The Bruins were in town to play the Rangers last night. And speaking of the "From the Blue Seats" archives, here's something I wrote in 1998 about a similar such matchup of the teams.
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by Michael R. DiLorenzo
January 9, 1998
After the abominable loss by the Rangers to the Capitals last night, I thought we'd shift gears and talk about something more important than trading Kovalev or starting Cloutier.
As a Ranger-backer living in Boston, it's important to me that New York finish higher than the Bruins in the final standings.
While New York tried to reload to recapture the Stanley Cup, Boston has gone the other way, getting young guys and rookies to spearhead a resurgence. To date, Boston's young guns have compiled a better record than New York's hired guns.
But there's an even greater recipe for success and it lies in the fabric of each city. With that scientology in mind, here's how the teams stack up head-to-head.
CLAM CHOWDER:New York has Manhattan Style. Boston has New England clam chowder. If you've ever been to Durgin Park and had the clam chowder, you know you would step over your own mother for a bowl. Outside of linguine and clam sauce, tomatoes and clams should not be seen in the same room. Advantage: Boston.
BARTENDERS: New York has the guy at the East Side's "Around the Clock" that bought me a round after I got punched in the face by a strange woman. Boston has Steve a k a "Dean Smith," the friendly North Carolinan who buys me every third beer. Advantage: Boston.
BARS: New York has the oldest ale house in America, McSorley's Old Ale House. "We were here before you were born," they say. They wash the glasses in dirty water and you have to order beers by the twos. You can order 20 beers at a time. Boston has the Beacon Hill Pub, "Home of the Average Looking Woman." Advantage: New York, by KO.
ARENAS: New York has the Most Famous Arena in the World. Boston has the FleetCenter. Advantage: New York.
GARDENS: New York still has Madison Square Garden. Until the wrecking ball comes down, Boston has Boston Garden *and* the Boston Beer Garden in Southie. Mmmm ... beer. Advantage: Boston.
BASEBALL STADIUMS: New York has Yankee Stadium, which no matter how much tradition I pile into, I still can't park my car outside of. And forget about Shea. Boston has Fenway Park, home of the Green Monster and right next to the Baseball Tavern. Advantage: Boston.
ACCENTS: New York has the wise guy accent. Boston has two accents, Harvardian and Arlingtonian. The wise guy and the Arlingtonian cancel each other leaving the Frasier Crane Harvardian. Advantage: Boston.
NEWSPAPERS: New York has the Times and Post. Boston has the Globe and Herald. The Times owns the Globe. The Post is better than the Herald. The Globe Sunday sports section is the weekly bible of enthusiasts throughout New England. Advantage: Boston.
SITCOMS: New York has "Seinfeld," "Taxi" and a million others. Boston had "Cheers" and "Goodnight Beantown." "Cheers" outlived its usefulness. "Taxi" ended too soon. We wanted more. Advantage: New York.
CRIME/DRAMAS: New York has Manhattan South's "Kojak." Boston had George Peppard as "Banancek." Theo Kojak had Crocker and Stavros as sidekicks. He always had lollypops. Banacek had a Jack Lord hairdo, tons of broads and drank martinis. Clearly a fictional character. Advantage: New York.
PRO WRESTLERS: I'm not aware of any pro wrestlers from New York. Boston has "The Duke of Dorchester" Pete Doherty and Domenic DeNucci. Advantage: Boston.
MOVIES ABOUT THE MOB: New York has "The Godfather," "Good Fellas," and "Donnie Brasco." Boston has "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," starring Robert Mitchum as a small-time mobster-turned-stoolie. It contains footage of an Orr-era Bruins game. Advantage: New York.
RECENT REAL LIFE MOBSTERS: New York has John Gotti and Sammy Gravano. Boston has Whitey Bulger and "Cadillac" Salemme. We love the name "Cadillac." We're afraid of "The Bull." Advantage: New York.
BASKETBALL COACHES: New York has Jeff Van Gundy. Boston has Rick Pitino. Pitino dresses well, used to coach the Knicks *and* he went to UMass. Major points there. Van Gundy is ugly and self-deprecating. Advantage: Boston.
