Rudy and the Red Sox

While campaigning in Boston last week, Rudy Giuliani broke a cardinal rule of any presidential hopeful. He messed with his No. 1 allies.

During a speech at a breakfast fundraiser, Giuliani said, “I’m rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series.”

For the majority of the 2008 candidates, throwing in a love for the game is appealing to voters, who find the support an attractive quality. But for Giuliani, former mayor of New York and longtime lover of anything blue and white, mentioning the Red Sox was much more than a disappointment to Yankees fans. It was an atrocity.

For Yankees supporters, if there is anything to be sensitive about, it is definitely the bitter, century-old rivalry with their neighbors, the Boston Red Sox.

The rivalry, rooted in American history and strengthened through the geographic proximity of the two cities, has deepened in the last few years since the 2004 American League Championship Series Red Sox defeat over the Yankees and the break of the curse.

Yankees and Red Sox fans are the closest things we have to the soccer “hooligans” that run rampant in stadiums across Europe. Their rivalry is more than a trivial love for the home team. It is a defining characteristic, one that Giuliani wasn’t afraid to show when mayor of New York.

New Yorkers loved him not only for his commendable job following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 or his upbringing in Brooklyn and the Bronx, but because of his pride for the Yankees. He was one of few New York leaders to ever declare himself a true follower of the team.

Before his fateful trip to Boston, he wore his Yankees love on his sleeve. A Catholic, he has been quoted saying that God probably roots for the Yankees. He once told a reporter he wouldn’t even make a deal with the devil to become president if he had to trade his Yankee jersey for the blue and red of a Red Sox shirt. (He has also mentioned the only tattoo he would ever consider getting would be a Yankees tattoo.)

Since his appearance in Boston on Tuesday, New York tabloids have been doing their best to tarnish Giuliani’s once-golden reputation throughout the city. The publications have called him a traitor and a redcoat and fans suggested burning his seat in the stadium.

The lifelong Yankees fan should have taken notes from fellow presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The democratic frontrunner was asked to choose between her home team, the Chicago Cubs, and the Yankees in a hypothetical World Series game. Her response: alternating sides.

Poor Rudy. He’s had a tough run so far, losing support from seemingly obvious followers, first by his own daughter via Facebook and her membership in a Barack Obama campaign support group (she eventually left the group). Now Yankees fans, as supportive to their team as they are to family, are turning their backs on their No. 1 candidate.

Giuliani struck out when he went to bat against his home team. Now he’s apologizing, but will they forgive and forget? Yankees history says the odds are against him.

Taylor Moore is a journalism senior and a Mustang Daily columnist.