NEW YORK – “This is one that I’ve had circled for a long time,” Hunter Dobbins told the Herald as he stood in the visitors dugout watching passing showers soak Yankee Stadium.
The 25-year-old right-hander is among several Red Sox rookies who arrived in the Bronx eager to make their mark on what many consider the greatest rivalry in sports. Marcelo Mayer, for example, said getting booed by Yankees fans as he rounded the bases after hitting his first career home run on Friday night, was like “music to your ears.”
For Dobbins, who’s scheduled to take the mound against the Yankees for the first time on Sunday evening, the rivalry has been part of his life for as long as he can remember.
“My dad was a diehard Red Sox fan,” he said. “And I’ve said it before, that if the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire.”
Dobbins grew up playing second base, and said the favorite Red Sox player of his youth was Dustin Pedroia. The rookie right-hander wasn’t exactly a “diehard” Sox fan like his father, though. Much like a fan who doesn’t buy a player’s jersey until their retirement in case of a trade or defection to a rival, he took a more diplomatic, strategic approach to baseball.
With the exception of the Yankees, of course.
“I grew up watching the Red Sox a lot, but I knew I wanted to do this as a career,” he said. “I didn’t get attached to a team, but I grew up watching (the Red Sox), and just, I think out of disdain for the Yankees, I watched anybody but them.”
If Pedroia was his favorite Red Sox, who was his least-favorite Yankee?
“Can I say all of them but Andy Pettitte?” Dobbins asked, naming the five-time World Series champion who spent all but three of his 18 big-league seasons in Yankee pinstripes. “Andy Pettitte and my dad were really good friends.”
After playing college ball at Alabama, Lance Dobbins pitched two seasons in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. He almost ended up on the team he hated, though. He was, at least, willing to join the organization.
“He was actually drafted twice by the Yankees,” his son said. “Signed with them his last year and then he got traded over to the Diamondbacks.”
And what if the Yankees, not the Red Sox had selected him in the ‘21 draft?
“I think whoever I was playing with or whoever I would have been drafted by, I’d still hate the Yankees, so Sunday should be a fun one,” Dobbins said, “I’m hoping I hit a career-high in velo or something. … I’m ready for it. Sunday can’t come fast enough.”
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