I keep hearing how Boston is this great sports city now, and New York is not. Which is true (as long as you conveniently forget that the Devils are in first and the Bruins are a middle-of-the-pack team, and yes, of course I had to look that up).

But what I don't like is when people act like "people in Boston are happy and people in New York are sad." And not just because I'm not a fan of the non-baseball Boston teams. Do Boston people not realize that for every New York team that does bad, you've got all the people who like their rival New York team in that sport happy because of it?

So it's not true that all New York fans are sad just because all (except for the Devils, and don't forget the Giants are in the playoffs, even though they're not exactly a great team) the New York teams are doing bad. They're all for the most part half-sad about their own team but half-happy that their rival is also doing bad.

It would be like if the Red Sox and Yankees were tied for last place, and some person from the west coast or something said "I'm so happy that all the Red Sox/Yankees fans are sad." When in reality, we'd both be half-happy that our rival is doing poorly. We and Yankee fans are not one grouped-together fanbase, just like "New York fans" aren't one group. They're two opposite halves. Or opposite thirds (or something) in hockey, with the three teams.

The ultimate thing that would make me happy would be that if all the Boston teams were doing well (okay, if I liked them all, which I don't, but that's not the point), and the Yankees, Giants, Knicks, and Rangers were in last place, while the Mets, Jets, Nets, Devils and Islanders were also doing well. That way it would be the Yankee-types all sad, and the opposite Yankee-types in both New York and Boston all happy.

Of course, there are those 5 percent of people from New York who just root for "all New York teams," which to me is as dumb as rooting for "all east coast teams" or "all American League teams." So, yeah, for those people (and screw them regardless), they are probably dying right now.

Oh, and about my division of the New York teams two paragraphs above this one, I guess some of you would group them differently. But trust me, having spent September 1975-May 2007 in the New York area, those are the teams Yankee fans, for the most part, like--Giants, Rangers, Knicks. Maybe it's changing now, but those will always be the teams I despise. (Okay, I can't say I despise the Rangers, since I have never cared about hockey, but, you know what I mean.)