Go Yankees

The Yanks are the Champions again and I love it.

This statement brings a lot of heat under many people's bums. People hate the Yankees, like they do paying interest or parking tickets. The old and tired out-mantra is “They are what are wrong with sports.”

Why? Can someone explain this to me?

The owner of the Yankees bought the team for like $10 million dollars back in the 70’s. The team was good, but not great. He cares about the team so much that he would make game-day calls, and instructs managers about who is playing and who isn’t. He lives and breathes his team more than any fan ever could. With this ambition he has earned 11 pennants to hang on the wall.

With this passion he has dumped millions, if not billions, into his team. They are a professional franchise like a McDonalds or a Burger King, only instead of pushing “Burger Buddies” they are there to entertain the world and sell merchandise. And what’s wrong with that?

He had done this better than any other franchise owner has… EVER. He has several rings, a top-notch line-up, rappers, and foreigners, Midwesterners, west-coasters, celebrities and possibly billions of folks sporting the Yankee hat. His stadium is full of movie-stars, athletes, families and both haters and lovers of the team paying just to sit there and enjoy the team.

From firsthand knowledge I know it takes about $100 to scalp a decent ticket outside of Yankee Stadium and people pay that without a thought for a regular season game. There is no other stadium I’m aware of that can scalp this amount after the game has started.

We love the Yankees. Others LOVE to hate the Yankees, but either way—there seems to be a lot of love.

The real problem these “haters” have, can be better understood within the faults of their own team. So many franchise owners don’t want to be involved, don’t want to invest in a team and would rather move a team than foot the bill for their purchase. That is why so many teams like the dodgers, athletics and nationals have moved around. Greedy owners would rather take what they can get than invest in the franchise they are responsible for.

On top of all of that, my favorite player growing up was Don Mattingly. He was an Indiana guy and an amazing hitter. His nickname was the “hit man” and he had no ego what-so-ever. He just showed up in his trademark mustache and mullet and did his thing. He never swung at the first pitch, always stayed humble, and had no enemies.

Don was as loyal to the Yankees as I was to him. I had as many of his baseball cards as I could, and I never traded them. In fact, I would trade more valuable cards left and right to acquire Don’s rookie card. Mattingly wasn’t a super-star by any respect and typically one of my best friends, Gavin, would be the grinning recipient of my overly-loyal, overly-stupid trades. He would often just smile at me, knowing he could sucker out my Conseco rookie for his Mattingly.

Sadly for Don, he never won a ring. The Yankees had a couple good years in the 80’s but generally never had a chance. His team was weak and he never got close to winning a ring. The closest was his last year when the Mariners beat the Yanks in the playoffs and ending his career. I will never forget the Mariners for this either. But Mattingly showed me loyalty like none other. He played his entire career with the Yankees. I became a huge Yankee fan because of this, and I’ve never stopped.

Today, the Yankees have a squad I like—previously, I loved the team, but some of the players were suspect. This crew is great. They have a crew of guys that haven’t played for anyone else except the Yankees like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte (minus the 3 years with Houston a few years ago). These guys started playing together as rookies back in 1995 and won a championship together 14 years later! You have to love that! That is only possible because the Yankees have stayed in the same place, the same team, same fans, same heart – for years. Being a Yankees fan is being a part of an incredibly rich tradition.

Then you have the “new” batch like Robinson Cano, Hideki Matsui (Godzilla!), Joba and so many more that haven’t worn any other jersey and they’re loving it too.

Granted, the Yankee’s owner isn’t the most popular man in sports, but the guy loves baseball more than I bet most baseball players do. He has joked and been joked about his hire-fire-hire-fire episodes with managers, telling managers who was going to start and yada yada. But the man loves the sport he is investing in and you have to appreciate that.

He has a great sense of humor too. He has starred in commercials making fun of his hand, tired from writing checks to Jeter, his constant firing and hiring of managers, and was a regular in Seinfeld episodes where George Costanza worked for him.

The Yankees are beyond baseball. This is because of their loyal and dedicated owner, players and fans, of which I am proud to be one.

There is nothing to dislike about that.

Go YANKS! Respect.