09:39 AM EDT on Friday, September 30, 2005

BY ELIZABETH GUDRAIS
Journal Staff Writer

At first, Warren Rosenberg kept his Red Sox fever a secret.

New York City born and bred, Rosenberg started rooting for the Sox 30 years ago, as a teenager. He became a Bruins fan first, taking the bus up to Boston to see hockey games with the New York Rangers fan club. "I sat there quiet on the bus, didn't tell anybody who I liked, of course."

He grew up in Queens, the son of a Yankees fan and a Dodgers fan, but found himself falling in love with all things Boston, including the city's baseball team.

Now, at 45, Rosenberg no longer hides his idiosyncrasy. He's got a Red Sox jacket that's the perfect weight for fall. He takes it out each October as the weather starts to cool and playoff season approaches, and he wears it on the streets of Manhattan, traveling to and from his job as facility manager for a media company. Starting next week, he says, "I'll be walking around with a target on my back."

Hostility is everywhere. Last year, his boss told him if the Sox won the World Series, he'd be fired. Rosenberg wasn't entirely sure he was kidding.

Of all the insults Yankee fans have hurled at him over the years, Rosenberg can't think of a single clever one. But then, that would only make sense: "Yankee fans" -- he says -- "they're not clever."

After the Sox won, the comments got nastier. Rosenberg didn't mind; he's got reason to be smug. His response: "I just smile."

Rosenberg attends a few games a year at Fenway Park, and a few PawSox games at McCoy Stadium. And "when they come down here," he says, "forget about it. It's like a religious holiday for me."

Photo courtesy of Louis DiLullo

Warren Rosenberg, left, of New York City, roots for the Red Sox, and Loius DiLullo, right, of providence, roots for the Yankees. Pictued at Yankee Stadium, the two have become friends over the past few years and have attended about 10 games together.

Rosenberg's all-time favorite game wasn't one he saw at Fenway or at Yankee Stadium. He watched it at home, on TV. It was July 24, 2004. The game featured a bench-clearing brawl in the sixth inning and a ninth-inning home run by Bill Mueller that took the score from 10-9, Yankees, to 11-10, Sox. That game "let off so much steam and frustration that had been building over the years," Rosenberg says, and it's not clear whether he means the fight, or the official victory. "I don't think I would have gotten that excited if I won the lotto."

He gets the Providence Journal mailed to his house in Rockland County so he can follow Sox coverage. In the last four years, he has posted more than 13,000 comments on projo.com.

That's how he met Lou DiLullo.

DiLullo lives in Providence, but he's a Yankees fan. After discovering they were both fish out of water, DiLullo and Rosenberg decided to meet up in person five years ago, for a game at Yankee Stadium. They've attended 10 more games together since.

Last year, DiLullo mailed Rosenberg a gift: two pairs of baby-sized Yankees socks for Rosenberg's twin daughters, Brittany and Natasha.

Rosenberg's wife, Shannon, threw them in the trash. She's a Sox fan too.

Shannon hails from Connecticut, but she and Warren met in New York. He would still have fancied her if her tastes in baseball had been less reasonable, but liking the Sox didn't hurt. And watching Sox games on TV definitely made visits to the in-laws more palatable.

DiLullo jokes that Brittany and Natasha are going to grow up and fall in love with Yankees fans. Rosenberg doesn't find that funny.

He bought his daughter Red Sox jerseys, and made sure "Nomar" was among their first words.

Of course, Rosenberg and DiLullo trade barbs. It's only natural. Despite last year's World Series outcome, DiLullo still tries to claim superiority for his team, on the grounds of number of championships won. Rosenberg's response? "OK, fine. We had a bad century. How many have you won this century?

"Because we've won one."