FOOTBALL COACHES: New York has Jim Fassel and Bill Parcells. Boston has Pete Carroll. Back in grade school, Parcells was a class bully while Carroll got beat up a lot. Advantage: New York.
GUTTER SNIPE ATTENDING PRO FOOTBALL GAMES: New York fans are unbearably loud, but only when they are shouting out things they obviosuly have no idea about. And I'm there rooting for the Giants. Boston football fans are the drunkest, dirtiest, rudest people who ever walked the earth. You wouldn't take a sailor to Patriots games. Advantage: Tie.
BRIDGES: New York has the George Washington, among dozens of others. Boston has the Tobin, the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge and the Mass. Ave. Bridge to Cambridge. The fact that Boston has a footbridge of any kind carries a lot of weight. Advantage: Tie.
NEIGHBORING STATES: New York has New Jersey. Enough said. Boston has Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and it used to *own* Maine. As soon as New Jersey was declared a state, real estate prices in New York went down 50 percent. Meanwhile, Bostonians can get maple syrup from Vermont. Advantage: Boston.
TERM FOR ICE CREAM TOPPINGS: New Yorkers say "sprinkles." Bostonians say "jimmies." I'm a little uncomfortable with "jimmies" going on my ice cream. Advantage: New York.
NEIGHBORHOODS: New York has Hell's Kitchen. Boston has Mission Hill. I don't know about you, but if Hell has a Kitchen, I don't want to live there. On the other hand, you are a 50/50 shot to be killed just driving through the Hill. I'll take my chances. Advantage: Boston.
PIZZA: New York has Lenny & John's in Brooklyn. Boston has New York Style Pizza on Mass. Ave. You can't name your pizza after another city's and expect to win this contest. Advantage: New York.
CITY NICKNAMES: New York is the Big Apple. Boston is the Hub. The Big Apple is nice, but calling yourself "the Hub" is just so arrogant, you have to believe Bostonians think the world revolves around them. Advantage: Boston.
CAB DRIVERS: In New York, you are almost guaranteed that your cabbie doesn't habla ingles. In Boston that's much the case too, but one time in every hundred you'll get a "Sully" or "O'B" to pick you up. I even had a woman cabbie here in Boston once! Advantage: Boston.
REAL WORLD CASTS: New York's was an original. Boston had the worst cast ever. You wanted to crawl into the TV set just to dope slap Genesis, Elka or whoever. Advantage: New York.
CELEBRITY OWNED EATERIES: New York has Mickey Mantle's. Boston has Buzzy's Roast Beef, purportedly owned, at least in part, by Jay Leno. Mickey was a legend, but Buzzy's is the place where the grotesquely obese go to get fat. I can hit Buzzy's any night at 3 a.m., get me a burger, clam strips, roast beef, fried half-potatoes and probably get a swig of Thunderbird from the whino lying under the picnic table. Advantage: Boston.
COLLEGES: New York has Columbia, NYU, Fordham and St. John's, among others. Boston has Harvard, MIT, Tufts, BU, BC and Northeastern. Columbia may not be Harvard, but BC is overrated and everyone gets into Northeastern. Advantage: Tie.
COLLEGE ATHLETIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Fordham had "The Seven Blocks of Granite," CCNY won the NCAA's and NIT in the same year and St. John's had Louie Carnesecca. Holy Cross won the NCAA crown and BU is a really good hockey school. But how cool was Doug Flutie's pass to beat Miami back in '84? Advantage: Boston.
HIGH SCHOOL HEROES: New York had playground legends Connie Hawkins. The Hawk's legend has been preserved mostly through word-of-mouth and he was banned by the NBA for awhile for gambling. Plus, I'm not even sure he went to high school. Boston had Bobby Carpenter, who scored four third period goals to lead St. John's Prep to a 5-4 win in the state tournament. Hockey beats hoops any day. Advantage: Boston.
So, the final tally looks like this:
Boston 15, New York 12, with three categories tied.
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