Did the Green Monster make Mason DeSantis a Red Sox fan?

Image via AP.

Ron DeSantis is suggesting the First Son may be becoming a fan of his once-beloved Boston Red Sox.

In Laconia, New Hampshire, at a Never Back Down super PAC tour stop, the Florida Governor recounted a tale of Mason DeSantis going to visit the famous Green Monster at Fenway Park earlier this year, noting that his child may be developing an affinity for the Massachusetts franchise.

The Governor told a Christmas story to illustrate; he noted that Mason was “opening up these packs of baseball cards” when it became clear he was segmenting off three different teams.

“Any Marlin he would put in his special stack, and any Tampa Bay Ray he would put in his special stack. And without even me saying anything when he came to Red Sox players, he started putting them in a special stack because he remembered the Green Monster. So I don’t know what fandom, how he’s going to develop as he gets older. But I just thought that was interesting, that just going to Fenway Park, that made an impression even on a 5-year-old kid,” the Governor said.

The Governor has noted that he was an avid Red Sox fan during his time in the Ivy League, saying for “all seven years (he) was up here, (he) was rooting for the Red Sox over the Yankees.”

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 this year 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.

“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.”