NEW YORK — Someone was asking me the other day if sports fans in New York are different from fans anyplace else in America. I say, on the whole, they are not. Sure, there are more of them in one concentrated place, and New York is a different city from anyplace else, so that does give New York fans a certain character. The tabloids … the boroughs … the subway … the tunnels and bridges … the rush of Times Square … the buzz of the Village … yellow cabs … the walks along the streets and boulevards … all these things create a background, a canvas, and against that canvas New York fans have their own character. Then, so do Boston fans and Philadelphia fans and Cleveland fans and San Francisco fans and Los Angeles fans and St. Louis fans and Dallas fans and pretty much everyone else. Fundamentally, I think New York fans cheer pop-ups, boo quarterbacks, lay into referees, hope and gripe and celebrate and mourn like every other good fan in the grand ol’ U.S. of A.
Yankees fans, though … well, they are different. To my mind, this isn’t so much because of New York as it is because the Yankees are always a good baseball team. You probably know the numbers: 27 World Series, 40 pennants, 49 playoff appearances. They have appeared in the playoffs every year but one since 1993 — and some of the kids born in 1993 are graduating high school in the next few weeks. Even on those rare occasions when the Yankees are not great, they are not terrible. They are never hopeless. The Yankees have never lost 100 games in a season. They have lost 90 on three times since they traded for Babe Ruth. Their best player just about every decade has been an iconic player, the sort of player who adds to the glamour of pinstripes. Look at the players who have led the Yankees in Wins Above Replacement decade by decade:.
1920s: Babe Ruth
1930s: Lou Gehrig
1940s: Joe DiMaggio
1950s: Mickey Mantle
1960s: Mantle (with Roger Maris second)
1970s: Thurman Munson
1980s: Don Mattingly
1990s: Bernie Williams
2000s: Derek Jeter
Not all of these players are or will be in the Hall of Fame, but they all have their legend, and they all add a little something to the enormity of the Yankees. Add in a few one-named giants who are not even on that list — Yogi … Whitey … Reggie … Mariano … Scooter … Goose — and you see that there has never been a time when Yankees fans did not have a poster for the 10-year-old’s wall. It seems impossible to grow up a Yankees fan and not feel entitled, not only to winning but to something larger — a sense of place, a piece of history, a singular player, goosebumps under the lights, cool evenings and magical comebacks ending with the 4 train rattling and Sinatra singing New York, New York over the speaker system.
Those fans seemed to know when the ninth inning started Tuesday evening that the Yankees were going to win. They seemed to know this in a different way from, say, the hope that floods Fenway Park or Dodger Stadium or Busch Stadium in the ninth inning. Obviously this is only my perception. But it didn’t feel like “hope.” That word suggests doubt or at least hesitation. There is humbleness in hope. Yankee fans — proudly, I think — shun humbleness. Toronto led New York 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, and Brett Gardner grounded out to start the inning, and still the vibe I was picking up in the stadium was not IF the Yankees would win but HOW the Yankees would win, like this was an episode of “Perry Mason,” and they were as curious as anyone else to see who in the crowd would jump up and admit to being the killer.
Jorge Posada stepped to the plate as a pinch hitter. The roar overwhelmed. It is fascinating to watch a once terrific player grow old in the place where he made his name. It doesn’t happen as much, of course — Bonds did not grow old in Pittsburgh, and Griffey did not grow old in Seattle, and Rickey Henderson did not, then did, then did not, then did, then did not grow old in Oakland. Seems to me there’s something spellbinding, a blend of sadness and joy, the comes with watching the player who brought you so many thrills, once the bat speed dulls by two-hundredths of a second, once the line drives turn to ground outs, once the old home runs die on the warning track. The sadness is obvious. But there’s joy too because, you never know, he might, just might, do it again.
So, yes, the loudest cheer of the night happened when Jorge Posada stepped to the plate. True, he was hitting .176. Yes, it was just a few days after he pulled himself out of the game when he found his name in the dreaded ninth spot in the lineup. Even the biggest Jorge Posada fan in the world knows the end is close … the end may even have passed unnoticed. But even the most cynical Jorge Posada fan can believe in the power of a single moment, one more good swing. Toronto’s closer Frank Francisco threw a 94-mph fastball. And Jorge Posada may be at the end, but he still knows a few tricks, and he started his bat early, and he ripped a line drive to right field. Toronto’s right fielder Jose Bautista slid to stop the ball and watched it bounce away, allowing Posada to trot into second for what the official scorers called a double.
