Jeff Lyash: "I'm a recovered Red Sox fan"

Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, October 18, 2008

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The law gives new Florida residents just 10 days to transfer the title of their car and get plates.

Nowhere, though, are they instructed on how to transfer deep-rooted attachments to their favorite sports teams.

Many newfound Rays fans likely have a forsaken ball cap from a former beloved team still hanging in the closet. Perhaps no one has shifted allegiance as completely as the man who has been working to find the Rays a new place to build a ballpark: Jeff Lyash, president and chief executive of Progress Energy.

No, the Pennsylvania native and alumnus of Philadelphia's Drexel University won't find himself torn if the Phillies meet the Rays in the World Series.

Worse.

Lyash rooted for the Red Sox for 33 years. This wasn't a mild flirtation. The man took his then-4-year-old son to Fenway Park on April 29, 1986, when Roger Clemens famously stuck out 20 batters.

"I grew up a Red Sox fan. Carl Yastrzemski, Jimmy Rice, Carlton Fisk," Lyash said. "… I'm a convert to the Rays."

Lyash moved to Florida and transferred his allegiance to the Rays in 2003, the year before the long-suffering Sox broke their 86-year-old curse and won the World Series.

He insists he harbors no lingering loyalty. "I'm a recovered Red Sox fan. I'm a Rays fan now.

"I'm not sure if Carl Yastrzemski knocked on my door and asked me to root for the Red Sox, if I would," Lyash added.

"Maybe if you could get Ted Williams to do it, maybe then I might."

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Jeff Lyash: "I'm a recovered Red Sox fan"

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