Ron DeSantis reminisces again about Red Sox Nation

Speaking at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics‘ “Politics and Eggs” event, Gov. Ron DeSantis told again a story about how he came to be a fan of the Boston Red Sox.

During his remarks, the Florida Governor and 2024 Republican candidate for President reminisced about being in Boston nearly two decades ago, as the Red Sox made baseball history.

“I was up here when the Red Sox won the World Series and broke the curse,” DeSantis said, noting that for “all seven years (he) was up here, (he) was rooting for the Red Sox over the Yankees.”

DeSantis’ Red Sox fandom began when he was at Yale for undergraduate work. An old teammate of his was the son of Manager Jimy Williams, who DeSantis called a “great guy.”

“So we got in a car from Connecticut, drove up, you know. You show up and, you know, it’s a really neat experience,” DeSantis related.

“Tickets are at will call. And it’s me and another, probably, freshman or sophomore 18-, 19-year-old kids. And we hand the ticket to the usher — and this is like a crusty veteran usher — and he looks at it and the pretty good seats and he’s looking at us. He’s like, what’s going on here?”

The seats, DeSantis noted, were “literally right next to the dugout” and across from the Green Monster.

“After the game, we were in the office with Jimy and you see Pedro Martinez and all these other people,” DeSantis related.

DeSantis, who didn’t mention his Red Sox affinity before running for President, has made up for lost time during recent trips to New Hampshire.

During an August stop in Nashua, the Florida Governor waxed enthusiastic about the Sox and their winning the 2004 World Series.

“It was such an exciting time. The only disappointment was when they swept St. Louis, so they didn’t win the World Series back in Boston,” DeSantis said, as reported by the New Hampshire Journal.

The Governor grew up a Braves fan and lived in Tampa Bay as a youth, but of late has talked up his affinity for the Rays’ AL East rival.

During an interview on Boston’s WBZ, the Florida Governor described a devotion to the team unlike that seen in the Sunshine State.

“I grew up a Braves fan in the Southeast. And then when the Rays came, I was in college, so I was kind of getting into them,” DeSantis said. “But by the time I was in law school, like, I was part of Red Sox Nation, I was rooting for them more then, you know, and so when they went down three to nothing in 2004, I was like, man, is this ever going to happen?”

“When they came back to beat the Yankees winning four in a row, I knew the curse was gone. I knew they were going to beat the Cardinals and the feeling in that part of the country, not just in the city of Boston, in Cambridge and other parts of New England, the whole population was so into it,” added DeSantis, who was at Harvard Law School at the time.

That excitement was unlike anything he’d experienced at home, he said.

“And that was unlike anything I’ve seen in Florida because, you know, the Bucs have won a couple of Super Bowls. We’ve had other teams do. Well, we’ve had a lot of great college football and people get excited, don’t get me wrong, but this was just in the bloodstream in New England. And I’ve never seen so many people be so revved up and when they won it, it was like such a big deal.”

The Governor, though born and raised in Florida, has proven willing and able to denigrate in-state sports at the expense of markets he is courting for votes.

Speaking to the California Republican Party last month, he insulted the University of Florida’s football team, saying he needed “their football team to start doing a little bit better.” At that point, the Gators were 3-1.

The Governor said similar things in Georgia the month before.

“I will say, as somebody who was born and raised in Florida, the Florida-Georgia game was a little easier lift for us back in the day than it is now. And you Georgians know what I mean,” DeSantis said. “So, congratulations on all the success. We’ve done better on almost everything policywise. I can point out many things. College football has not necessarily been one of them. So we’re trying to turn the corner.”