The stadium cheers did not get any louder, I don’t think. They just stayed loud. It was as if everyone was saying: “Oh … so … this is how the Yankees were going to win. Interesting.” Chris Dickerson came into run, and Derek Jeter stepped to the plate — another aging icon, though one obviously in a different moon phase from Posada. He grounded out to to short — in five at-bats on Tuesday he contributed six outs and did not hit the ball out of the infield. There were a few scattered boos when he hit into his double play, though all in all there seems to be a gradual shift of expectation when it comes to Jeter. There are certainly those who think he will re-emerge as a star again, one last trick up his sleeve, though that’s an increasingly small group. There is a larger group, I think, who believe he will find a way to be at worst adequate, often better than adequate, something good, because he’s smart and he’s driven. Anyway, it isn’t as if Honus Wagner plays short in every other American League lineup.
One line of thinking I’ve heard lately from some Yankees fans, though, is a little bit different, and I have to say it’s an elegant line of thinking. It goes something like this: The Yankees can afford to deal with Jeter’s demise. That is to say that the Yankees — with their riches and their history and their great players — should be able to win no matter how well or how poorly Jeter goes. The Yankees, after all, won World Series with Bucky Dent at shortstop. San Francisco won last year with a beat up Edgar Renteria. Boston, after falling short with a great shortstop, won one World Series with Julio Lugo and another with Pokey Reese and a few games of Orlando Cabrera. You don’t need a great shortstop to win. As one Yankees fan wrote in: “Jeter carried the Yankees for a long time. Maybe the Yankees should carry Jeter in return.”
In any case, Dickerson was running on the pitch so he went to third on Jeter’s groundout.
I should mention that at this point, Mariano Rivera was warming up in the bullpen, and that too sent a jolt of excitement through the crowd. Has any athlete in the history of New York (or the history of anywhere) given fans a more assured feeling than Mariano Rivera? I would suggest: No. When Rivera warms up, the Yankees almost always win. It’s that simple. Mickey Mantle … Joe Namath … Mark Messier … Clyde Frazier … Babe Ruth even … none of these players, despite their obvious greatness, could grant the peace of mind that comes with the familiar pitching motion of Mariano Rivera. If he’s up, the Yankees are probably winning, maybe tied, at the very least in position to tie. And if he enters the game, the Yankees will almost certainly win. I think this helps explain why Rivera is so beloved. Certainly it mostly has to do with his own greatness — his 572 saves, his 205 ERA+, his 0.71 ERA in the postseason and so on. But it also has to do with his role, his particular circumstances, with being the best closer who ever lived. Yankees fans have come to connect the very sight of Mariano Rivera and victory. No pitcher in the history of baseball, not even Cy Young, has been on the mound at the end of so many victories. And I would argue that no player in the history of American sports, not even Bill Russell, has been more synonymous with that blast of joy that comes when your favorite team wins.
With two outs, the tying run on third, Curtis Granderson stepped in. The stadium did seem to quiet some, not out of disappointment, at least not the way I heard it. I thought it was out of expectation. Here’s what I thought: “These fans are sure — or at least pretty darned sure — that Granderson is going to get a hit.” Now, I can’t know that. It was just the feeling that came over me. But I’ve never had that feeling anywhere else except Yankee Stadium, old and new. Oh, sure, I’ve been in many places where the fans clearly BELIEVE the guy will get the big hit. That happened a whole lot in San Francisco at the end of last season. But I’m not talking about fans believing. I’m talking about fans knowing. It’s subtle and it could be my imagination. But that’s how I hear it. If Curtis Granderson had made an out, I think a lot of fans would have felt surprise first, then depression.
Granderson already had three hits in the game, and of course he has hit 16 home runs already this year, well ahead of his previous pace. Granderson was a heck of a player in Detroit — I think he was , in 2007 and 2008, a markedly better player than, say, Carl Crawford was at his best in Tampa Bay. In 2007, he had 38 doubles, 23 triples, 23 home runs and he stole 26 out of 27 bases. In 2008, he was only marginally lesser year — he hit 13 triple that year, though it also led the league. In 2009, he struggled, especially against lefties, though he hit 30 home runs. That’s when the Yankees traded for him.
