As a Hamiltonian and fan of the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats, I'm surprised that the Yankees Suck T-shirts aren't even that old. Ticats fans have been chanting Argos Suck and buying T-shirts for what seems like forever. When Redhat's Bob Young bought the team in 2003 he tried to get fans to no longer use the phrase, but eventually gave up. I've also never seen anyone with an Argos Suck T-shirt being booted from the stadium.
As someone with deep New England roots, it's truly surreal watching a baseball rivalry trump hundreds of years of history. To anyone outside the North, Bostonians have long been the prototypical Yankees. But go to Southie and say that now and you're likely to get a fist in the face.
Sports rivalries are generally a proxy for something else. Not having been to the Northeast myself, can you shed any light on what that might be? Did Boston once seem destined to be the big city in the region?
Boston was the first city in the region and was for a long time considered the most important. Oliver Wendell Holmes called it the Hub of the Universe. Over time, New York grew bigger and more important, leaving Bostonians feeling a little wounded. However, Boston remained the scholarly capital of the world, with two of the world's best universities a mile apart. Over the last half century, the world has celebrated academics less and money more,furthering the New York/Boston divide and intensifying the hurt feelings and envy. The final straw was Boston sports teams lackluster performance in the 1990s which led to the popularity of the Yankees Suck T shirts. With the number of Boston sports championships over the last 15 years,I can't imagine Yankees Suck shirts are still that popular.
Outstanding. I sort-of knew these things from living here, but rarely have I seen such a succinct summary of historical trends. Thanks for taking the time to explain it so well.
This raises an interesting question: Given that Bostonians (and New Englanders in general) were clearly Yankees as of 1865 (the end of the Civil War), and given that the New York baseball team was renamed the "Yankees" in 1913, at what point did the latter meaning start to predominate? It can't have been right away, but clearly by 2015 the baseball meaning is practically the only association people (at least in the Northeast) have with the term.
Being born-and-raised in MA now living in Southie, and in spite of Southie being gentrified a great deal as of late, I still would make sure any of my friends from outside of the city don't wear Yankees gear or say anything bad about the Sox. Or Lakers, or Canadiens - it's also fascinating that the biggest sports rivalries in the major sports in the US all seem to stem out from Boston as a whole.
And yet, as crazy as these rivalries seem, it pales in comparison to soccer rivalries like Arsenal/Manchester United, Real Madrid/Barcelona, or AC Milan/Inter Milan. People are dying at these games.
I'll always remember seeing Chris Wrenn slinging those shirts in the early 2000's. Those shirts have always been synonymous with Bridge Nine records in my mind.
Every time an article like this makes the front page I'm always pleasantly surprised at the number of (usually) old hardcore punks that come out of the woodwork and comment.
This article in particular has made me realize just how long it's been since I listened to Ten Yard Fight.
The reason I got my start in this field is because I went with a professor of mine to check out a startup that one of his students was the CTO of. When I got there, the former student complimented my Gorilla Biscuits shirt and offered me an internship.
Yup, agreed on the Bridge Nine comment. Makes sense too when you think that Wes Eisold was one of the guys mentioned in the article - there's even a picture on the bridge near fenway with him in it.
As a Bostonian and someone who used to be into the hardcore scene around here, this was an incredible read. I knew nothing about the stories behind those shirts
It's surprising to read an article that touches on the old Boston hardcore scene without any mention of FSU. For anyone interested in more stories of Boston hardcore and crime, take a glance at http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/punk-rock-fight-clu...
The FSU link you posted and the Suckers link above are some of the best illustrations of why I considered the Boston hardcore scene to be a collection of human garbage, ca. 1995-2005.
Prior to '95, it was the skinheads who would show up and ruin punk shows, often employed as bouncers by the club. Then their girlfriends all went rockabilly and they gave way to waves and waves of hahdcaw meatheads. The uniform changed, the music changed, but the fact that I was regularly catching punches, elbows, and kicks by people who rolled 10+ deep at all times did not change at all.
I especially love the casual tone in which these morons can reflect on the past and say stuff like “You gotta understand, it was mayhem back then,” Wilson says. “There was 30 of us, and somehow, we’d always find 30 guys to fuck with.”
It wasn't a job for ARA (Anti-Racist Action, for those playing along at home). The hardcore gangs, as well as the skinheads, were by and large either anti-racist (e.g. SHARP skins) or apolitical (e.g. they just like to fight).
And more broadly, I didn't want to fight these groups' existence, or even their presence. I just wanted to come home from shows without chipped teeth, you know?
When it began spreading out of Boston and becoming more of an actual gang is when going to hardcore shows stopped being fun for me. I was tired of having to constantly worry about bumping into someone and see people get beat up for no reason just became depressing.
I met Elgin a few times outside of Righteous Jams shows and he was always super friendly to a kid that just liked his band.
EDIT: This part was always the craziest to me:
While part of FSU, using a tactic learned from the United States government,[3] James and other FSU members set up an "arms for hostages" scenario in which they traded handguns with inner city gang members for pit bulls used in dog fighting rings. The dogs would then be nursed back to health and fostered until safe homes were found for them.
As someone who spent many nights outside fenway shelling these shirts (a generation or two after the golden era described in the article), it's great to see some of these legendary stories collected and transcribed.
I think there's enough craziness in the stories I've heard for a decent book or movie.
New Year's Eve, early in the first decade of this century. I'm riding the Red Line home with a bunch of other revelers. One young inebriated gentleman is trying to induce the rest of us to join him in a sports-related chant. "Let's go Red Sox!" he bellows. "Let's go Red Sox!" No one follows his lead. "Let's go Patriots!" he essays. Crickets. One last arrow in his quiver: he begins to chant "Yankees suck! Yankees suck!" By the time he reaches the fourth iteration, the whole car, me included, is shouting along with him.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 82.9 ms ] threadAlso, fun with dropcaps http://mariozucca.com/projects/yankees-suck/
>To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
>To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
>To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
>To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
>To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
>And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.
And yet, as crazy as these rivalries seem, it pales in comparison to soccer rivalries like Arsenal/Manchester United, Real Madrid/Barcelona, or AC Milan/Inter Milan. People are dying at these games.
It later got spun out into it's own thing: http://www.sullysbrand.com/
This article in particular has made me realize just how long it's been since I listened to Ten Yard Fight.
Prior to '95, it was the skinheads who would show up and ruin punk shows, often employed as bouncers by the club. Then their girlfriends all went rockabilly and they gave way to waves and waves of hahdcaw meatheads. The uniform changed, the music changed, but the fact that I was regularly catching punches, elbows, and kicks by people who rolled 10+ deep at all times did not change at all.
I especially love the casual tone in which these morons can reflect on the past and say stuff like “You gotta understand, it was mayhem back then,” Wilson says. “There was 30 of us, and somehow, we’d always find 30 guys to fuck with.”
Somehow.
And more broadly, I didn't want to fight these groups' existence, or even their presence. I just wanted to come home from shows without chipped teeth, you know?
I met Elgin a few times outside of Righteous Jams shows and he was always super friendly to a kid that just liked his band.
EDIT: This part was always the craziest to me:
While part of FSU, using a tactic learned from the United States government,[3] James and other FSU members set up an "arms for hostages" scenario in which they traded handguns with inner city gang members for pit bulls used in dog fighting rings. The dogs would then be nursed back to health and fostered until safe homes were found for them.
I think there's enough craziness in the stories I've heard for a decent book or movie.