Major League Baseball

Red Sox, Yankees fans revel in rivalry on first full Opening Day since 2019

Updated Apr. 10, 2022 7:38 p.m. ET

By Charlotte Wilder
FOX Sports Columnist

NEW YORK — Paul Martinez stood on the concourse behind home plate at Yankee Stadium for the 1:05 p.m. start on Opening Day. He was with four other guys, but Martinez was the only one wearing a Red Sox jersey and hat instead of New York’s classic pinstripes.

"I grew up in Brooklyn, and I work in the Bronx," he said when I asked why he wasn’t rooting for the home team. "I’m tired of the Yankees."

Manny Martinez (no relation) gave Paul a playful punch on the shoulder. "I've been from up the block my whole life," Manny said. "I’ve loved the team forever. Paul’s a cool guy, but we’re trying to convert him."

I asked what they do.

"We’re mailmen," Paul Martinez said. "We finished our routes early today to come to this."

I looked closer, and underneath his Red Sox jersey, Martinez was indeed wearing a light blue, short-sleeved, button-down shirt and blue shorts with a tuxedo stripe on them, the official uniform of U.S. Postal Service workers.

In the seats below the mailmen, a nun named Sister Ida sat in the stands also in her work clothes — the traditional white habit and black robes. She lives in New Jersey but taught at the Immaculate Conception School in the South Bronx for 11 years, and she and her sister are both lifelong Yankees fans. Sister Ida doesn’t watch many games, given her lifestyle, so her sister brought her to one for her birthday.

"I have great hopes for the Yankees," Sister Ida said. "I’ve been sitting here praying for them for every moment so all the good things come out. It’s a game. You gotta enjoy it."

Things weren’t looking good for New York when I spoke to Ida after the first inning, in which Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole gave up three runs to Boston.

But Sister Ida’s prayers must have worked because the Yankees came from behind three times and, after two nail-biting extra innings, beat the Sox 6-5.

It was exactly what you want from the most famous rivalry in pro sports, especially to kick off the season with a full stadium for the first time in three years.

"It felt like a playoff game," Boston starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi said in the visiting locker room after the game. "Any time we come into this atmosphere, it’s going to be good against the Yankees."

It was also a big deal for two second-graders in attendance named Braden and Colton. They were holding a sign high above their heads that said "BESTIES," with a Yankees logo on one half and Red Sox logo on another. Braden was decked out in pinstripes, while Colton wore a white Boston jersey with red piping.

The boys had come with Braden’s family from Westtown, New York, about an hour and a half northwest of Yankee Stadium. Colton’s family was originally from Maine, hence his Red Sox fandom, while Braden’s parents were also decked out in Yankees gear. I asked if they knew they liked different teams when they became friends. They nodded. Was that a problem?

"No," said Braden.

"Kind of," said Colton, at the same time.

How did they work through that?

"We just played a lot," they explained.

In the visiting clubhouse, I showed the picture of the boys to Boston’s Matt Strahm, the left-handed reliever whom Boston signed to a one-year, $3 million contract a few weeks ago. He laughed.

"My little brother is five years younger than me," Strahm said. "We always grew up cheering for rivals. I think it was a household thing. I was a big OU Sooners fan, so he naturally then was like, ‘Well, I like Texas.’ So it makes sports fun. For those two little boys, I’m sure it was an awesome day going back and forth. I think rivalries are great."

Braden and Colton weren't the only duo making it work. In the concourse, a man and woman stood next to each other. He wore a Yankees hat, she a Red Sox hat. They didn’t want to give me their names because they were faking sick from work to come to the game. They’re engaged and both grew up in Connecticut.

"One of our rules is we don’t go to playoff games," the woman said. "We’re both die-hards, but if it’s a playoff game, it’s too much on the line. Because one of us will have a bad time, so let’s avoid the contention."

I asked if the differing fandom had been a problem for them. The man said the woman’s father, who is from Massachusetts, was initially not pleased.