To me, Granderson seemed the sort of personality who would light up New York. He is by all accounts a great guy, quotable, thoughtful, interested in using his position to help people. But he got off to a dreadful start in New York — he was hitting .225 in early July — and because New York has so many people in such a small space, and the tabloids blare the news every day, and talk radio fills the air in stopped cars trying to escape for Long Island and New Jersey, momentum can carry you. Once they label you a bust, it becomes hard to be anything but a bust. Not that they called Granderson a bust … the expectation wasn’t that high to start with. He slugged 17 homers in the second half of the season, and he handled center field solidly, and it seemed that he was destined to be sufficient, perhaps best defined by the letters ALHBTM (At Least He’s Better Than Melky).
But this year he has been re-energized … mostly by the home run, but on Tuesday night he showed off a bit more of his game, slashing two singles and a double on a day when the Yankees offense was mostly pretty feeble. His leadoff double in the eighth sparked a two-run rally that had given the Yankees this chance in the ninth. Now he came up in the ninth with the tying run on third base. And he promptly smacked a ground ball between the hole on the right side of the infield to score Dickerson and tie the score. The New York crowd was grateful. Then he stole second base. The crowd was grateful again.
And that finally led to Mark Teixeira. There is a lot to say about Mark Teixeira. He signed an eight-year $180 million dollar deal before the 2009 season — it was, at the time, the third largest contract ever signed by a player behind only A-Rod* and Jeter. Since then, Joe Mauer has gotten a bigger package deal. You figure Albert Pujols, even struggling the way he has, will get a bigger deal when the season ends.
*Well Teixeira’s was fourth-largest if you count A-Rod’s deal twice … the first deal with Texas and then the renegotiation with the Yankees.
But, there is something different about Teixeira from all those other guys. A-Rod was a remarkable player when he got his deal, a one-of-a-kind shortstop the first time and the reigning MVP who had become the first Yankee right-hander to hit 50 home runs the second time. Jeter is, of course, Jeter — the most iconic player of his era. Mauer is a homegrown Minnesota superstar who, when healthy, has his case for the best player in the American League.
But what is Mark Teixeira? Nobody ever claimed he was the best player in the game. Nobody saw him as a singular force or a hometown hero. By the time the Yankees signed him, he had already played for three teams. He had never won an MVP or come particularly close. He had hit 43 home runs once, a few years earlier, but that was in Texas, the best hitters ballpark in the league, and he’d hit 30 of them at home. He was amazing in Anaheim, but that was only for a 54-game stretch that happened to be conveniently timed going into free agency. He’d been about as good for a 54-game pennant run stretch in Atlanta one-year earlier. He was best, up to that point, as a rental.
This is not to say that Tex is anything less than a terrific baseball player. He’s a switch hitter with power who plays graceful first base. He’s a wonderful player to watch because nothing ever looks too difficult for him. he has the gift. He came to New York and, in many ways, had his best season. He led the league in homers and RBIs. He looked good enough at first base to win his third Gold Glove. He finished second in the MVP voting. And, as mentioned above, once a narrative passes muster in New York, the momentum swells. The Yankees won the World Series. And Tex became viewed as a truly great player.
But it has to be said that since the beginning of the 2010 season, Tex is hitting.256/.366/.487. That is 60 or so walks away from what Vernon Wells has done since the beginning of the 2010 season (not to downplay the value of 60 or so walks). He led the league in runs in 2010, though, and he is a much better hitter at Yankee Stadium where the fans see him, and he’s very good at scooping bad throws out of the dirt and making diving plays, and he has a quiet presence … and so there still seems to be joy surrounding him. There is not, from what I can tell, even a whiff of disappointment when it comes to Teixeira. Yankees fans are always looking ahead to see who the next icon will be. Tex seems to many the most promising candidate.
