Insurgents Suck!

The T-shirt business that North Andover native Ray LeMoine and his buddy Jeff Neumann ran for a half dozen years outside Fenway Park was no goodwill operation: The entrepreneurial Sox fans were the sloganeers behind the iconic “Yankees Suck” T-shirts, as well as inspired spinoffs like “Jeter Sucks A Rod.” Then came the 2003 American League Championship Series, and the Red Sox’s soul-crushing Game 7 loss to the Yankees. The pair, you might say, took the loss uniquely hard. Before long, LeMoine and Neumann were on a bus from Jordan to Baghdad, where they braved a war zone and signed on to dispense relief supplies to beleaguered Iraqis. “We were pretty much at the lowest point of our lives,” recalls Neumann, a former Northeastern student, of the dramatic career decision. “What did we have to lose?”

During their three months in the chaos, LeMoine and Neumann went on unescorted daily excursions into some of Iraq’s most dangerous enclaves and enjoyed nightly bouts of apocalyptic partying with war correspondents and military grunts, a mix of one-of-a-kind occupational experiences and feats of debauchery of which winning book proposals are made. It’s all recounted in a travelogue out this month from Penguin titled Babylon by Bus. In its own gonzo way, with first-hand accounts of bombings, death threats, governmental hubris, and corporate conflicts of interest, the book provides perhaps the clearest picture yet of the war in Iraq. “That was our goal,” says LeMoine. “We had access to things no journalist could get access to. We became sources precisely because of our unique position. We were like spies in the belly of the beast.”

Even in the glare of attention spawned by their war adventure (Mel Gibson’s Con Artists Productions is developing Babylon for the USA network), the duo remains drawn to unfriendly environs. These Yankee-haters have taken up residence in the belly of another beast: New York City.