Cam Schlittler vs. Boston is a beef that just won’t die. And the New York Yankees right-hander from Walpole, Massachusetts is ready to steer into it when he makes his first career start at Fenway Park.
Schlittler, the Yankees’ 25-year-old fireballer who emerged as a playoff hero last season and a rotation mainstay this year, told news media that he and his family have received death threats prior to his scheduled start on Thursday, April 23.
Schlittler, who attended Northeastern and has a 1.95 ERA in five starts this season, is expecting a very rude welcome at Fenway Park, the latest twist in a saga of Area Man Gets Drafted By Hated Rival.
“Most normal fans could care less, right?,” Schlittler told the New York Post. “It’s just those diehards that just have nothing else in their lives other than baseball or sports that really care about this, and the fact that I play for the Yankees makes it worse for them.”
The Schlittler-Boston feud jumped off in earnest in October, when he dominated the Red Sox in a winner-take-all Game 3 in the AL wild-card series at Yankee Stadium, striking out 12 over eight shutout innings. As the champagne flew in the Yankees’ clubhouse, Schlittler revealed the extent he’d been beefing with Red Sox fans leading up to the start.
“I didn’t like some of the things they said today,” Schlittler said after Game 3. “I’m not going to get into it, but there’s a line I think they crossed a little bit. Again, I’m a competitor and I’m going to go out there and make sure I shut them down.
“We’re aggressive back home and we’re going to try to get under people’s skins. They just picked the wrong guy to do it to. And the wrong team to do it to.”
Schlittler later tweeted, “Drinkin’ dat dirty water,” a reference to the Red Sox’s victory song. A month later, he peacefully attended a Boston Bruins game at TD Garden, showing he still has some allegiance toward New England.
Come Thursday, though, it’s business as usual.
“(You’d) think after last time,” he told The Athletic, “how much they were talking before, that they might be trying to quiet it down a little bit.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Yankees’ Cam Schlittler keeps clashing with Red Sox fans
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