I haven’t been a big baseball fan for years. I used to love the game as a kid, but then way too many super-inflated egos, batters’ timeouts, exorbitant salaries, etc. made me lose interest. Does it really take 162 games a year to figure out who should be in the playoffs? But the last few years have offered some exciting championship games and, most importantly, the Yankees not winning the World Series.
I’m from Philly, and I love my home town. I’m an enthusiastic fan of its teams, and they will always be mine no matter where I live. But having been in the New York area for years now the passion for my own teams has almost been eclipsed by my hatred for New York teams. Every franchise has lousy fans, but there are none quite so arrogant and irritating as the “we deserve to win” mentality of the typical fan up here. And it is exhibited most heavily by the Yankees fans. These are people who think every good player should be on their team and that only they should be allowed to win the World Series. This is a city whose former mayor ignored a major deficit in an attempt to push a new stadium through for his favorite team.
I’m just rambling, but my point is that I detest the teams up here (well, I tolerate the Mets and the Jets, since they are the forgotten) and love to see their fans suffer through defeats. And these feelings are compounded by the media constantly attempting to spin stories to make these guys look like saints who are up against the dregs of society. Sure the Red Sox may be rough around the edges, but what can you say in defense of a team who felt that anyone who refused to abandon their families in the middle of a hurricane to play a game should be forced to forfeit? They may pretend to be classy, but the Yanks are anything but.
From wence did this tirade come? Watching a bit of the game tonight I saw one of the most deplorable play in baseball. After smacking a short grounder down the first base line, Alex Rodriguez tried to beat out the ball. The pitcher picked up the dribbler and, quickly realizinf that he was in the best position to make the play, moved to tag him out. At that point, Rodriguez, showing the finest of sportsmanship, smacked the pitcher’s arm in order to knock the ball out and allow Jeter to run home. The officials convened and ruled Rodriguez out and sent Jeter back to first – a decision that was met with litter from the stands. Now place this in any other city (especially Philly or Boston) and the media would berate the fans. But in New York, that’s suddenly passion.
It will largely be ignored, or spun to make it seem like the Yanks were cheated. But in the end it doesn’t matter – the great Alex Rodriguez is the one who cheated, and now the Yankees are one out away from dropping three games in a row and going from a possible sweep to a deadly game seven in Boston.