Will Mason DeSantis join ‘Red Sox Nation’?

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Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 1.14.24

New Hampshire baseball fans are hearing about a potential convert to their cause from Tallahassee.

Florida’s Governor is telling Granite State Republicans that his son may be cheering on their favorite baseball team.

The proof is apparently in how he sorts baseball cards. Recounting a trip to visit the Green Monster, Ron DeSantis noted that young Mason was separating cards by teams.

“And with no prompting for me or no discussions, when he came to Red Sox players, he was putting the Red Sox players in his special stack. And I think it’s because the Fenway Park had an impression on him. So you very well may have an addition to Red Sox Nation all the way down in Tallahassee, Florida,” DeSantis said Wednesday.

The Governor made the comments during a town hall in Hampton, New Hampshire. It was hosted by the Never Back Down super PAC.

DeSantis had told a version of this story before, but not with the suggestion Mason had become a fan of the team.

In an effort to relate to New Hampshire voters, 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.”