I've been a lifelong Yankee fan but I've always had mad respect for Papi. Class act to the max. In reading the article it conjures up the memories of all the wonderful series between these two clubs and the cast of players who set an incredible precedent for intense rivalry between two teams. Manny, Pedro, Varitek, Jeter, Mo, Pettite, Mussina... it was electric. One thing that is sometimes illustrated in sport is the ability to differ and compete on a ferocious level on the playing field at a level that can appear at times to equate to complete disdain or even hate yet off the field of play those involved have a deep mutual respect based on the realization that they are, in reality more alike than different to the point of representing mirror images of themselves.
Baseball it seems, more so than any other sport and perhaps because the game is steeped in such a long and fabled history, has among it's players an adherence to and honor of the decorum and reverence offered up between fierce adversaries on the playing field. Sport it's said can mimic and be representative of other things we encounter in life and certainly there is much about it that would bode well in the political arena. I thank God for the ability to watch sport for entertainment and often with a sense of wonderment and love the fact that as a fan or a spectator it can elicit such a wide gamut of emotion and how it offers an escape from a world that seemingly is ripe with negativity.
I think it's wonderful that Papi, in and of the fact that he has pretty much been the incarnate "anti Yankee" has so succinctly provided us with a reminder of how we can be diametrically opposed to someone else and what they represent or stand for and ironically still have a deep respect for them as your adversary.
We need more guys like Big Papi... regardless of who they play for.
