John Henry has said before he wants to model his franchise on the New England Patriots, and it's safe to say he's got the "winning" aspect of it down. Well, last week gave him another opportunity to learn a lesson from the experience of the Pats, albeit this time a much less enjoyable one.
The newest Steinbrenner savant at the helm of the Yankees, Mr. Hankee (see: Joy of Sox, hee-hee) launched his latest salvo across the bow in the direction of The Hub and its' favorite sports team, the Red Sox:
Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans.
Go anywhere in America and you won't see Red Sox hats and jackets, you'll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We're going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.
So, according to Hank, the Red Sox and their now-huge international following are a sham as, apparently, are the organizations of, say, the Dodgers, Cubs, Indians...because it's "Yankee country," after all. Whatever. From what I've seen so far, Hank Steinbrenner is destined to be the next Gary Crosby, albeit probably less successful. And here is where the Patriots come in.
The Patriots, over the past seven years, have been the targets of some of the vilest, most personal vitriol hurled at any team since Duke, egged on by a co-dependent media thirsting for some reason to justify their own existence and swallowed whole by jealous fans of less successful teams. The Pats' MO has always been this: Don't take the bait. Brush it off. Joke about it if you have to, but DO NOT RESPOND IN KIND. The premise being, this is always driven by nothing more than petty jealousy-as is clearly the case in the Steinbrenner comments as well-and really not worth the effort it takes to reply. And up until last season, I would have urged the Sox to take the same tactic. Steinbrenner Redux is obviously a chip off the old block-which is to say he's a maggot-so why put any energy into a flame war with him, despite media attempts to pour gasoline on it?
I'll tell you why: Spygate. If you look at the actual facts surrounding Spygate, it's nothing more than an infraction of the rules as how signs are stolen whether than the fact that they are, and where the camera can be placed rather than the fact that it exists. They did nothing that broke federal law or for which you could send anybody to jail. Anybody actually connected to the day-to-day business of the NFL, from Jeff Fisher to Bill Polian to the Steelers organization, has said the penalty assessed on the Patriots was sufficient. But the story took a life of it's own primarily because of a vicious media smear campaign (actually, the acceleration of one that had been going on for a few years now), spearheaded by ESPN and a group of media organizations who have been seething for years because the Pats, and especially Belichick, wouldn't play the established game with them (in the political realm, Hillary Clinton has suffered the same way this primary season). In the case of the Boston Herald, the joie de vivre in which the smear was pursued may have led to actual libel. If Matt Walsh turns out to be an empty suit on this (which is looking more and more likely as he continues to hole up in Hawaii, requesting immunity even for lies), then John Tomase has a lot of 'splainin' to do, and to a Boston-based jury no less. I just hope Kraft has the balls to take these guys on.
Which brings me back to my original point: Spygate should have opened a few eyes around all the leagues as to the power of a media scorned to direct public perception and discourse, and the Red Sox-Boston-based, beneficiaries of two recent WS trophies and an admittedly sometimes annoying fanbase-are ripe as the next targets. How do you deflect it, then? You roll over and play the insipid game. It's just like politics. John Henry should now make some snide remark about Hank and the Yankees' $1 billion championship drought, and Theo Epstein should say the Yanks should worry more about their own dwindling influence on the game, not the Red Sox rise. Idiotic stuff like that. If that's what it takes to keep these people happy, and keep you on their good side, then so be it. In other words, you have to feed these morons (and the moronic readers who demand and thrive on it) nonstories to keep them from making up nonstories that are infinitely worse. If you're a sports fan, it's tough. Somewhere, buried underneath the serial perpetuation of the bleating of idiots like Hank Steinbrenner or the demonization of Bill Belichick, there is actual news that you might be interested in.
But good luck in finding it.
EDIT: John Henry is a genius. No wonder he's so effin' rich. Mr. Belichick, take note:
"I'm a big Hank fan," Henry said on Saturday. "Just to ensure he knows how cool Red Sox Nation is, today we officially inducted him as a member of Red Sox Nation and we are sending him his membership card, giving him access to an array of options, including our newsletter, bumper stickers, pins, Green Monster seats and a hat personally autographed by David Ortiz."
Henry 1, Steinbrenner 0.
To think part of me was sad to see old Georgie Porgie slipping into the shadows. Every great rivalry has a villain and Georgie fit the bill. I missed the "classic" George over the past few years. As sox fans we were robbed by the fact that the sox won two World Series while George was entering full blow senility( is that a word?). "Classic" George would have staged several full blown meltdowns over the Sox success, instead we got word of meeting in Tampa. I wanted to see nuclear meltdowns by George. When he finally stpeed down I thought the rivalry took a step back. Boy was I wrong...the baseball gods sent us HANK! He maybe be Georgie 2.0 plus++++
Posted by: K-Sea | March 02, 2008 at 07:50 AM