With Granderson at second base, Tex smashed a hard ground ball to the right side. Toronto first baseman Juan Rivera is not a first baseman by trade. This was only the 20th time he had played the position after years in the outfield. Earlier in the game, he had snagged a hard-hit Robinson Cano ground ball with Yankees runners on base but it looked like pure luck. On replay it was clear that Rivera’s head snapped up when the ball arrived and his glove only happened to end up in the right place. It was not likely that he would make two plays like that in one game. And, in the bottom of the ninth, with the swirl of expectation all around him, he did not. The ball bounced off his glove into short right field, and Granderson scored, and the Yankees won.
It had taken what seemed a pretty unusual series of events — a rare hit from an aging star, a misplay in the outfield, a good decision to start the runner on the a groundout, a ground ball single through the hole, and finally a single off the glove of an inexperienced first baseman. But, somehow, such things don’t seem unexpected in the Bronx. Tex ran away from teammates who wanted to bludgeon him in celebration. Then, he got a shaving cream pie in the face. Everyone cheered. Sinatra sang. And then things quieted down and people shuffled back to the subway, to their cars, to their homes, while John Sterling said on the radio: “The Yankees win. Theeeee Yankees win.” Well, of course they did.
F—ing Yankees.
I’m reminded of an old Peanuts strip, in which Charlie Brown waxes on about how his favorite team came from behind to win, and how great it was to watch the team jump and cheer in celebration. Then Linus says something like, “I wonder how the other team feels.”
It’s interesting to me how different your experience of a game at the Stadium is from mine. I was at the third game of the Red Sox/Yankees series a couple weeks ago. With the Yankees down one run in the 7th, the park half emptied out. In the 9th, down 2 with A-Rod at the plate and Cano on deck, the place was nearly entirely empty. In the 7th, it was still very much anybody’s game. Even in the 9th, with 2 outs, two of the best hitters in the game were coming up, and it was far from over. Yes, it was late. Yes, it was going to be a pain to get out of the parking lots. But moments like that are what baseball is about, and the Stadium crowd would have none of it. It seemed to me that once it didn’t look like winning would be easy, the Bronx crowd just checked out. (They did, however, give Posada a huge ovation when he came in as a pinch hitter, and this in the middle of the whole “bowing out of the lineup” tempest in a teapot. I give them credit for that.)
“But I’m not talking about fans believing. I’m talking about fans knowing. … If Curtis Granderson had made an out, I think a lot of fans would have felt surprise first, then depression.”
This paints an accurate picture of, at the very least, my Yankee fan friends that I’ve been to games with. One then has to wonder what is the point of being a Yankee fan. Where does the excitement come from?
“I think he was , in 2007 and 2008, a markedly better player than, say, Carl Crawford was at his best in Tampa Bay.”
There are a number of outfielders that I think are markedly better than Carl Crawford. His contract frustrated me before the season even began… why yes, I _am_ a malcontent Boston fan, how did you guess??
…and Chicago fans.
“…and Rickey Henderson did not, then did, then did not, then did, then did not grow old in Oakland.”
I listened on my radio headphones/hearing protector gizmo last night while cutting weeds with my old push lawn mower. (I have no idea why we get games on an AM station here in Albuquerque, but we do.) Listening to John Sterling and S. Waldman on the NYY radio network is most amusing when the Yanks are losing, as was the case for most of the game last evening. They treat the opposing team as if they hardly matter – it’s ALL about the Yankees. Since the Yanks did come back to win. it made for unusual listening. It was only the second time this year that they’ve come back from being behind late in a game to win. You would have thought that they had just won the ALCS. Were it not for Granderson, this team would be under .500; their defense has been sloppy and their pitching from the old vets that they picked up and are depending upon heavily can’t possibly hold up into October. C.C. did pitch one whale of a game last night after getting through the early innings, retiring the last 16 men in order. I respect the Yankees for their history but they can’t lose often enough for me, especially when enjoying it through the inane broadcasting of Sterling and Waldman.
I hate the Yankees. I hate the feeling of entitlement their fans have. I cheer against them at every opportunity.
Yet, here, in this blog entry, you crafted a beautiful story of a team and players that could be loved.
At least it’s not Philadelphia.
Another one-namer to mention could be Tino.
Four typos:
of Granderson: he was only marginally lesser year should probably be “his only marginally lesser year” or “he played only marginally weaker”
and “he hit 13 triple that year” triples needs its “s”.
Of Texeira: “He’s a switch hitter with power who plays graceful first base” s/b “a graceful first base” or “plays first base gracefully.” and “he has the gift. ” s/b “He has the gift.”
