Rudy Flip-Flops on Baseball, Supports Red Sox

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 12:44:23 PM EST
Tags: Rudy Giuliani (all tags)

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Rudy Giuliani, the arch Yankee fan, is outraging some New Yorkers by his new-found conversion to the Red Sox in the World Series.

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.

Rudy says he'll tell Colorado fans he's rooting for the Sox on his next visit:

"In Colorado, in the next week or two, you will see, I will have the courage to tell the people of Colorado the same thing, that I am rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series," he said.

Just another political ploy. Do the math.

Colorado has a total of nine Electoral College votes, compared with about 30 in Red Sox Nation - Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and about half of Connecticut.

Also calling Rudy out for his transparent switch of allegiance: The New York Post.

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Rudy Flip-Flops on Baseball, Supports Red Sox | 27 comments (27 topical)

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I can't believe I'm sticking up for Rudy... (none / 0) (#1)
by kdog on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:04:27 PM EST

but its common when your team fails to make the Series that you support your league, in Rudys case the American League.

Then again, I don't know if that applies to Yankee and Red Sox fans. As a Met fan, I'd root for the hated Braves in the series, but the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry is somewhat unique.

I'm Surprised Too (none / 0) (#5)
by squeaky on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:20:48 PM EST

Being a fellow NYCer. Since I know nothing about baseball, except that hating the Yankees is fun, I defer to your knowledge.

But knowing the Ghool, I would not be surprised in the least, to see him root for the Rockies if it meant more electorial votes.

Laura Rozen links to a great piece in the Washington Monthly by Rachel Morris, which is a trip down memory lane about the Ghool Mayor. And this typifies the guy who would sell his mother down the river if it meant gaining more power:

At a debate, he declared himself opposed to torture but refused to say whether he would outlaw waterboarding, instead offering that interrogators should perform "any method they can think of."

Ya know squeaky.... (none / 0) (#9)
by kdog on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:32:03 PM EST

the more I think about it, I think the Yankees/Red Sox mutual hatred supercedes league loyalty.

Thinking of football for a moment, I'd root for any AFC team in the Super Bowl except the Patriots or the Dolphins....some rivalries are too heated to defer to league loyalty.

Rudy f*cked up, Red Sox Nation will know he's pandering and think less of him for it, and Yankee fans will never forgive him this betrayal.


: Didn't Know (none / 0) (#14)
by squeaky on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:09:24 PM EST

That as a Yankee fan rooting for the Sox was a sin, but it sounds like classic Ghool. He has loyalty only to himself.

Wow! (none / 0) (#2)
by HeadScratcher on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:10:35 PM EST

You know his motivations. Amazing. And Hillary is a Yankee fan?

If you want to guess then it would have more to do with a certain state's primary elections rather than the general election.

Why would he piss off New York fans with their electoral votes, not to mention parts of Jersey and Connecticut.

I am a National League fan and usually root that way once my Dodgers are out of it (by mid-Aril usually). I'll root for any NL team except if they are playing against the Angels, Tigers (wife's favorite team) or it's the Mets.

Mid-April??? (none / 0) (#3)
by Linkmeister on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:17:09 PM EST

Hey! As another Dodgers fan, I recognize your hyperbole but object!

I do think it's a league thing. I'm rooting for the Rockies, since they managed to get in in part on the strength of beating my guys 7 times in the last two weeks. If they're that good, they can beat the Red Sox.

BTW, Headscratcher, there's a good Dodgers blog at http://www.dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/


Thanks for the tip (none / 0) (#15)
by HeadScratcher on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:19:46 PM EST

I live down in Florida now so at least I can always get great tickets to see them play the Marlins. It's fun if you don't mind the heat, humidity, rain delays and the lack of Vin Scully and Dodger Dogs. Plus the traffic is much, much better.


We went to a couple dodgers games (none / 0) (#17)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:28:02 PM EST

this summer.

Arrived in the 3rd in both games, along with most everyone else...


Did you leave at the 7th inning stretch... (none / 0) (#18)
by kdog on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:36:51 PM EST

like most everybody else? :)


: you funny. (none / 0) (#21)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:57:52 PM EST

The traffic getting there is a nightmare, we stay to the end...unless they go 15, like they did at a game we went to two summers ago. Even then, the night before my son's first day of 2nd grade, we stayed through the 11th. The fact that they've got Gordon Biersch on tap helps as well...

: hard to sing (none / 0) (#22)
by Jen M on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:58:47 PM EST

if you've left

"TRAITOR" screams (none / 0) (#4)
by scribe on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:17:31 PM EST

the front page of the NYDN, with Rudy's mug over that word.

Glad to see someone's using the word properly.

