Hundreds come to Frist to watch Yankees best Boston in ALCS

No, the screams you heard last night were not those of your friends going out their minds studying or the usual Thursday night crowd returning from the Street. They were the Red Sox and Yankees fans cheering their teams on in a mindblowing Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

Of course the biggest roar of all came after the first pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning when Yankees' third baseman Aaron Boone hit a hanging knuckle ball from Tim Wakefield deep into the left field stands, clinching the 39th pennant for the Yankees.

The class governments organized the festivities surrounding the game in room 302 of the Frist Campus Center.

"[Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas] Dunne suggested the idea after last night's [Game 6]," Class of 2004 secretary Maureen Monagle said. "The administration was incredibly supportive and helped us pull this together in about six hours this morning. It was a nice opportunity for all of the class governments to work together."

Class of 2004 president Eli Goldsmith said before the contest, "[This game] is a historic event. It's the biggest rivalry in sports, the playoffs and the seventh game. I think it will be great for baseball and great for the students to come together like this."

Students arrived to see the big game on the big screen with high hopes for their team's performance. One freshman, Rob Diamond, grew up in London, but most of his family lives in Boston, and he is a die-hard Red Sox fan.

'Love of the game'

"I really think it should be this year because of this team's unity," Diamond said. "These are guys who are playing for the love of the game. The guys on this team are like brothers; the Yankees might have all of the glitz and glamour, but we have heart."

The Red Sox dominated the game for the first seven innings, building a 5-2 lead.

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Erica Thomas '06, a New Jersey resident and lifetime Yankees fan, said at the bottom of the seventh, "I'm feeling kind of dejected. There are only two more innings left, and they are down by two. It looks pretty dire, but I hope they can still pull it out."

Things started looking up for the Yankees in the eighth inning, however. In the bottom of the frame, New York battered Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez for three runs, tying the game at five.

"It's typical Yankees to get lucky late in the game," said senior class vice president Rishi Jaitly '04, who grew up in New York City but cheers for the Mets and is an avid Yankee-hater.

Yankees fans had a different perspective. "Never count the Yankees down; we will always overcome," Kait Reilly '07 said. "The Yankees have stamped on the Red Sox every year since 1918. That's not a rivalry. That's a farm system."

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The din of encouragemtent and profanity as the eighth inning came to a close revealed the escalating tempers, tension and excitement.

"If they [the Red Sox] lose this, it would be the worst thing that could happen in Boston since Kennedy was shot," Diamond said.

After Boone's shot, it was just another year lost to the Curse of the Bambino. Red Sox fans stormed angrily out. Yankees fans had exciting plans to celebrate the victory; "I'm going to go study for my math test tomorrow," Shankar Iyer '07 said.