MR. RUSSERT: You spent a lot of time in, in Massachusetts. Are you a Red Sox fan?
GOV. RICHARDSON: I'm a Red Sox fan, but I got into trouble in New Hampshire. You know why? Because I said...
MR. RUSSERT: Luis Tiant, the fund-raiser. But, now, governor, this is very serious. In your book on page 18 it says...
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, about Mickey Mantle?
MR. RUSSERT: You said you're a Yankee fan!
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no. I said-no, no, no.
MR. RUSSERT: I mean, you can, you can...
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no, no.
MR. RUSSERT: ...you can have different views on immigration, assault weapons...
GOV. RICHARDSON: I, no no no no. No, what I said...
MR. RUSSERT: But when it comes to Red Sox, Yankees.
GOV. RICHARDSON: What I said, the Associated Press asked me, "If you weren't running for president, if you weren't running for president, what would you rather be?" I've always been a Red Sox fan, but I said if I weren't running for president I would like to be number seven, Mickey Mantle, playing center field for the New York Yankees.
MR. RUSSERT: "Because of Mickey Mantle, I became a Yankee fan."
GOV. RICHARDSON: I, my favorite team has always been the Red Sox.
MR. RUSSERT: You're a Red Sox fan.
GOV. RICHARDSON: I'm a Red Sox fan.
MR. RUSSERT: End of subject.
GOV. RICHARDSON: End of subject.
MR. RUSSERT: You better get rid of this book.
GOV. RICHARDSON: Oh, no! I'm also a Yankee fan. I also like...
MR. RUSSERT: Oh, now, wait a minute!
GOV. RICHARDSON: You can-Tim...
MR. RUSSERT: I guarantee...
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, I know, I got in trouble...
MR. RUSSERT: ...if you go-if you go to Yankee Stadium or Fenway, you cannot be both.
GOV. RICHARDSON: But I like-Mickey Mantle was my hero. If I weren't running for president, and the Associated Press asked me, I'd play center field for the New York-I wanted to be number seven. And-but I still love the Red Sox as a team. I mean, this is the thing about me, Tim. I can bring people together. I can unify people.
MR. RUSSERT: Yankee fans and Red Sox fans?
GOV. RICHARDSON: Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: Not a chance.
GOV. RICHARDSON: Well, I bet you I can.
Wait, did Richardson say he could "unify people"? Frankly, I'd want to be "unified" with Yankee fans as much as I'd want to "unified" with a bowl of scorpions and earwigs.
Now some of you may be shaking your head and muttering something about this just being a game and all. But it's not to those involved. Some writer somewhere called the rivalry the Athens/Sparta of modern America - Athens, of course, being the Red Sox. Only the Red Sox and Yankees war a dozen times each year. And the Spartan probably bathed once in a while. And I guarantee the cost of outfitting today's clubs outweighs the pittance paid to the Athenian and Spartan troops.
