The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays has become one of the best in Major League Baseball, and now Barney has been thrown right in the middle of it. No, not Cubs infielder Darwin Barney, but the singing purple dinosaur from the ’90s and ’00s children’s show.
Tonight at Fenway Park, the Red Sox sound booth played Barney’s “I Love You” while the Rays took batting practice. According to ESPN, the 10-minute set also included “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt”
From Gordon Edes:
This music stuff has been going on since 2012, when the Rays, unhappy that the Sox played no music during their BP (the Sox give everybody the same treatment), provided their own accompaniment, outfielder B.J. Upton bringing a boombox to the field. The Rays have responded in kind — there was no music when the Sox hit last weekend, which inspired Clay Buchholz to borrow a page from Upton’s act and furnish the tunes.
The teams have been recently battling in both the American League East and on twitter. Last year @RaysBaseball called out the Red Sox for not updating their scoreboard right after a game in which Tampa passed the Sox in the division standings. @RedSox responded by making a quip about having “home games” at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where Sox fans often outnumber Rays fans.
Fenway Park DJ TJ Connelly elaborated on the back-and-forth earlier tonight on Twitter.
once upon a time, the #Rays got upset we wouldn't play music for their batting practice at Fenway. for the record, no visitor gets BP music.
— TJ Connelly (@senatorjohn) May 30, 2014
later, the Rays called out our scoreboard operators, and there was some back and forth on Twitter between the two teams.
— TJ Connelly (@senatorjohn) May 30, 2014
last year during the playoffs, the Trop played "The Lady In Red" under the Sox pregame lineups.
— TJ Connelly (@senatorjohn) May 30, 2014
and last week, they decided to play "Sweet Caroline" after beating us at the Trop. which, say what you will about Neil Diamond, is not ok.
— TJ Connelly (@senatorjohn) May 30, 2014