I’m a bit of a Red Sox fan. I mean, I’m a Mariners fan through and through; got all the gear, the jerseys, the season tickets, moved into a place just down the street from Safeco… okay, perhaps a bit much.

But I’ve always liked the Red Sox. They play in the coolest stadium in the bigs these days; they’ve got a classic style of uniform and a great amount of club history… and most of all, they hate the Yankees. I mean, hate ‘em.

There is a guy I used to work with (he’s since retired) who says that Seattle is a real bandwagon town when it comes to sports fans. There’s some truth to that, but then all cities are like that to some extent. Attendance regularly goes up when a team is winning. But there’s a LOT of Red Sox fans who’re on a bandwagon; you didn’t use to see so many Sox hats around here until they won the World Series.

Personally, I’ve had a Sox hat for several years. Again, they hate the Yankees, and that hatred is deeper than love… okay, again, taking it a bit too far.

(And the worst thing about the Yankees these days is that collectively, the Yanks of the past several years were fairly decent guys. I really like Joe Torre, the ex-manager. They had some good guys playing for them, like Bernie Williams. Of course, they had some real pricks, too, like Paul O’Neill and Roger Clemens.)

So following up on yesterday’s blog, which touched on the Yanks and Mariners and Sox a bit, here’s a joke for you that I ruthlessly stole from yanks-suck.com (no, I’m not making that domain name up):

A New York family of Yankees fans heads out one Saturday to shop for the youngest boy’s birthday. While in the sports shop, the son picks up a Red Sox jersey and says to his older sister, “I’ve decided to become a Red Sox fan and I would like this Boston jersey for my birthday.”

His big sister is outraged and whacks him and says, “Go tell mom!”

He takes the jersey to his mom and she says “Yes, son?”

“I’ve decided I’m going to be a Red Sox fan and I would like this jersey for my birthday.”

She whacks him on the head and says, “go tell your father!”

“Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

“I’ve decided I’m going to be a Red Sox fan and I would like this jersey for my birthday.”

He whacks his son in the head and says, “No son of mine is ever going to be seen in THAT!”

On the car ride home the father turns to his son and says “Son, I hope you’ve learned something today.”

The son replies “I sure did! I’ve only been a Red Sox fan for an hour, and I already hate you fuckin’ Yankee bastards.”

Now that’s a real Sox fan (and Yankee hater) right there!