The Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees rivalry steals headlines during every series the two clubs play against each other, but Red Sox rookie pitcher Hunter Dobbins took the storylines to another level during their first series of the season from June 6-8.
Dobbins earned attention from all around MLB — and even from Yankees players — after he commented to Gabrielle Starr of The Boston Herald that he would sooner retire than join the Yankees organization.
“My dad was a diehard Red Sox fan,” Dobbins said. “And I’ve said it before, that if the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire.”
“I grew up watching the Red Sox a lot, but I knew I wanted to do this as a career. I didn’t get attached to a team, but I grew up watching (the Red Sox), and just, I think out of disdain for the Yankees, I watched anybody but them.”
Red Sox's Hunter Dobbins responds to New York Post report on his recent comments about the Yankees organization
Dobbins also claimed that his father, Lance Dobbins, was twice drafted by the Yankees organization and eventually pitched for the Diamondbacks. New York Post's Joel Sherman could not corroborate either of those claims (subscription required). Dobbins also referred to Yankees legend, pitcher Andy Pettitte, as a "really good friend" of his father's, but Pettitte has no recollection of Lance Dobbins. Before the Red Sox's June 11 match with the Tampa Bay Rays, Dobbins addressed Sherman's report.
“The whole backstory, it’s stuff that I had heard growing up and seeing pictures of from my dad. At the end of the day, it’s just from my dad and what kind of grew my love for the game," the young pitcher said. "At the end of the day, I don’t go fact-check my dad or anything like that.”
Hunter Dobbins meets with media to address the @nypostsports report pic.twitter.com/mK9tmbjetF
— WEEI (@WEEI) June 11, 2025
It seems Dobbins' father did a classic dad thing by embellishing the past to impress his son. Lance Dobbins does have a Baseball Reference page that contains stats from two seasons in independent league baseball, but he was never drafted by an MLB club. His seasons in the Big South League and Frontier League occurred before the Diamondbacks even played their first game in 1998.
Regardless of the factual inaccuracy of some of his statements, Dobbins kicked up the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry. New York infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. got in on the trash talk, and even encouraged it, saying it would add "spiciness" to the rivalry.
There doesn't appear to have been any purposeful deception behind Dobbins' comments about his father, but his interview picked up a lot of steam after ESPN made his comments the focus of its Sunday Night Baseball broadcast.
Dads everywhere should learn from this — don't stretch the truth about your baseball career to your son, who may one day make it to the big leagues and tell the story.