The Yankees aren’t the measuring stick anymore.
The Clubhouse: A Year with the Boston Red Sox was released about a week into the season and has largely flown under the radar. Outside of discussions around Jarren Duran’s battles with mental health, I haven’t seen too much conversation about the show. I’ve put it on the back burner in favor of watching actual baseball games, but I’ve been chipping through 20 minutes at a time whenever I have the opportunity. It’s a shame it was buried by the season because it’s a cool inside look at the team and would have been great offseason content.
In the fourth episode, a series against the Yankees is highlighted. It shows how there is still some passion for baseball in Boston and highlights the youth, speed, and athleticism that defined the 2024 Red Sox. It also showcases how Alex Cora managed an inexperienced and oft-injured team but seemed to enjoy working with the group.
The documentary is for non-baseball fans and doesn’t assume the audience has a knowledge of the sport or Red Sox history. It has Triston Casas “candidly” explain why 162 games are necessary, shows clips of past winter weekends to set the temperature of the fanbase, and uses a clip of Varitek smushing ARod’s face to establish the tone for the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. It also has this clip of MassLive writer Sean McAdam introducing the series against the Yankees:
I’ll preface this by saying this isn’t an indictment of McAdam. I enjoy his writing and am admittedly jealous he came up with the column title “Some Things I Think I Think” and I didn’t. That being said, I strongly disagree with the idea that the Yankees are the measuring stick.
I hate the Yankees as much, if not more, than anyone. I’ve gone as far as to say I wouldn’t date a Yankees fan. (If she truly cares about baseball, she has bad judgment. If she doesn’t actually care, then she should root for the Red Sox for my sanity.) I don’t understand how anyone could earnestly root for that vile franchise. I want them to lose at every turn, but I don’t see them as a measuring stick, and neither should you.
I was born in 1997. The first time I really remember caring about the Red Sox and “getting it” was the 2007 season. For my entire fandom, the Red Sox have competed to win championships. The Yankees have largely been irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. They’ve won one World Series in 20 years. The two teams haven’t met in the playoffs often, but the Yankees have been quickly dispatched in the odd series when they have.
There are plenty of ways to enjoy a baseball season without winning a championship. The season is a six-month-long journey that ends with only one champion. You have to find ways to enjoy the ride or else you’ll likely be miserable most of the time. Beating the Yankees is one of those small joys throughout the season. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about those games more than others. Stealing every base imaginable against them on Sunday Night Baseball was incredible. Knocking them out of the 2021 Wild Card game was even better. And while I may have had a little extra pep in my step the morning after that game, I certainly didn’t think, “Our work here is done. Everything from here on out is a bonus”. The goal was to win a championship.
Championships aren’t everything, and there’s fun to be had in the journey of a major league campaign. Still, it’s nice to have some measure of “success” for the season. If you’re looking back on the season and determining success or failure based on a team that consistently fails to get the job done when it matters, you have the wrong priorities. We win championships. The holier-than-thou team that plays in the Bronx wants you to think they’re a model organization who should be admired. In reality, they live in the shadows of past Yankee teams and have a bunch of trophies covered in dust.