It isn’t as if Red Sox fans don’t realize they shouldn’t throw stones and it isn’t as if Red Sox fans don’t realize that they have a long off-season ahead of them.  Red Sox fans know things will get tougher before they get better.  Their team collapsed in September, then the team’s manager walks away.  First base coach Ron Johnson has been let go as has staff asssistant Rob Leary, who had been with the team ten years.  The dismantling is begining. albeit slowly.  Red Sox fans know this is happening and are preparing accordingly.  But last night, for one glorious evening, they were allowed to forget about the ills of their own team and focus on reviling in a bit of schadenfreude.
The Detroit Tigers beating the New York Yankees in the final game of the five-game American League Division Series almost seemed like too much to ask. Â But somehow the Tigers pulled it off. Â The Yankees left 11 men on base in game five, loading the bases twice and leaving them loaded both times. Â The Tigers pitching held the vaunted Yankees defense to two runs and Jose Valverde, the closer for the Tigers, got out Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano in the 9th inning before striking Alex Rodriguez out with four pitches to end the game.
And when that happened, happiness for Red Sox fans followed.
Some this morning credited bitter Yankees fans with the onslaught of tweets that shut Twitter down for a few hours but a quick glance at tweets from last night tells a different story. Â It seems the only fans rooting for the Yankees to win were Yankees fans. The rest of the baseball-loving Twitter community was pulling for exactly what happened…a devastating Yankees loss.
The Yankees making an early exit from the playoffs doesn’t change the situation for the Red Sox and Sox fans know there is still much work to be done before Spring Training begins in February, but for a few hours last night (and most of today) Red Sox fans could put aside the worries about their own team and revel in the joy of sad Yankees fans leaving Yankee Stadium for the last time in 2011.
(Originally published on Examiner.com)