Please don’t write about the Yankees like this any more. I am quite happy hating them forever as cheating scum (going back to Reggie’s interference with Russell’s double play throw in the 1978 World Series that gutless umps refused to call; I was most pleased when they finally found some guts when ARod whacked the ball out of the glove, but it was too late for my Dodgers) and brilliant articles like this make it harder for me to keep up my hate fueled head of steam.
Hey Joe:
Beautiful piece! It’s nice to read a piece about the yankees outside of the NY tabs that isn’t a hate-screed.
As a Yankees fan and a Pos fan, it was a real treat to find this piece up today. I think you nailed the psychology of the yankees fan, as well.
I know that enormity has come to be a synonym of enormousness. However, I will always think of the primary meaning I learned: Extreme wickedness, nefariousness.
In this case–describing the Yankees–it fits.
I hate the Yankees because they have earned so much. I hate Yankees fans because they haven’t earned a damn thing.
@NMark – I think “inane” is too kind for Sterling and Waldman. They are absolutely unlistenable. It’s shocking and unfortunate that a franchise such as the Yankees has such unprofessional and uninformed announcers (and it doesn’t look like they’re going to leave anytime soon). Thanks goodness for the MLB app- I always listen to Yankees games via the opposing team’s audio feeds. Does anyone out there like Sterling/Waldman?
Howz come moi ain’t on the
“Greatest Rock Bands Of All TIme” list, huh?
“Oh, sure, I’ve been in many places where the fans clearly BELIEVE the guy will get the big hit. That happened a whole lot in San Francisco at the end of last season.”
As a lifelong Giants fan, you hit it on the head here, Joe — and encapsulated why I could never be a Yankees fan.
The fact that we got to believe that for two months last fall and that it came true was the best baseball experience of my life.
To live every day in that expectation — and thereby be numb to surprise and delight when belief turns into reality — would be to live outside the fundamental truth of baseball.
As a Yankees fan who probably ‘gets it’ more than most, I’ll be happy to answer any questions.
OBT – Who do you think is happier, the guy that bets the 4-1 horses, or the guy who bets the 50-1’s? Sure, the longshot feels better when it comes in, but the 4-1 guy wins a lot more often.
People still go to the theater to root for Batman, even though HE always wins.
Besides, it’s not as if the Yankees win every year. (I presume I am not the only one who suspects we’re entering a bit of a dry spell these days.) They’re simply competitive far more often than not. Isn’t that what you want from your team?
PS – I give Waldman a bit of a pass – I think she decided long ago to do whatever she was needed to win George’s favor and become one of the first female broadcasters. Sterling, on the other hand, is an outright disgrace. Once, when people thought of the Yankees, they thought ‘Holy Cow!’ Now, instead, it’s Sterling’s epileptic, apoplectic ‘Thuh-uh-uh Yankees win.’ Please don’t think that all of us enjoy that.
I see where John Sterling has been a NYY broadcaster since 1989. He must have that “comfortable shoe” kind of appeal to Yankee listeneres because if you are tuning in for some insight or a good back & forth knowledgeable baseball discussion between he and S. Waldman, forgetabboutitt.
Theycallmemrpibb, your argument presupposes that one chooses a baseball team to love based on a rational, happiness-maximizing econometric decision tree. Which is an argument that could probably only be made by a Yankee fan (I kid, I kid … ).
As for your argument that it’s not as if the Yankees win every year, you’re absolutely right. It’s been 18 months, but I’m still delirious with joy for all the 10-year-old Yankee fans who finally had that empty void in their hearts filled when the Yanks beat the Phillies in the ’09 Series.
Oh my goodness gracious, Sterling and Waldman are brutal. If only they could add Hawk Harrelson to the mix they would have a dream team of horrible broadcasters.
Like you, Joe, I also KNEW the Yankees were going to win that game last night – and I’m a Blue Jays fan.
But that comeback in the ninth inning had nothing to do with the fans, nothing to do with the prowess of the Yankees hitters, nothing to do with the mystique of the one-name legendary icons, and absolutely nothing at ALL to do with Mariano Rivera warming up in the bullpen.
