All over East Lansing, baseball fans and non-baseball fans gathered around TV sets as the deciding game in a heated battle between two East Coast baseball clubs captured their eyes and hearts.
The New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry can be that engrossing, some said.
"It's the ultimate rivalry," said Mike McCullough, a computer science and engineering junior, on Wednesday night as he and two friends sat watching the game at Buffalo Wild Wings, 360 Albert Ave.
Dozens of interested fans went to the sports bar before the game to get a prime position in front of the sports bar's numerous TV sets.
At press time, the Red Sox were winning in the top of the ninth inning, 10-3.
Before the Red Sox won 4-2 Tuesday to ensure game seven, no team in baseball history had overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series to even it out at three games apiece.
The New York Islanders in 1975 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 are the only two teams in North American major professional sports history to come back from a 3-0 series deficit and win the series.
The idea of a Yankees fan sharing a table and a beer with a Red Sox fan for game seven of the American League Championship Series might sound absurd in Boston or New York, but in East Lansing, it's not so taboo.
McCullough sat across from his friend Mike Case, an electrical engineering senior and professed Yankees fan, to watch the game at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Case, who hails from Massena, N.Y., wasn't worried that his team gave away a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox to force game seven.
"The Red Sox have the curse," Case said. "The Yankees wanted game seven for a reason."
"Curses are made to be broken," McCullough responded confidently.
Most fans around East Lansing seem to be pulling for the underdog Red Sox, but that didn't stop Anthony Parnello from wearing his Derek Jeter jersey to the bar to support his team.
Parnello moved to the East Lansing area from Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1975 and went to Buffalo Wild Wings with his son, Michael Parnello, and a friend.
Michael Parnello, of East Lansing, gave his explanation for why baseball fans in East Lansing align themselves with the Red Sox.
"They're just jealous of the tradition of winning and what the Yankees symbolize to sports in America," said Michael Parnello, 23.
As game time neared, he conceded that he was a little worried about New York's sudden three-game losing streak.
"It seems like (the Red Sox) have all the momentum," he said. "We've got to start hitting the ball."
The atmosphere wasn't much different on campus, either.
Biting his fingers and fidgeting on the couch, Red Sox fan Michael Alexander watched the game in his Mason Hall dorm room.
"It's huge," the astrophysics sophomore said. "This is the first time in history that any team has been down three and come back to play game seven."
Entranced by the TV, Alexander said he was unable to predict what would happen next. He said the last six games were nerve wracking.
"The way they won the last three games were really nailbiters," he said.
To Alexander, baseball is second nature. A Boston native and a former baseball player, he not only watches the sport, but gets into the feel of the game.
Just down the hall, a much more subdued Yankees fan glanced at a score box every now and then to see how his team was doing.
"I am not watching it tonight because they are losing and I can't stand it," said Lawrence Judd, a computer science and engineering and anthropology senior.
"I keep an eye on the box score online. I can't stand the tension from watching the game all the time."
The series is only a part of a rivalry that has been fueled for years, Alexander said.
"It's the biggest rivalry in all of sports," he said. "Just by watching Tuesday's game, when the calls did not go the Yankees' way, they were throwing baseballs on the field.
"It is always a really heated rivalry, even during the middle of the season."
