshield-replacement/
Dude lighten up. There are a ton of things folk identify differently. Motor is electric, engine usually has pistons, nobody jumps down one throat for simple misidentification.
Hmmm…Judging by the left rear bumper end cap, or the lack thereof, a Boston fan already found them.
I don’t get it.
Must be one of those regional things.
Sort of reminds me of a family reunion I attended last week…a cousin who lives in Andover showed up in a Yankees ball cap.
I kept thinking, “Man, he must have cast iron cojones to wear that within 50 miles of Fenway…”
Says less about his stones than about the kind of environment Boston has become. Or most major Eastern cities; and a few West Coast environs.
In this day and age, you risk a lot putting a sticker or stick-on that other people may take umbrage at. And the list of those things that’re “offensive” is getting longer and longer. Political bumper stickers? Keep them off. Sports teams? Be sure you’re never in rival team territory. Even college window stick-ons are an invitation to trouble; don’t take a car with that big “M” into Columbus. Not unless you like replacing car windows.
What it says, in the end, is that we’re in serious danger of degenerating into chaos. When a statement that someone else enjoys some things different than the touchy-types do; or has a different viewpoint….is seen as a rationale to destruction of property…we’re in a bad way.
FWIW, I keep my car as bland as possible. No team, school or affiliation stickers on it.
What it says, actually, is that we’re in serious danger of losing our freedom of speech. Little by little it goes. How very sad.
Well, it’s not exactly a maize “M” sticker in Columbus, OH, though…
I am always surprised by how many people I see displaying Yankees paraphenelia where I live, about 40 miles outside of Boston. There’s no doubt that the Red Sox are by far the #1 team locally, but there is a significant minority of Yankees fans here as well, and they’re not afraid to show their allegiance publicly. A few years ago I actually attended a wake in which the deceased, a lifelong resident of Worcester, was buried with a Yankees cap in his casket. A few ugly incidents aside, I think the idea that there are no Yankees fans here, or that they all keep themselves hidden under fear of persecution, is a myth.
What’s really interesting is that I grew up here and don’t remember seeing nearly as much Yankees stuff when I was a kid. One possibility is that I was just obvlious to it; it’s also worth noting that the small Central Mass. town where I spent most of my upbringing was a very homogenous and insular place. Some other possibilities:
–The advent of cable TV and the internet has made it easier for people to follow out-of-town teams, and they no longer feel as compelled to follow the local one. If you’re picking a team and don’t feel constrained by geography, the Yankees might make an attractive choice.
–The advent of cable TV and the internet has allowed people who already followed the Yankees to realize how large of a community they are, and to stay better connected to each other and to fans of their team elsewhere.
–Transplants from outside the area have brought an allegiance to the Yankees here with them (e.g., college students from NY/NJ who settled here permanently, Latino immigrants).
–People got fed up with the Red Sox’ former futility when it came to winning the World Series, and decided to back a winner instead. (I know a guy who grew up in RI and now lives in MA who is a rabid fan of the Boston teams in all sports except baseball, where the Yankees are his team. At some point back in the late ’70s/early ’80s, he just gave up on the Red Sox and decided to follow a team that he saw as having an actual shot at winning a World Series.)
–Younger fans, especially blacks and Latinos, saw the Red Sox as an uncool/conservative/unfriendly organization, and gravitated to the Yankees as a team in which they saw none of those things. (Like the last point, probably more of an issue in the past than today, but people may have crossed over 20 years ago and never come back.)
I’m a Mets fan. How are Mets fans treated in Boston? Do they exist?
My roommate and I were coming back from a bar one night during the 2007 playoffs. Some drunken fratboy was walking the other way going on and on about the New York Yankees and how the great they were. I don’t know who he was talking to, his buddy, me and my friend, or the night sky, I guess it doesn’t matter.
This was right after the infamous “Bug Game,” in which insects swarmed the mound and Joba blew a save against the Indians. Despite being a Reds fan, I couldn’t resist opportunity to tweak a fanboy. After he passed by, I turned around and shouted “Go Tribe!”
I’ll never forget the response as long as I live. This guy stops dead in his tracks, thinks for a second and says “It’s a good thing you’re not black or I’d kick your a**!”
That clown was lucky there weren’t any black guys within earshot when he said that. Reminded me of that scene in the Kentucky Fried Movie where the daredevil runs up to a group of blacks, shouts the N-word and runs off. I laughed the rest of the way home.
Sports fans. I just read a story today where a referee stabbed a player during a soccer match in Brazil. The fans then stoned the ref to death before drawing and decapitating him.
Oh, yeah, cars. I’ve had sports/college stuff on my car, but the teams are usually so crappy it hasn’t been a problem. I once made the mistake of displaying a bumper sticker for a certain widely-despised past president. His re-election cost me a set of taillights. I no longer use personal property to advertise my political views.