Red Sox Program Hakwers

Sly Egidio of the Yawkey Way Report hawking programs outside Fenway Park in October 2013.

(Garrett Quinn, MassLive)

BOSTON — Independent fan-made game day programs are a common thing in the European sports world but less so in the United States. Most major stadiums in America are accessible only by car and surrounded by private parking lots, making it all but impossible for independent hawkers to move their wares near potential customers. Occasionally you will come across them in college sports, but more often than not, they simply do not exist.

Boston is different.

Fenway Park is built in a dense urban area, frequented by a high volume of pedestrian traffic, accessible by public transportation, and surrounded by public streets, not private parking lots. The area has proved a perfect breeding ground for independent fan-based publications.

Boston Baseball has reigned supreme on the streets surrounding Fenway Park as the most-read independent Boston Red Sox program of the last two decades. Challengers as high and mighty as The Boston Globe have tried to dethrone publisher Mike Rutstein's operation, but none have succeeded.

This season, a former employee of Rutstein's, Sly Egidio, is challenging him for for supremacy in the independent Red Sox program market with The Yawkey Way Report.

Despite the falling out between the two, Rutstein keeps his negative comments for Egidio to a minimum, but often refers to him as Sylvester, not Sly, the name he prefers, when taking a subtle dig at his publication.

"He was always a great sales person, don't get me wrong. Sly can sell water in the ocean, he can sell sand in the desert. He's a good sales person," said Rutstein.

When asked if he thinks the Yawkey Way Report will stick around, Rutstein said, "No, I don't think so."

Egidio is less reserved. "That guy is self-centered, egotistical, and pompous. He looks down on everybody because they don't have an Ivy League education and don't live in the suburbs."

Naturally, the men in charge of both magazines see their publication as the vastly superior one.

The Contenders

Both programs bring something different to prospective audiences.

Boston Baseball has the feel of a monthly journal devoted to the entire Red Sox organization, with deep coverage of the minor league system. The articles are crisp, thoughtful, and well-written. The scorecard is what a scorecard should be, with an easily-erasable surface and a rough guide to the quirky Fenway house rules. It is not full of bright hi-res photographs or official MLB anything -- the entire presentation of the magazine screams professional independence from the Red Sox. The giveaways are decent, but until recently tend to be on the lower end.

The Yawkey Way Report has a Barstool Sports meets ESPN: The Magazine feel to it with a youthful presentation and heavy reliance on official MLB photos (though, unlike Barstool, there are no scantily-clad models). The magazine is brighter and accompanied by, usually, two or three free giveaways of some kind. In September the program came with a tote bag with a handful of goodies. The writing is short and concise. The scorecard is on the same level as the one in Boston Baseball.

The Challenger

Egidio sees his prospects outside Fenway Park in a much brighter light than Rutstein, claiming to have 50 percent of the program market outside Fenway in his first year on the ground. He's laying the groundwork for the next twenty years of the Yawkey Way Report, he says.

"We're a younger, hipper brand of magazine, that's who we're going after, the twenty- and thirty-somethings who don't have three hours to read a four page article," said Egidio, a former Marine.

Egidio openly admits that his program doubles as an advertising vehicle for his memorabilia, but notes that unlike Rutstein, his publication has a website and acts as a "voice" for Red Sox Nation. Rutstein's publication does have an active and regularly-updated Facebook page.

The Yawkey Way Report's first run may soon be a collectable item on par with the thousands of items in Egidio's house, as five of the six first issues have sold out completely.

"We're strong, we're young, we're tough and we're aggressive," said Egidio.

The Veteran

Rutstein is less enthusiastic to talk about the competition because of the deeply personal nature of the rift between he and his former employee Egidio and, well, he's seen competitors come and go. According to Rutstein, this is the fifth or sixth time in his 24 years of publishing Boston Baseball that a competitor has challenged his publication. Since he has outlasted them all, a little competition does not bother him much.

"Probably the most serious challenge was the free daily newspaper that was published by the Boston Globe and the Metro in cooperation with the Red Sox and marketed as the official game day publication of the Boston Red Sox. It was free. That was tough," said Rutstein.

"You know, it's been a really difficult year and emotions have run very high at times but I think the most upsetting thing is that not everyone who's been involved in this conflict has always been truthful, and honest with other people, honest with themselves, and that's why I've avoided talking about it in public," said Rutstein.

The Changing Landscape Outside Fenway Park

Both Rutstein and Egidio agree that the fan base at Fenway has changed as prices have gone up and the team's success has ebbed and flowed in recent years. This has impacted sales of their "books," as they're known in the program-hawking world. Many people go to just one game a year, according to the independent program and concession vendors around the park.

"It appears that we're selling the same thing. We're selling to different segments of the same market, except the market is a new market every day," said Rutstein.

Both differ significantly on the closing of Yawkey Way during game days. Rutstein is a strong opponent of the team's deal with the city, going as far as to sue both over the issue in 2003. Egidio thinks the Red Sox and city have made it work.

"They're helping the city of Boston, they're helping the fans. I think what everybody is really losing sight of is, it's about what the people want," said Egidio, adding that he thinks it creates a safer situation for fans and vendors alike by limiting car traffic.

Several interviews with program hawkers for both magazines showed that the animosity between Rutstein and Egidio has not trickled down to their employees at the same level of intensity outside the Fenway Park gates.

"When we're out here, just talking to each other, it's all 'How'd you do today, man?' We're all just trying to make a buck. It's a hustle out here, man," said Nick Gray, 21, and a vendor for the Yawkey Way Report.

Other program hawkers echoed his sentiments.

"Everybody needs competition, it's good. There ain't no hard feelings everybody needs to make money, everybody needs to eat, have a career, you know?" said Billy Vargas, 25, and a vendor for Boston Baseball.

Some though, were not fans of the competition.

"They are a lot more grimy than we are," said Chris Gillyour, 20, and a hawker for the Yawkey Way Report.

"I was literally a foot behind this guy and he stood right in front of me. They're a lot more in your face. They know our [programs] are clearly better and people like 'em a lot more," said Gillyor, adding that the Yawkey Way Report's giveaways are better.

Ten-year veteran hawker Greg Flanders said that Boston Baseball has an advantage over the Yawkey Way Report as they've been out on the streets around Fenway Park for 24 years compared to six months, but noted that times have been tough. "It's been pretty rough recently. They're not doing very well either. They're just putting more vendors out and in front of us, and we have to compete with them, too, and at some points we cancel each other.

"Boston Baseball, overall, we're beating them," said Flanders.

Another longtime hawker, John Freeman, told MassLive.com that things have changed around the ballpark and it has nothing to do with the battle between the two program publishers. The economy as well as the change in the fanbase has made it harder to sell than anything else.

"Two years ago I was working Gate A and 90% of them had Red Sox gear on and the 200 people in line to get in couldn't tell me Big Papi's first name. They only knew him as his nickname or last name," said Freeman.

Both programs will be available outside Fenway Park throughout the American League Championship Series and the World Series, should the Red Sox advance that far. You can find both program hawkers outside all the gates at the ballpark as well as in Kenmore Square.