This latest indignity from the authoritarian thug who:

claims (as a part of his personal-history myth)he was made tough because his (gangster) father gave him a Yankees uniform to wear as a 3 y/o toddler, growing up in Brooklyn (in a Dodger neighborhood all the neighborhood kids picked on him), thereby cementing his lifelong love of the Yankees;
got booed by a Yankee stadium crowd during the 7th inning stretch of the Yankees-Indians' playoff games 2 weeks ago, while getting comped (with the Mrs.) in owners' seats next to the dugout, these, conveniently located so as to put his mug on national TV at critical moments of games;
has for over a decade repeatedly got complementary half-inning on-air visits to the Yankee radio broadcasts, to shoot the bull with the announcer and, backhandedly, pitch his candidacies;
managed to get complementary World Series rings "given" to him by the Yankees in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 - the only non-Yankee person to get such rings - their total value being well in excess of $100k (in likely violation of scads of anti-corruption and conflict of interest laws)(Read the Whole article, if you like municipal-chicanery/corruption-goes-unpunished stories), and then made up a cock-and-bull story about the rings for Deep South Campaign purposes;
was notorious for hauling off carloads of Yankee memorabilia and equipment from Yankee stadium, while mayor, even going so far as to get official uniforms (same links as the prior bullet point);
spent more time at Yankee games than at the WTC site during the post-9/11 days of 2001, and then repeatedly lied outrageously by stating the contrary;
repeatedly got complementary owners' tickets to the box adjacent to the Yankees' dugout, tickets whose "list" price (they're not for sale...) is about $400 each for a regular season game.

Yeah, him.

It's almost fitting, that the only animal I've been able to find named after him is a wild turkey. Should have been a vulture or a jackal, but they don't live wild in NYC.

And (none / 0) (#7)
by squeaky on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:24:37 PM EST

If I remember correctly, he failed to pay taxes on the rings, seats, and other Yankee memorabilia....


That's addressed in the linked articles (none / 0) (#10)
by scribe on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:36:43 PM EST

in detail, but I think the short response to your comment is "that's correct".


gifts aren't taxable to (none / 0) (#25)
by cpinva on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 03:21:29 PM EST

the recipient. if the linked article infers otherwise, it's wrong.

i have been known, from time to time, to (silently) root for the cowboys. this happens for one of two reasons: 1. i have a bet on the game., or 2. them winning provides an advantage to the redskins.

if the redskins aren't in the superbowl, or the yankees aren't in the series, i tend to ignore them both. suffice it to say, i haven't paid much attention to the superbowl for many, many years now. :(

that said, i can kind of understand his motivation for rooting for the sox, they are in the same division and, who knows, he might even get free tickets.


: But there are limits on how many (none / 0) (#27)
by scribe on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:14:39 PM EST

and how much in the way of gifts an elected official in NYC can receive.
The articles look at the whole issue in some detail.

Rooting for the other league (none / 0) (#6)
by Jen M on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:21:35 PM EST

THAT would be flip-flopping.

Well, I ordinarily (none / 0) (#8)
by Deconstructionist on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:29:03 PM EST

also do the my team's league (or conference) representative thing on the basis it indirectly makes my team look better if a team from the same league wins, but as a Red Sox fan I wouldn't root for the Yankees to win any game for any reason. Any other team in the league, yes but NEVER NY.

And Yankee fans feel the same (none / 0) (#11)
by scribe on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:41:39 PM EST

way about the Sox, though some of the more thoughtful ones will (on appropriate occasions) root for the Sox if, for example, the Sox winning will give the Yankees some advantage (say, in playoff seeding). Other than that, once someone goes east of Hartford wearing Yankee blue is an invitation to trouble. West of Hartford, displaying loyalty to the Sox is guaranteed to earn the wearer (at best) some recognition as a sad example of misguided humanity and, at worst, more serious trouble.


: What about (none / 0) (#12)
by Jen M on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:44:46 PM EST

My Cubbies hat, can I wear that?

if you seek pity (none / 0) (#13)
by Deconstructionist on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:01:04 PM EST

How quickly (none / 0) (#16)
by Jen M on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:24:17 PM EST

they forget.


1908.... (none / 0) (#19)
by kdog on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:38:17 PM EST

I think everybody has forgotten.


forgotten what? (none / 0) (#20)
by Jen M on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:57:03 PM EST

O.O


The last time... (none / 0) (#23)
by kdog on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 03:02:16 PM EST

the Cubs won it all...way back in 1908.


: Hey, if they win next year, (none / 0) (#24)
by scribe on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 03:18:43 PM EST

then the sacrifical goat hanging from Harry Carey's statue outside Wrigley will not have given its life in vain, only to be cut down unceremoniously by the cops.

: they won? (none / 0) (#26)
by Jen M on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:09:55 PM EST

;)
Hey, we're the only fans that say "wait 'til next year" in April.
Low maintenance fandom.