The front-page stamp of John Henry!
Battle Cry of the Program Vendors
His “Forward Operating Base” is....
His troops call themselves the “Yawkey Militia” as he paces the ranks, handing out assignments like a field general.
Here comes the “forward line air support.”
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In a season when the battle has essentially ended on the field at Fenway Park, there is an intense war going on in the streets around it involving rival gangs of program vendors — The Hawker Games.
In one corner, we have Boston Baseball, the unofficial game-day “program” that has owned the market around Fenway since the late ’80s, protected from the big club by the First Amendment.
In the other corner, we have Sly Egidio, who was fired by Boston Baseball after two decades as its signature hawker. He was so upset he created a rival publication, Yawkey Way Report, with a single goal: to destroy Boston Baseball. It is partly a business plan but mostly an elaborate revenge plot against Mike Rutstein, his former boss at Boston Baseball.
“When this is done, I will vanquish him, no matter how long it takes,” he says to his troops. “I will not stop until I take Berlin!”
Most everything Egidio says is a war metaphor, a “Star Wars” metaphor, or a baseball metaphor. He’s 37, was a Marine for 8 years, and likes to talk about it a lot, usually by telling you that he can’t talk about it. But there’s no question that tactical aggression is the great love of his life.
The story of Sly’s War, or at least his version of it, is....
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Rutstein says that Egidio’s war has certainly dug into his market, but he insists it’s not because of Sly’s war but Egidio says Rutstein’s attempt to sell Boston Baseball is a clear sign that he’s winning the war....
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Related: Bye-Bye, Boston
