Cigar Aficionado | Blogs | David Savona

Watching the New York Yankees eke out a second straight win against the Boston Red Sox last night brought a huge smile to my face. I’m a diehard Yankee fan, and have been since I was a kid. (As a young boy in the 1970s I remember going on a field trip to Boston, and yelling out the car window “Go Yankees.” I’m lucky to have survived.) For my money there’s no rivalry in the world that comes close to that between the Yanks and the Sox.

The Mets? I don’t like them, but I don’t hate them. The Eagles and Cowboys in NFL Football? As a Giants fan I can’t stand them, but it’s just not the same thing. When the Yankees are playing the Red Sox, it’s simply going to ruin my entire day if the Yankees lose.

Flash back a couple of years to the 2003 American League Championship Series. (Sidenote: remember when this was called the Pennant? It seemed much more noble back then.) Red Sox had transformed themselves from perennial also-rans into the dreaded pesky team that would not go away. It seemed that no lead was safe against these guys. The series was amazing: remember the game where Don Zimmer was hurled to the ground by Pedro Martinez? The brawl in the Red Sox bullpen?

The series was tied heading into the seventh game, to be played at Yankee Stadium. I set up shop alone in my basement smoking room. There were cold bottles of Heineken in the beer fridge and a wide selection of cigars. (I can’t remember what I was smoking, but it was good.) Things looked grim for the Yankees, with Clemens sent packing early and the Red Sox up 4-0. I called Jorge Padrón on my cell phone, telling him it looked like I would have to buy a Florida Marlins hat as it looked like the Sox were going to the World Series for the first time since 1986.

Then it happened. Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in too long, the Yankees tied the game, and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who had looked utterly unhittable for the entire series, threw a meatball to Aaron Boone in the bottom of the 11th. Booney smacked it into the stands in left field.

I did what every other Yankee fan in the world did—lost my mind. I yelled so hard and so passionately that I thought I was going to have a coronary.

The 2007 Yankees are a long way from playing the ALCS, but two wins in a row (one of them watched live at the Stadium Tuesday night) gives me a little bit of hope.

Reader Comments

User Name: Robert Gianelli, Angels Camp, CA Posted: 09:22 PM ET, August 30, 2007

Ahh..I remember it well..I've also been a Yankee fan since I was a kid..as was my father..Once a Yankee..always a Yankee.. Rob

User Name: Gordon Mott Posted: 09:13 AM ET, August 31, 2007

Sorry guys. I had to fire Dave this morning...how can a Yankee fan work for a Red Sox boss and rub his face in it, I asked myself when I opened up Yankee Dreams. After a sweep no less! Just kidding (about Dave, I mean...I think) As they say, let the games begin. And, as I told Jose Blanco, another friend of mine from the "other side," back in April, as always, Yankee-Red Sox games are usually the best, and most memorable games, of any Major League Baseball season, and as always, this season will come down to the final week. Go Red Sox!

User Name: Jose Blanco Posted: 10:53 PM ET, August 31, 2007

Gordon Mi Amigo,if you fired Dave because the Red Sox are not going to make it, he can always come down and work with us,and remember its going to be an other 86 years,have a nice holidays take care.

User Name: Matthew Caruso, Jersey Posted: 09:06 AM ET, September 01, 2007

I'll even things up for us members of RSN, Gordon. I happened to be at Game 7 in 2004, earlier in the day I got a call from a former roommate who miraculously got tickets. I was hesistant to go because I was convinced the Sox won 3 in a row because I was wearing the same pajamas, fixed myself a cup of tea at the same time all three nights, and sat in the exact spot on the couch in my living room. Breaking this would surely mean the Red Sox would lose. As we all know by now how that turned out. I will spare Dave the details, but immediately as the harmless grounder headed toward Pokey Reese, A Montecristo #2 was lit. I felt like Red Auerbach. Now I know smoking isn't permitted at Yankee Stadium, but by the 7th inning, all that were left at The House the Red Sox Paid For were faithful members of the Red Sox Nation. Although I forgot to bring a camera, there are plenty of pics of me out there with various strangers with a cigar in mouth. Security never said a word. It was really a special moment, but the bigger moment was a week or so away, when I got to talk to my grandfather, who was born the day the Sox last won the series in 1918 and celebrate in the Old Towne Team's success.

David Savona

Yankee Dreams

Posted: 11:25 AM ET, August 30, 2007

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