"My dad said he always wanted me to date a Red Sox fan who’s a Democrat," the woman said. "But eventually he said, ‘Well, at least this guy’s a Democrat.’"

(Now is the time when I must admit that I, a Red Sox fan, live with a man who wears a Yankees hat and was very happy when New York beat Boston. But hey, nobody’s perfect.)

The beauty of rivalries is that they don’t really matter. They’re completely manufactured tension. But they do make games more exciting, as does anything that raises the stakes in sports.

For instance, say, a pandemic. COVID made it clear that sports are not essential for survival, but it also made clear how much they can enhance life.

"We were really sad during the pandemic not to have baseball because this is what we do together a lot," the woman from Connecticut said.

Opening Day felt surreal after years of COVID cancellations and limited crowd capacities. Especially given that the full pageantry of Opening Day was in jeopardy once again this year. Thankfully, the owners and the MLB Players Association found a way to ratify a five-year collective bargaining agreement in mid-March after months of a lockout.

It was fitting to see Sister Ida in the stands because baseball has always felt religious to me, more so than any other sport. It’s a game of lulls and tension, of patience and reward. It’s an excuse — in a world in which we can all be contacted far too easily and expected to do a lot in a short amount of time — to sit outside and do nothing for hours on end.

By the bottom of the 10th, the crowd had entered the meditative reverie, that earned trance, that baseball can put you in. Once extra innings roll around, even if you haven’t been drinking, you feel like you’re a few beers deep. The April sun shone on the stands by left field, but the lights clicked on about four hours into the game to illuminate parts of the park shrouded in afternoon shadow. Fans had already been blessed with Yankee Stadium’s traditional seventh inning stretch — when groundskeepers dance to the song "YMCA" — a fight in the stands, multiple ties, too many pitching changes and, finally, free baseball.

A man sitting near right field, who gave his name only as John, stood up and cheered as Gleyber Torres came up to bat.

"Send us home, baby!" he yelled.

Torres ran up the count, then tipped a pitch with two strikes to keep the at-bat going.

"It’s Gleyber Day!" John shouted again. "Staying alive! OK, John Travolta!"

Soon after, Torres hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Marwin González and tie the game 5-5. John cheered. He’d been heckling and yelling inventive cheers for a while.

At 58, John is a lifelong Yankees fan who was there to witness Wade Boggs ride a police horse around Yankee Stadium when New York won the World Series in 1996. I asked where his inspiration for heckling came from.

"Sports is just like life," he said. "Even when you think you’re down, or you’ve been down on your luck, you never give up, and you always keep moving forward and looking ahead. Because life can change in a minute, and the sun can come out. And the sunshine will just be beautiful."

An inning later, Josh Donaldson ended his Yankees debut with an RBI single to beat Boston 6-5. It was New York's first walk-off Opening Day win since Yogi Berra scored in 1957. A Red Sox fan stumbled over beer cans to embrace his Yankees jersey-clad friends. "I’m happy for you, bro," he said.

Frank Sinatra’s voice boomed out over the cheering crowd as players rushed the field. "If I can make it there/ I'll make it anywhere/ It's up to you/ New York, New York!"

I would have loved to watch Boston beat the Yankees on Opening Day. But it was hard not to feel victorious after having the privilege of spending an afternoon watching the team I love play extra innings in the city I call home. It’s perhaps the best lesson that many things can be true at once: You can lose while you win, and you can love people who chant "Boston sucks" because you know they’re just jealous because New York hasn’t won a World Series in 13 years.

But perhaps the truest thing of all is that on some silly level, the joy of laughing at a funny heckler with a bunch of strangers as you sit at a ballpark is something very close to an answered prayer.

Charlotte Wilder is a general columnist and cohost of "The People's Sports Podcast" for FOX Sports. She's honored to represent the constantly neglected Boston area in sports media, loves talking to sports fans about their feelings and is happiest eating a hotdog in a ballpark or nachos in a stadium. Follow her on Twitter @TheWilderThings.