Yankee fans take the All-Star game for themselves

BRONX, NY — Hey, we understand the Sox/Yanks rivalry and the catcalls, boos and insults that go along with it. But the All-Star game didn’t belong to the Yankee fans just because it was played in Yankee Stadium. Simply put, they should have left the boos at home.

But they didn’t.

Papelbon was booed lustily. So was Manny, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Youk and manager Terry Francona. It took such intense focus and energy to properly time the boos that the all-stars from the other teams were largely ignored. Pretty disgraceful.

The majority of the TV viewers must have felt cheated out of a feel-good event. The downer Yankee fans were cheering for pinstripes, and that was it. And announcer Joe Buck pandered to the crowd at every opportunity, like an attention-needing evangelist pounding on the bible in the pulpit to elicit a roar from his congregation. Buck has to be the most overrated sportscaster this century, as he seems to be on an unending quest to prove how smart he is. It’s a baseball game, Joe. Save words like “quintet” for your poetry club.

Then there was Wade Boggs. Wearing that Yankee hat. Wade was a hired gun who happened to win a World Series in the Bronx. No one remembers him as a Yankee. Fans in the Bronx spent most of his career hating him, insisting that Mattingly was better.

Somehow, the fans’ disgraceful behavior overshadowed the major “character” in this year’s all-star story. It wasn’t Josh Hamilton. It wasn’t even Mariano Rivera. It was Yankee Stadium itself, and on this night the historic stadium showed up wearing nothing but rags.