Is this a safe space? Can I be a boomer for a second?
Bring back rivalries in baseball. In all sports, for that matter.
Rivalries still exist on paper, but you rarely see them in practice. Amongst the fanbases, maybe, but not amongst the players.
I recently watched the 2004 Red Sox documentary on Netflix, and it was quite enjoyable to see how much the Yankees and Red Sox truly hated each other.
It’s not as common to see that now.
Players are chummy on the field and are not shy about displaying this. Is it wrong to say I miss the days when teams hated each other? When rivalries felt like rivalries and were not just some narrative the media was pushing?
Punches don’t have to be thrown or anything. No batters even have to be hit. But I miss when more players played with passion and wore their hearts on their sleeves, when you could feel the intensity in the ballpark during a match between rivals.
When I attended a Phillies vs. Mets game in September 2024, mere weeks before they faced off in the NLDS, the crowd at Citizens Bank Park was disappointing. Nobody was booing, not even for Pete Alonso. It was appalling to me. Wasn’t this supposed to be a matchup between division rivals in late September?
Did people not realize that the Mets were good? And despite having the division pretty much wrapped up, the Phillies should still care when facing their fiercest rival. The Mets won, 11-3.
Chase Utley hated the Mets. So did Jimmy Rollins. Now that Rhys Hoskins is gone, I can’t say anyone on the Phillies feels that way. (Jose Alvarado, maybe?)
I realized some rivalries may be dead between that experience and watching the Red Sox doc.
I say some because the Dodgers and Padres seem to hate each other, and the infamous Red Sox and Yankees one is still going strong.
After last year's postseason results, I hope the Phillies-Mets rivalry will resurrect in 2025.
It’s good for baseball. But it's bad for my blood pressure.