2002

It's been well established that Tyler Kepner strongly dislikes the Yankees. That's too bad, since he's the Yankees beat writer for the city's top newspaper, the NY Times.

Interestingly, Kepner came to be the beat writer for the Yankees in the same year, 2002, that the NY Times bought a share of the Boston Red Sox, which was also the same year, 2002, that Boston changed its front office. Which was also the same year, 2002, that Buster Olney, the Pulitzer prize nominated Yankees beat writer for the Times throughout the championship years, left the paper. His reason:

"I didn't like the direction that the sports section was headed."

It's becoming clear that Tyler Kepner was hired to promote the Red Sox and disparage the Yankees, as part of a larger propaganda attack put together by the Red Sox front office. It was the same year, 2002, the new front office called the Yankees "evil" and Steinbrenner "unbelievable", language that is extremely unusual and unfitting of professionals in their position. It's the same year, 2002, George Mitchell was hired as a "director" for the Red Sox. We all know what that led to: his irresponsible 2006 "Mitchell Report", in which he named as steroid users as many Yankees as he could find from the great teams of the late 90's. Of course, he left out any recognizable names from any Red Sox teams. He then justified this by saying, in small print at the end of his propaganda attack:

"Baseball does not need and cannot afford to engage in a never-ending search for the name of every player who ever used performance enhancing substances."

Whipped up into a frenzy of rage, 2002 was the same year things started getting really ugly in Boston, in Fenway park, and on the field, most of it instigated by the Red Sox. Pedro began threatening Yankee players, pointing at his head while throwing at their hands and under the chin, sometimes injuring them, and finally throwing down Don Zimmer. Sox fans assaulted Yankee pitchers in the bullpen, and Sheffield's assailant was stripped of his season tickets. The list of hate-inspired attacks goes on and on.

This is the real story of the Boston Red Sox since 2002. In that year there was a management and ownership transition that began the most disgraceful crusade to win at all costs coupled with a pathetic propaganda war, of which Tyler Kepner is an integral part, that I've ever seen in American sports. And it's why, when Aaron Boone punished the Red Sox once more for their behavior, Yankee fans cheered extra loud and laughed extra hard because it meant one thing to us: Justice.

I've said what needed to be said. That is all.