Yesterday was February 13, the day pitchers and catchers from many major league teams report to the grapefruit league (aka spring training) in Florida. I won't get into specifics about my aversion to Florida - but lets just say that spring training in March is about the only good thing to come out of that damn state. But right now, I'd love to be sitting in Tampa at Legends Field, spring training home of the New York Yankees.
Let the hating commenceth.
i know. i hear it all the time. I actually know more Mets fans than Yankees fans - despite the prevailing opinion that Yankee fans are the majority and the Mets fans are the little guy 'underdogs'. I've had people get surprised that someone as eclectic, socially conscious and humble as myself could possibly be a fan of the 'evil empire', a franchise who's front office exploits have garnered itself a reputation to be materialistic, greedy, and *gulp* corporate in its dealings. I'll just come right out and say it, not out of shame or apology: but as a pure and simple admission:
Most Yankee fans are obnoxious, front running, spoiled fan boy jerks who know nothing about the game. And yea, George Steinbrenner can be an evil, dictatorial prick.
Happy? I'm not. Having to defend my team or explain myself every time this comes up sucks pretty bad, but hey, what am i gonna do, they're my team, and they were my dads team, and his dads team. Lineage. Starting to get the picture?
Well if not, here's one that's worth a thousand words:
Yea. Thats me in the Bronx - Wedensday, August 24th 1988, 9 yrs old, leather at the ready, smilin them horseteeth for my dad. The Yanks were playin the A's in the 3rd game of a set, with the series tied at 1 a piece.
So what hasn't changed? - my love of yankees baseball, and apparently, my haircut. And what has changed? Well, how about the yankees?
In 1988, the bombers came in 5th place, finishing out 85-76 at a mediocre .528 percentage. They hadn't won a world series in 10 years, or an AL east pennant since 1981. Keep this in mind - if you were a "frontrunner" then - you were a Mets fan, they had just won the Serious in 1986 and finished 15 games out in front of Pittsburgh for 1st place in the NL East in 1988. My team, the Yankees - were nothing to shout about. But the players...
Don Mattingly, who will be Joe Torre's bench coach this year, was in pre-injury form, batting over .300 for the fifth consecutive season, and earned his fourth consecutive gold glove for flashing some serious leather at 1st base.
Rickey Henderson, playing left field, batted .305 and had 98 stolen bases on the year.
Dave Winfield, playing right, smacked the ball with a .322 avg, hit 25 homers and contributed 107 rbis before the year was over.
Other mentionables for '88 were Tommy John, Dave Righetti, Ron Guidry (now the pitching coach), and Al Leiter. And who else? Willie Randolph - current skipper of the crosstown Mets. Willie didn't do anything phenomenal that year, but my position was 2nd base in Little League, so i've always had this natural inclination to favor the guy there, in 88 it was Willie, and these days, its Robinson Cano.
The Yanks weren't much for championships during my youth, but i remember my dad watching the games or listening to them on the radio, i remember my grandfather cursing them out on Sunday afternoons when i visited them for lunch. I remember the overall feeling that this was my team, that i was supposed to root for the Yanks. I was too young to understand the bitter Red Sox rivalry, being hated by the Mets, i wasn't aware of George Steinbrenners less-than-savory backroom dealings or how the crooked bastard went out of his way to smear some of the best players on our team - like Dave Winfield or Reggie Jackson - over personal differences. Baseball was innocent, a game, before i knew stats or off-field antics - i knew Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle were the immortals, and my family had immortilized them for me, i was a Yankee fan, there was just no other team for me.
And how far have they come since 1988? 11 Division titles. 4 World Series titles in 6 trips. Why do they call it the world series if its always played in the Bronx?
You can rub it in my face if you want, i know better than any hater that the Yanks have had piss poor postseason records since 2000 - they choked, and then choked again. Their strongest assets went missing, their weaknesses exagerrated, and they never seem to find their moxie when October started, which has been the antithesis of the dynasty years - postseason magic, not postseason collapse. It hurts, like it would hurt any fan of any team - but i don't mind. I'm not one of 'those' fans.
