"Damn Yankees"

Joe Boyd sold his soul to the devil to lead his struggling Washington Senators past the perennial pennant winner New York Yankees. Yankee haters outnumber haters of other dominant teams by a wide margin. OK, my guess, but wouldn’t you think so?

The Yankees have dominated American baseball since winning their first pennant in 1921 losing to the Giants 5-3 in the last 9 game World Series. The team’s first World Series championship came in 1923 against the NY Giants. Since 1921, the Yankees have won 39 AL pennants and 26 World Series championships. The Yankees have a rich and colorful history on and off the field. They have always played in the nation’s largest media market. Stars on the hometown team became stars across the nation and eventually the world. Perhaps the only contingent in a road ballpark that rivals the Yankee haters is the local Yankee fans. Either transplanted New Yorkers or fans from afar. How infuriating is it for home team fans to hear a vocal group in their own stadium cheering for the hated Yankees?!

The Yankees have always had the most money – even in the lean non-pennant years. They offer the premier stage for a baseball player and feature the best. Small market teams cried foul. There was something fundamentally unfair in a game where a few select teams led by the Yankees have a disproportionate share of the money. Revenue sharing and the luxury tax were aimed at leveling the playing field. They did, but not nearly enough for those who resented the flashy Yankees buying and selling talent at will. The resenters forget that some of the greatest Yankee players were came up through their farm system. Don Mattingly comes to mind as well as Derek Jeter. Whether the road fans hate ‘em or love ‘em, they pay to see ‘em. Not only do they draw capacity at home but often do so on the road. Damn, they’re like America’s team or something – perennial winners like Notre Dame, UCLA, Dallas Cowboys, etc. Do you buy that? Are the Yankees your team?

So here’s how it is. If you’re not a Yankee fan all that stuff really irks the crap out of you. If you are a Yankee fan it is simply how things are in life no matter how unfair to the complainers.

I’m a Yankee fan so that’s how things are in my life. The Yankees are my home town team. I grew up with the Yankees as the only or predominant baseball team in NYC. At 8 years old I played imaginary baseball games in the back yard, batting as each of the Yankees players’ starting line up. For the afternoon I was Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Bill Skowron, Elston Howard and Clete Boyer. Throwing the sponge ball to a target against the side of our house I was always a younger, right-handed Whitey Ford followed by Ryan Duren in relief.

My father was a big sports guy – both as a player and fan. He took us to Yankee games in the 1960, 1961 seasons. We went to the pre-renovated Yankee Stadium – the original configuration of 1923 in which Ruth and Gehrig played.

We watched the Mantle, Maris, Ford championship teams – a team replete with future Hall of Famers. Not that Dad was a Yankee fan – he was an angry NY then SF Giants fan ripe for the Mets’ arrival in 1962.

As a kid my summers went as did the fortunes of the New York Yankees. I remember precisely where I was while listening to the 7th Game of the 1960 World Series. I remember the devastation and silence when Bill Mazeroski hit the walk-off home run to win the Series for Pittsburgh against the Yankees. I remember where I was when Bucky Dent hit the home run that sank the Red Sox to decide the 1978 AL East.

In 1979 living in Albany outside the TV range of Yankee broadcasts, I spent game nights at home listening to The Scooter, Phil Rizzuto, broadcast the action.

I was depressed for a week after the Yankees lost 0-3 to the Royals in the 1980 ALCS. I wrote a letter to George Steinbrenner in the early 80’s ranting about his handling of the team. I boasted about Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada having lived in the apartment building next to mine.

Yankee fans are devoted, vocal, appreciative and knowledgeable. Yankee fans chant the name of each player on the field in the top of the first inning. They chant, the player acknowledges and the fans move to the next guy. Yankee fans began the practice of clapping when a pitcher has 2 strikes on a batter – a tradition started with Ron Guidry in the championship years of the ‘70’s. Yankee fans pack Yankee Stadium for every game with home attendance reaching a record 4.7 million in 2007.

I consider myself lucky to have been a lifelong Yankee fan. The Yankees are my guys – my hometown ballplayers.

Oh, and I don’t root for Notre Dame, the Cowboys or UCLA.