The reason I knew the Yankees would win is because Frank Francisco was coming out of the bullpen. The guy’s ERA is over 6, and his WHIP is over 1.5. In his last eight appearances that he had to pitch at least one full inning (two of which resulted in blown saves), he’s had exactly ONE appearance where he had a 3-up, 3-down inning. That is NOT the stuff of which closers are made.
The only real surprise in that whole ninth inning was that old Frank didn’t just give up a home run to Granderson and get it over with a lot sooner.
And any Yankees fan who is tired of the “Yankee-bashing” in the media all the time should try listening to the broadcasters from other teams (especially Buck Martinez and Joe Buck) fall all over themselves in their eagerness to practically fellate Derek Jeter on the air. Hell, Martinez was waxing positively rhapsodic last night about how those Great Yankee Hitters ™ were at driving in runs – even while the graphic on the TV was showing that Jeter’s BA with runners in scoring position was a measly .183…
I agree with NMarkW, et al. regarding Waldman/Sterling and throw in the curious perception that I get that Sterling doesn’t really appear to like Waldman, either. Maybe it’s not specific to Waldman and it’s just the way he talks to everyone, but I always get the feeling that Sterling would prefer to not work with her.
Sports injuries: Have you ever heard Gary Matthews, Sr.? I hadn’t until this year, but wow, I’d put him up there with Sterling/Waldman and Hawk. He’s unbearable to me.
Gus Johnson needs to do baseball. Especially post-season baseball.
Goodbye Buck and McCarver, hello Johnson and Cone/Leiter. Now that’s a WS I’d love to hear.
I don’t know how Yankees fans can willingly listen to Sterling and Waldman.
Since 2010 Tex has hit…I notice how you conveniently left out 2009. I am reminded of the old adage of how you can make statistics say anything. Especially if you start with an assumed conclusion and deliberately manipulate what statistics you show people in order to reinforce it. That’s being deliberately dishonest, and there’s no way around that. I’ve seen you do it dozens of times. “In 1997, John Smith had a higher OPS than Bill Jones, therefore he is a better player.” Try being honest, please.
Regarding John Sterling’s Yankee win warble, it’s actually spelled and pronounced “The Yankees win! THUHHH Yankees win!” The THUH portion of the win warble will vary in length and intonaton depending on John’s level of excitement. John Sterling’s win warbles are well documented at another blog on blogspot.
The dulcet tones of Big John Sterling and Wailin’ Suzyn Waldman are only the broadcast a True Yankee Fan ever needs!
Yankees fan here. You couldn’t have said it better. The late inning feeling is often one of expectation, not hope and somehow that history is bred into a team’s fanbase. It means the highs are never as high (“great, we won the world series! So what about next year?”) And the lows can often be lower (that expectation really bit us HARD in 2004). But even so, being a Yankee fan creates this quiet pride that doesn’t exist anywhere else, and I can understand why people from around the world become Yankee fans even without a local tie (though I am a born & raised New Yorker and Yankee fan).
The only other team(s) that I can think of comparably are maybe the Packers and Cowboys (though obviously not anymore). It is a unique feeling to be a Yankee fan, and I will never give that up.
Oh, and re: Sterling/Waldman, I have MLB.com and listen to games often (now that I am on the West Coast, they come on while I am still at work) – I ALWAYS choose the opposing team’s broadcast. Always.
elwodlarf
honest?
Since 2010 doesn’t include the 2009 season.
honest?
Honestly, read an article and take note of what is being said. This was not a bust on Tex.
Enjoy what’s there. Joe wasn’t saying something other than what he said. Which was, as usual, excellent.
Thanks Joe.
elwoodlaf
honest?
One time, I felt that “oh, well you absolutely KNOW this is going to happen” at a baseball game (well, in a positive way, at least). That was The Double – Edgar Martinez’s double to win the ALDS against the Yankees in 1995. I’d say just about every person in the stadium could have dropped the ball within 15 feet of where Edgar deposited it down the left-field line.
If that’s what if feels like to be a Yankee fan, well, as much as I hate* the Yankees…it’s gotta be fun to be a die-hard Yankees fan.
*sports hate, of course. Jeter and Bernie and Mariano and on and on are, by most accounts at least, good people. I’m sure they’d make excellent dinner companions, but man do I like to watch them lose. On the other hand, I do abhor listening to the Sterling/Waldman show. Ugh.
