Fangraphs Weekly Mail Bags: June 14, 2025

It was a beautiful evening in Brooklyn Wednesday and although I couldn’t get to the Citi field of the Metropolitan Country in time, I decided to walk for a long time and then stop at the local sports bar to read and watch some baseball. Naturally, the Mets were on one TV behind the bar, and the other was reserved for the Yankees, who were planning to play the Royals after a while. It was frustrating for two Red Sox fans Mike and Kathleen who sat next to me, but they were resourceful. The bar has free WiFi, so Mike pulled up the Boston vs. Rays on his phone. He and Kathleen don’t know each other, but they’ve recognized each other since Sox fans before the weekend when they both watched the Yankees Red Sox at the same bar. He moved to the stool between Catherine and me so that she and her partner Harry could also watch the game. The four of us started talking and it turns out that Harry and I went to the same high school, even though he was four years ahead of me. Small world!

Anyway, Katherine told me that between Marcelo Mayer’s first and second home runs, I said to me, “The best thing about Red Sox fans is that we love and hate socks at the same time, and we love to hate them too.” I asked this question because I thought about her description of Boston fans because I sat down to answer the first question in the mailbag of the week.

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