Predictably, the New York tabloids are savaging Rudy Giuliani for his announcement that he’s rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series.
The New York Post calls him Rudy The Yankee Flipper:
[F]ans interviewed at Yankee Clubhouse Shop in Manhattan gave Giuliani a Bronx cheer. “Any Yankee worth his salt cannot root for the Red Sox under any circumstance at all. Period. End of story,” said Ken Schlesinger, 44, a lawyer from the Upper East Side.
Armando Quintero called Giuliani a “fake fan” for backing Boston. “He needs a true Yankee fan to talk to him, put him in his place, let him know what a real Yankee fan is all about,” said the 39-year-old dry cleaner from Queens.
Richard Gerber, 69, a retired garment salesman, said Giuliani was trying to peel away votes from GOP rival Mitt Romney, the ex-Massachusetts governor.
“It’s hypocritical. He’s a New Yorker,” said Gerber.
Giuliani’s siding with the Sox surprised even his New York campaign team.
“I question his Yankee credentials. If you’re a big Yankee fan, you have to hate the Red Sox,” said Guy Molinari, New York co-chair of the Giuliani campaign.
Exactly.
The Daily News calls him, quite simply, traitor:
CONCORD, N.H. - Pigs flew, lions slept with lambs - and No. 1 Yankee fan Rudy Giuliani miraculously transformed himself into a Red Sox fan on the eve of the World Series.
“I’m rooting for the Red Sox,” the Republican presidential contender Tuesday told a Boston audience, just a few T stops from Fenway Park.
“I’m an American League fan, and I go with the American League team, maybe with the exception of the Mets. Maybe that would be the one time I wouldn’t because I’m loyal to New York.”
Later in New Hampshire - a loyal dominion within New England’s Red Sox Nation and, more importantly to Giuliani, home of the first primary in 2008 - the former mayor expanded on his heresy.
“Somehow it makes me feel better if the team that was ahead of the Yankees wins the World Series,” he told a group of mostly local reporters in explaining his sudden backing of the Red Sox, “because then I feel like, well, we’re not that bad.”
Not that bad ? Rudy, were you paying attention at all to what happened from the All Star-Break to the end of the season ?
And, as the New York Times points out, Giuliani has pretty much given up the right to make jokes about Hillary Clinton’s baseball loyalties:
[W]ith his statement yesterday, he has handed Mrs. Clinton a nice-sized bat to use against him should they meet face to face. And here’s an idea for a debate location: The house that Ruth built. Say, October 2008, assuming the field is empty.
This is, in the grand scheme of things, a minor issue. The fate of the Republic does not depend on which baseball team Giuliani roots for, but it’s pretty clear he was pandering when he told Boston fans in New Hampshire that he was rooting for the Yankees’ arch enemy. And he’s done something that no Yankee fan should do — wish good fortune on that team up north.
Previous Post:
October 24th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
you are nothing but a trader, you did it to your wife and family, and now to your so called team, i would never vote for a loser like you.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
hey why dosnt everybody do a rudy and flip, dont vote for a LIAR.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
HEY RUDY , WE SHOULD LET THE BLEACHER CREATURES HANDLE YA, THEY ARE THE TRUE FANS, AND A TRUE FAN WOULD NOT LET THE BABE OR CURSE DOWN LIKE YOU TRADER