If you appreciate the sarcasm and humor in the question,"Who has home
field advantage in The World Series this October, the National League
representative…or the New York Yankees?", then you are a bona fide
26-time World Series Champion, New York Yankee fan. Thank you, Commissioner Bud
Selig, for putting meaning behind the All Star game and writing a joke in the
process. Brilliant!
The Yankees are to baseball what the United States is to the world. Follow me
on this one. When you’re number one with no close second in sight, it is
axiomatic to earn the scorn of the have-nots…is it not? What other
organization in Major League Baseball can lay claim to appearing in one out of
every three Fall Classics and being home to one of every four World Series
trophies?
Understand why you love to hate the Yanks and you begin to understand the ire
directed against our beloved nation from many overseas. Like the lesser among us
worldwide, you love the barrels of money the evil empire brings when they come
swaggering into town in their entire splendor. Hosting a three-game home stand
against the dreaded Yanks means a full house. A full house brings a full parking
lot, long concession lines and plenty of peanuts, programs and crackerjacks
sold. A stadium filled to capacity gives owners fat wallets. The Yanks are cash
cows spreading the wealth league wide, perhaps at a stadium in a city near you
soon.
The Yankees are tradition, the origin of dynasty and the benchmark for
franchises to measure up against and it irritates many to no end. It is mostly
envy, if you level with yourself. The fact of the matter is it would signal the
year of Jubilee if your team had an owner willing to spend what it takes year
after year to field a solid, competitive team as does Mr. Steinbrenner. Your
team rebuilds…the Yanks contend now.
Being a Yankee fan means never going into spring training questioning your
club’s chances in the fall. And boy oh boy, is that ever nice!
There are two ways of earning your pinstripes and embracing Yankee fandom.
The first way is aristocratic…you’re born into it! That is the category I
fall under. Being born into a New York City family is baseball royalty. We know
it…you know it and you hate it…and we know that too.
Being a Yankee fan means not having to worry or get embarrassed because your
team blew a historically insurmountable three game to none lead in a best of
seven series against a dreaded rival, because we Yankee fans are secure in the
knowledge we have just as good if not a better chance of being right back in the
thick of it next year. What other team can so assuredly make that statement?
Perhaps the Atlanta Braves, but their reliability goes out the window with the
arrival of the post season.
Take a moment and reminisce back to the moment of "The Great October
Choke of 04’." As Yankee haters, have you ever been so happy to see a
team lose? You were probably thinking how it couldn’t have happened to a nicer
team.
Being a Yankee fan means being able to laugh when, immediately after the
aforementioned choke, friends barrage me with email informing me the new
international medical symbol for choking has been amended and has been replaced
with my beloved NY insignia that adorns the caps of Yankee players.
Being a Yankee fan means recognizing "The Great October Choke of 04’"
and the subsequent Boston Red Sox World Series victory is nothing more than an
act of God. You see, God, being the compassionate and benevolent God that He is,
must have figured enough is enough and concluded, where’s the harm in a Red
Sox championship every 86 years or so? I know this because He scheduled a lunar
eclipse (once in a blue moon is far too frequent for a Red Sox championship…apparently
even for God) to coincide with the miraculous event as His signal the Red Sox
victory is an unusual episode that will not soon repeat.
The alternative option available to becoming a Yankee fan for those of you
unfortunate enough not to be New York bred is to hop on the bandwagon. We Yankee
fans will not disparage what others may consider a choice of convenience.
Instead, we openly recognize the wisdom behind the decision wishing to forgo the
futility inherent in being a...Diamondback fan for instance, and welcome you
into the family with open arms. After all, everybody wants to be part of a
winning team.
And now is the time to join that winning team. So please raise your right
hand and repeat after me…
"I do solemnly swear allegiance to all things New York Yankee.
That I promise to
ridicule and belittle the accomplishment of any other professional
baseball team and
state unequivocally my pledge to believe in the inferiority of all
other championship
ball clubs, their franchise and their meager history. That winning one
out of every
four World Series establishes entitlement and if another team wins in
our stead, it
will be viewed as a fluke. That I recognize that year in and year out,
it is for the good
of baseball the New York Yankee organization spend like hell and
whereas the
Yankees shall continue their winning ways and dominate Fall Classics
for decades
to come, I will insist it isn’t because of Steinbrenner’s money, it’s
because other
teams don’t try hard enough and money has nothing to do with it. That
I take this
oath freely and without reservation, for the betterment of America and
all things
baseball."
Yes, we Yankee fans are loud, proud and often times obnoxious. But face the
truth…you love to hate us and a baseball season just wouldn’t be the same
without those dreaded Yanks and their winning ways.