This team has been the team to beat in their division for the last decade - and the AL East is arguably the toughest division in the majors. I'm supposed to be ashamed of this? Look, i'll leave the shame to Derek Jeter, i've got to admire him for saying anything less than a World Championship is a failure in NYC. Dissappointed? Hell yes. Ashamed? Only of the fans who call division pennants a waste.
How do i feel about the Mets? I like the Mets. I like David Wright, Delgado, Endy Chavez and of course, Wille Randolph. Nothing bothers me about the team. This has always been the conundrum between the Bronx and Queens - Mets fans seem to care a helluva lot more about the Yankees than the Yankee fans care about the Mets. And thats probably the reason Mets fans hate the Yankees so much: we can't even reciprocate a rivalry for them. Shit ... if it weren't for interleague play, I doubt i'd even care at all. So, friends of mine who're Mets fans - i come in peace, y'all don't bother me. Hate on if you want - i don't really care.
I can't say the same for the Red Sox. I have a few buddies who're Boston fans, and i can even talk baseball with them: mad respect for being able to meet each other in the middle - this isn't for you. Unfortunately, the majority of Sox fans i've found seem to be more motivated to see the Yankees lose than they are in even seeing their own team win. Hey, the majority of Yankee fans suck - and it would seem to me that the same is true with Redsox fans. If you really love the sport, rooting for one team just to hate on another is pathetic. Inferiority complex anyone? Get a clue, and kiss the rings bitches!
Why do i love the Yankees now, as an adult, why haven't i jumped ship? What makes me stick? You can laugh, but yea - its the aura and mystique, its the ghosts that haunt the hallowed ground in monument park in left-center field, its the black and white footage of Ruths called shot, Gehrigs goodbye speech, Larsens perfect game. Its late-game impossible comeback magic. Sure, the Sox did it in 2004, for the Yanks - it comes with the territory: every year it seems, regardless of the players, or the manager or the fans - it just seems to come with the pinstripes. Its why the aloof Yogi Berra once said: "It ain't over till its over."
Last season, on May 16, vs the Texas Rangers, i saw one of the best games i'll ever see. No written description will do it justice, but to nutshell the game, the Yanks impossibly came back from a 9-0 defecit after being brutalized early and went into the 9th inning with the game tied. The Yankees brought in the formidable Mariano Rivera to hold the game, and he blew it, giving up a run on a Rod Barajas double. They had come back twice already in the game, and now they were going to lose 13-12, a crushing defeat. I was laying on my floor, listening to John Sterling on the radio, nervously pounding a ball into my mitt. With 2 outs and a man on, Jorge Posada came up to the plate, with the crowd hushed on the precipice of defeat, he battled the count to 3 balls, 1 strike. Posada crushed his next pitch, a straight fastball, deep into the rightfield bleachers for a walk-off homer: the Yankees won, 14-13.
Back to August 24th 1988. Different team, no Jeter, no Mariano Rivera, no Giambi et al - 1988 was hardly an all-star lineup. The 5th place Yankees were playing the 1st place Oakland Athletics. The Yanks were playing horrible ball that month, running a 9-20 record. The A's took the game into the top of the ninth 4-2, and tagged on two more runs on a Jose Canseco dinger, pounding the last nail in the coffin for a sure bet 6-2 win for the game AND the series - because the A's dominant hall of fame closer, Dennis Eckersley was on the mound to get the final 3 outs.
The game was in the bag. Or it should have been. It started with a pair of basehits from Claudell Washington and Don Mattingly, followed with a homer from dh Ken Phelps to make it 6-5. A fielders choice double play tied the game as Don Slaught plated Dave Winfield. But with 2 outs in a tie game, Rickey Henderson came up to bat and served a single into left field, bringing utility infielder Luis Aguayo home and winning the game 7-6. The Yanks had put up a 5 spot in the bottom of the ninth against the games most dominant closer, and won the game. Friggen magic.
It ain't over till its over: This is Yankees baseball. This is why they're my team, wether its the pathetic dredges of 1988, the cinderella story champs of 1996, the loser 'chokees' of 2004 - or whatever comes between now and October - its gonna be a hell of a season!
Lets go Yan-kees!
