All over the blog-o-sphere yesterday, you could find Red Sox fans gloating. Most of them, at the least the two I like the most (Irish Elk and SCSU Scholars), were doing so tastefully and amusingly and I suggest you go check out their take on the internet victory dance.
But here's the thing, the Red Sox won, and I take my hat off to them for a fantastic performance (and it really was stunningly fabulous), but Boston lost. Why? They set cars on fire and rioted. It reminds me of some old football coach who said when one of his players danced in the end zone, "try to act like you've been there before" (Bear Bryant, maybe?).
Why is it that you never see NY set on fire by sports fans?
UPDATE:
According to the NY Post, a young woman was shot in the head and killed during a clash with Boston cops. According to the article:
Moments after the Red Sox' 10-3 ALCS win early Thursday, some 80,000 delirious Boston faithful poured out from bars and clubs. Fans went out of control, burning a car, hurling bottles and clashing with riot cops, resulting in 16 injuries and eight arrests.One cop's nose was broken by a flying bottle and officials are considering banning alcohol sales during the World Series games.
The chaos reached its fiery climax on Boylston Street, a block from Fenway, when a few hundred drunken hooligans attacked a parked Nissan Xterra that bore New York plates.
The crowd smashed its windows and set it on fire.
My condolences to her family. What a waste.
Los Angeles had a problem with this for a while, too, but LAPD suddenly realized that after any game with a potentially big impact, win or lose, they had to have extra presence on the streets. The problem then stopped.
I don't normally watch cable TV, but my wife and I were out of town a couple of weeks ago and saw a show on Animal Planet about New York's mounted officers, who are routinely deployed around Yankee Stadium under such circumstances. I would guess that only New York fully understands their use in crowd control and preventing riots, although LAPD has started up its own mounted unit within the past 10 years.
Posted by: John Bruce at October 22, 2004 10:31 AMThere is something about a horse that makes most people just back up a little.
That said, we generally only riot in NY when someone gets shot or the lights go out. Not for sporting events.
Posted by: RP at October 22, 2004 11:42 AMI just don't get it. It's like reading about beings on another planet doing something completely nonsensical and alien to me.
I cannot understand the point of rioting when your team *wins*. So very odd.
Posted by: Amber at October 24, 2004 01:27 PM