Today, Monday, April 1, 2024, I will go to a baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees.

This is the second year we’ve had season tickets for the Dbacks, but it’s the first year the Yankees have come to town.

Thus, my dilemma.

I have been a lifelong Yankees fan, almost always, with a few rare exceptions, enjoying their dominance over the Boston Red Sox. But I’ve come to like the Diamondback games and cheering them on.

Our first game this year, opening day of 2024, was a 16-1 massacre of the Colorado Rockies. This comes on the heels of their NL Championship win and a solid, if a bit disheartening, seven-game World Series loss to the Texas Rangers.

At one point, my wife asked if I had ever seen such a score in baseball. I suspected this was a loaded question, and she knew the answer. My daughter, son-in-law, and wife once took me to a Yankees-Red Sox game for my birthday. I’ve blotted the game from my memory, but it was a 19 to 3 Yankees loss.

It was a nightmare. But the Red Sox victories over the Yankees are so rare, so uncommon, that I will acknowledge this occasional aberration in the fabric of the universe and accept it in the spirit of equanimity.

Even those inferior teams somehow eke out a victory once in a while.

But I will have mixed feelings come Monday. My heart will always be a Yankees fan, and I firmly believe in being loyal, but the Dbacks are now my home team, so I must choose.

I could take pleasure no matter who wins, but that isn’t baseball. So, while I may have to restrain myself if the Yankees score a run, I will cheer on the Dbacks. And I will keep in mind that the Red Sox will return next year, and the choice will be infinitely easier.

Go Dbacks.