New York's next mayor could be a diehard Red Sox fan (UPDATE: he won)
Bill de Blasio, New York mayoral candidate, is a Red Sox fan
UPDATE, 11/6: The results from Tuesday's election are in, and Bill "deep devotion to the Red Sox" de Blasio is your new mayor of New York City. If any New Yorkers were dissuaded from voting for him because of his incongruous baseball allegiance, there could not have been many, as he beat Yankee fan Joe Lhota by almost 50 percentage points. Congratulations to de Blasio on his victory -- and for staying true to his team in the process.
ORIGINAL, 8/21: Like squaring the circle or dividing by zero, a diehard Red Sox fan as Mayor of New York sounds like a kind of cosmic impossibility that should result in the universe collapsing in on itself. But as crazy as it might sound, there is a very real chance it could happen.
The New York Times recently asked the seven leading candidates for the office a set of five mostly lighthearted questions, one of which was where their baseball loyalties lie. Six were quick to mention the Mets, Yankees or both, but one deviated from the rule. New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who grew up in Cambridge, Mass., proudly declared his unwavering Sox support.
De Blasio is not a fringe candidate; the latest polls show him in a statistical tie for the lead in the Democratic primary. While he also told the Times that he would be "very happy to celebrate any New York sports team" as mayor, his "deep devotion" to the Yankees' archrivals would certainly go against the grain for someone holding New York City's highest office.
If you want this New York resident's opinion, I give de Blasio a lot of credit for staying true to his deeply-held fandom. We expect politicians to be politicians about pretty much everything -- so it's refreshing to me when one isn't, especially on a position with the potential to ruffle a few feathers like this one.
What do you think? Should the mayor of a city be a fan of its sports teams no matter what? Or do you think fan loyalties should be respected even when they're at odds with their constituents?