rss feedDamn Yankees! The Yankee-Red Sox Car Rundown
Posted by Heather Muse at 10:12 AM, May 6, 2008
Now, I know that I fall on the wrong side of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry for this fair city, but really, I ask our two tabloids: why is this story news in this area? Yankee fan Ivonne Hernandez ran down some hecklers who chanted "Yankees suck!" in the parking lot of a Nashua, N.H., bar. The Post reports on the page-one incident:
"Five rabid Boston fans screamed the anti-Yankee venom at Ivonne Hernandez, also of Nashua, when they spotted the New York Yankee logo on her 1997 Dodge Intrepid during an argument outside a local saloon."According to authorities, Hernandez, 43, then drove from the Nashua City Hall parking lot and through a nearby tire store's dirt parking lot before doubling back, gunning her engine—and aiming it straight at the Bosox fans, who'd walked over to another lot."
Now, this incident happened early Friday morning. This is front-page news on a Tuesday? Perhaps if there were some NYC connection beyond a love of the Bronx Bombers, this could be a legitimate page-one story in the Post. Don't get me wrong, the "hook" on this piece is most definitely the tragedy stemming from one of baseball's biggest rivalries, but it really shouldn't be on page one. The Daily News also has story on the incident inside on page 4.
The proximity, or lack thereof, is what makes this story interesting. A friend who's a reporter in Nashua tells me that the story is huge up there and there has been some local outrage about the media coverage. This makes sense, as Nashua's where it happened. The sensationalistic coverage down here just stokes all the wrong fires in the rivalry. Sure, it's fun to trash talk about the other team, but it should never turn deadly. Perhaps this "public service" reason is why the Post chose to put this on the front page, but I highly doubt it. It's only a matter of time before the sports columnists stop chatting about Roger Clemens' image and start clucking about how "uncouth" rabid sports fans can be.
