take me out to the ballgame... and a "YMCA" sing-along

Sangita, Tabitha and i went to watch a NY Yankees game at Yankee Stadium last Sunday. i'm not a sports fan, but i enjoy going to watch basketball and baseball games. i don't follow any particular teams, so normally i'd cheer for the home team (it's more fun to cheer along with everyone else)... although i'm partial to Oakland (being my hometown and all).

it was a Yankees vs. Oakland A's game. the three of us, being from Oakland/the Bay Area, were rooting for the A's. however, we were sitting in the bleachers in the midst of rowdy NY Yankees fans, so we decided to keep a low-profile and only allow ourselves to silently cheer on the A's, since A's fans were definitely in the minority that day. i'm sure girls normally wouldn't be given a hard time like guys get for rooting for the opposing or rival team, but we didn't feel like testing it out.

around the 2nd inning of the game, one guy strolled in late to his seat in our bleacher section wearing a bright red t-shirt and a red Boston Red Sox cap.

uh-oh... a Boston Red Sox fan flaunting his devotion to the team while he was in NY Yankees territory?! and during a non-Boston game?

immediately, rowdy Yankees fans in our section started yelling "asshole!" at him. throughout the game, he was relentlessly being heckled with yells of "Boston sucks!", "Boston still sucks!", and "Take off the cap". one guy walked past him and yelled out "How you like them apples? Boston's losing!" and pointed to a screen showing the scores of teams playing elsewhere. it was pretty funny, and everyone laughed at its reference to the famous Matt Damon line from "Good Will Hunting".

the most hilarious moment was during half-time while the Village People song "YMCA" was blaring. some Yankees fans started heckling the poor guy again. then during the chorus of the song, "It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A", instead of singing "Y-M-C-A", half of the people in the bleachers all pointed at him and in unison sang "Y-do-you-suck?" in perfect melody to the song! and then they repeated the chorus! it was the funniest thing i'd seen all day!

it was all pretty amusing, but i felt bad for the poor guy. the Red Sox fan basically did his best to ignore all the hecklers. he took all the tauntings in stride, stayed in his seat, and never took off his cap. gotta give him props for toughing it out.

i realize there's a bitter rivalry between the NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox (you know, the whole Curse of the Bambino), which explains all that hostility. i've heard stories of fans causing worse public humiliation and even mild violence to fans of rival teams or people who simply wore the wrong colored clothes to the game. obviously, sports fans take their teams and their rivalries very seriously!

at the end of the day, the Oakland A's beat the Yankees 6 to 5.
from our bleacher seats, we quietly cheered their victory.