Long-time reader and enjoyer. 🙂
But the Yankees have lost 100 games in a season, they lost 103 in 1908.
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/history/season_records.jsp
This puts some perspective on what ARod went through his first few years with the Yanks. He was maligned for coming up small in big situations. Apparently the fans were expecting weekly walk-offs from ARod and when it didn’t happen, they thought, “What’s wrong with this clown?”
I think Mark Daniel is missing something. Yankee fans aren’t that different than any other fans. Trading for A-Rod was a little like trading for Clemens. We had our doubts. Not as to talent, but as to personality. We like Jeter, Mariano, Pettitte, Paul O’Neill, Donny Baseball. We like the ones who seem to want to be Yankees. We know they are rich beyond our wildest dreams, we know they have ego, but we want them to care about the team’s success as much as we do. A-Rod and Clemens seemed a little like carpetbaggers, or rock stars just playing another sold-out theatre at a ridiculous ticket price. They’d do the two hour show, collect the huge appearance fee, and move on. So, when A-Rod came here, our attitude was “well, you are supposed to be great, you keep telling us you are great, you are paid as if you are great, show us something”. We wanted more than a stats compiler-we wanted someone to do something great for our team.
I was pretty sure Edgar was going to get a hit there too, and I could not believe Torre kept pitching to him. It really pissed me off, although I’m really not of the “don’t let this guy beat you” school usually.
Fandom has more to do with geography than anything else. There are more people living in the NYC area than any other US baseball town. I grew up in northern NJ in the 70s, was I supposed to be a front runner and like the Orioles, Pirates, Reds, or A’s? In fact, since the Mets were the better NY team at the time, I thought I WAS rooting for the underdog in 1972.
Actually, it was Showalter, sorry
“As a lifelong Giants fan, you hit it on the head here, Joe — and encapsulated why I could never be a Yankees fan. “
So let me ask you something – let’s say the Giants started winning every year. Say they win the next two in a row, win maybe 5-10 years after that, maybe even another couple in a row. Say they begin a new dynasty.
Would you switch teams?
@Mark Daniel
Ha! You said it.
Seriously, though, this is an idea that’s really foreign to me. I’m pretty pessimistic with the teams I root for, always hoping, yet I think deep down expecting failure. Maybe it’s the years of being a fan of the Royals and Chiefs, all the frustration and disappointment. Knowing your team will win no matter what? That must be on amazing feeling.
Joe, your piece is exactly 3000 words.
I am a writer, and have to say that you are so good at what you do that you can do things like that just to make it more difficult or interesting. Like Larry Bird once played a game and only took left-handed shots. The game was so easy for him that he had to do things like that to keep his head in the game.
Awesome.
On the Mariano and assured feeling of victory comment: I recognize how great the man is. But the reputation as the best sure thing ever in sports has always baffled me a bit. Because not just once but 3 seasons the Yankees were knocked out of the playoffs when Mariano blew saves. And all 3 times the Yankees appeared invincible at the moment of the blown save.
1997, Cleveland down 2 games to 1, behind in the bottom of the 8th, bases empty, I think 2 out, facing Mariano and the Yankees…game over for sure. But no.
2001, Arizona had just botched a bunt with 1st and 2nd nobody out, and now had one out with a mediocre hitter up, facing Mariano and the Yankees…didn’t it look like it was slipping away from Arizona? But no.
2004, less dramatic because it was the first two games of Boston’s comeback, but again it was at moments when the series looked over for sure, and again Mariano didn’t close it out.
Again, I agree he is still one of the all-time greats. But I don’t get the invincible, assured victory reputation. If a QB had won 5 and lost 3 Super Bowls, or an NBA star had won 5 and lost 3 Finals, he could never create that feeling or reputation, could he? So I don’t see how Mariano does.
rokirovka-I agree Mariano isn’t perfect, but I find your argument a bit odd. 15 years of playoffs, 139.2 innings, a .71 ERA, .769 WHIP, 42 saves, 8-1 record against the best teams baseball had to throw at him isn’t bad. I guess you could focus on the three blown saves, line them up against the five world series wins, forget every other game he won or saved, and call him mediocre. With that standard, he couldn’t even make the Lake Wobegon Whammers-he wouldn’t be well above average.