Fanatic

fa•nat•ic    /fəˈnætɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronuncifuh-nat-ik

1. a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal, as in religion or politics.

Or sports.

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By now you've probably heard the story. The woman in the photo drove her car into a small crowd of people, injuring one and killing another. The man who died was a Red Sox fan. The driver of the car, a Yankees fan.

Here's the story.

Before I continue, let me say that the roles easily could have been reversed here, with the Red Sox fan murdering the Yankees fan. Drunks and morons can be found everywhere.

I'm not going to delve too deeply into this crime. I just want to make a few points:

1. Don't drive drunk. You learned this in school when you were a kid. Enough said.

2. Taunting people can be a bad idea. You meet someone in a bar, you find out they like someone or something you don't. You poke fun at them. You intentionally antagonize them for your own twisted pleasure. Last thing you see is a car coming straight at you. There's no time to regret what you did to incur this woman's wrath. You die from massive head trauma.

3. The Yankees don't suck. So now you're dead and the last thing you shouted was, "Yankees Suck!" Don't you feel silly? Your final words weren't even true! What a way to go! John Quincy Adams said, "This is the last of earth! I am content," before he passed. You said, "Yankees suck!" See the difference?

4. There is no real rivalry. It's all marketing, folks. Didn't Hank Steinbrenner recently talk about the chance of a possible business venture with the Red Sox sometime down the line? Wasn't John Henry a small shareholder of the New York Yankees from 1991 through several World Championships in the late 90s? Didn't Alex Rodriguez and Jason Varitek (they of the infamous glove-in-the-face fight) share the same agent until this past offseason? Didn't Manny Ramírez upset Red Sox fans more for having a beer with former Yankee Enrique Wilson in 2003 than not playing in a game because he said he was sick?

5. The Red Sox don't suck either. I know this because the Yankees don't suck. Have you noticed these teams have become eerily similar over the past several years? I'll leave you with this question:

Of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, which team fits the following description?

• Proud owner of multiple World Series titles in the past 10 years

• Bloated payroll, bursting at times with some bad contracts paid to overrated or over-the-hill players

• Smart GM struggling at times with ownership

• Signed Johnny Damon to a 4-year deal

• Stayed in the Johan Santana talks only to keep the other team from signing him

• Recently rebuilt farm system, calling up prospects to play at the major league level

• Bid millions of dollars just to negotiate with a Japanese free agent

• Rabid fan base (see above)

And that's just off the top of my head! I'd keep going, but the Sox-Tigers game has already started. My point here is that it's fun to debate or even root against your designated rival. But when it goes beyond that--when lines are crossed, when it gets ugly--the fans lose every time.