Not that everyone was as good-natured as Larry Lucchino, who after spotting a photographer clicking a picture of him in the stands talking to Yankees GM Brian Cashman -- whom he'd just bumped into -- cracked to Cashman, "That could be a bad career move," alluding to the enmity Cashman's boss, George Steinbrenner, feels for the Red Sox CEO.
While Garciaparra, who sat out the game with a bruised heel he sustained when hit by a ground ball the previous day, was all smiles for just about everyone in a Yankee uniform -- hugs for A-Rod, Derek Jeter, and former teammate Tony Clark, handshakes with Yankees manager Joe Torre and new batting coach Don Mattingly -- emotions came to a boiling point in a stadium parking area, where Yankees publicist Rick Cerrone and a longtime Sox security guard, Dave McHugh, a retired postman from Portland, Maine, had a run-in.
"Do you know who I am?" shouted Cerrone, contending that McHugh had pushed him. "I'm with the American League champion New York Yankees, and you're a typical Boston Red Sox employee."
McHugh said he was merely trying to pass through a crowd of reporters in order to allow some Yankee players who had driven down from Tampa to leave, and that he'd put his hand out, said "excuse me," and gave Cerrone a small push when Cerrone inadvertently backed into him. Part of the problem was that Reggie Jackson's older brother, Ja Mz, had a car that was blocking that of Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. A call was placed to the Hall of Famer in the clubhouse, and he quickly got in touch with his bro. "You better get out there," he said. "You're starting a war out there."
But leave it to a Rodriguez to play peacemaker. Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, who had accompanied her husband here, gave McHugh a ball signed by A-Rod on her way out. Cyn-Rod wasn't around, however, when two young women, one a Yankee fan, one a Sox loyalist, had gone toe-to-toe in a parking lot spat before the game, which was won by the Yankees, 11-7.
