You get a lot of crap for being a Yankees fan.
People are always trying to spoil your fun, saying things like “Well OF COURSE the Yankees win, they spend $400 trillion on players every year,” and “How can you root for such a huge, soulless organization?” and “The Yankees are so obnoxious and hateable.”
Normally, I cut those people some slack. Yes, the Yankees spend more than any other team, and have greater resources to do so. Yes, many Yankees fans are obnoxious, I assent.
But to those people today, I say sit down, and please shut up. The 27th World Series ring won by the Yankees last night is clogging my ears, and I cannot hear you.
It’s been nine years since I saw the Yankees win a Series, which is really not that long (George W. Bush was about to be elected the last time the Yanks won, in 2000.) Lots of franchises would dream of only having to wait nine years between parades through downtown.
Still, Wednesday night felt fresh. Not as fresh as the 1996 Series win, which was the first Yankees championship I remember, as I was 5 years old in 1981. That ’96 title will always be my favorite, because the Yanks had been so bad or mediocre throughout my childhood, and now finally, as Charlie Hayes squeezed the last foul pop for the last out (I can close my eyes and still see that play), they were champs.
But this one felt a little new. Sure, most of the players have been bought, and baseball will never be truly fair like the NFL until there’s salary equity, and real revenue sharing.
But watching old-time Yankees like Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada and The Great Rivera, win one more crown, reminded me of the dynasty of the late 1990s. It was the capstone to Jeter’s career, this title, the “One for the Thumb” that makes him even more of a shoo-in Hall of Famer than he already was.
I somewhat rationalize my being a Yankees fan to people by quickly pointing out that I also root for the New York Jets and the New York Rangers, teams that have won 2 championships in the last 40 years, combined (I was only alive for one of them, the ’94 Rangers Stanley Cup, which still gives me chills to even think about).
So I don’t get that many chances to see my teams win it all. Today is a glorious day for all Yankees fans, especially those of us who remember the Roy Smalley and Mike Pagliarulo era. I am happy.
Couple other final World Series thoughts:
**If that was Pedro’s final appearance at Yankee Stadium, I’d say Yankees fans will remember him fondly.
**At 7-3, with two on and Chase (Reggie Jackson) Utley up, I was definitely nervous.
**Does Joe Girardi have to change his uniform number now that the Yanks won title No. 27?
**You really never see any African-American fans at baseball games anymore. Just sayin.’
**So this is kind of a strange story. According to London’s The Daily Mail, a Pennsylvania woman discovered she is allergic to her husband’s sperm. The couple had unprotected sex for the first time on their wedding night (aww, how quaint) and her body completely rejected it.
I am too terrified to even make a joke about this.
And finally, I’ll write more about this tomorrow, but thought many of you might enjoy this memory, a piece of video that helped make Nov. 4, 2008 possible:
