When rivals meet

As a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, I follow my team closely and appreciate how fans of others teams are passionate for theirs. This past summer this culminated in what was nothing short of an online battle on a ski resort forum regarding the Red Sox and the New York Yankees. While Sunday River boasts skiers from all over the east, it's fairly rare for too many Yankees fans to be around, but a few years back someone had started a thread for the two sides to debate. For one reason or another, I decided to get involved in the debate and it was nothing short of cut-throat. Both sides took shots at one another over a whole season and it was easy to formulate opinions about those who we were debating, but then as the ski season neared and the promise of meeting some of the Yankees fans, approached, I was curious as to what they would be like. We knew the thread was all in fun, but still, I was a little apprehensive. And yet today I finally met one of the men I'd been sparing with. In 10-degree temperatures with 20-knot winds, he joined a bunch of us for some runs and I got a chance to chat with him. I was pleasantly surprised by the mutual respect we had for each others teams, but also that he was nothing like I had imagined. Baseball season is over and we were embraced in our passion for skiing. If only this was always the case...