[tweetmeme source=”schrecktom”http://tomschreck.wordpress.com/]
a2a_linkurl=”https://www.tomschreck.com”;
To order a Duffy book, click on one of the covers to the left.
I’m a Yankees fan.
I hate the Red Sox so much I don’t like driving on the Mass Pike. The Yankees won last night in the 10th and it looks like they’ll be in the playoffs and the Sox won’t be.
That is right and just and how the universe should be aligned.
But something hasn’t felt right all year to me. I haven’t cared about my team even when I tried.
My favorite player is Hideki Matsui. Last year he was the MVP in the World Series and he was always a clutch guy. Classy and the ultimate team man, he brought Japanese attention to the Bronx and a punch to the Bombers.
Johnny Damon crazy infectiousness was great for the Yankees. His double steal won a Series game for the Yanks last year. Melky Cabrera, a young guy full of passion was great to watch.
The Yanks let them all go in the off season.
It’s debatable whether it was a good baseball move but that’s not my point. That’s how baseball works and all the winning teams do the same thing.
There are new guys on the team and they are good ball players and seem like fine men. I even liked some of them when they played for other teams.
But they’re not the team I cheered for.
Jerry Seinfeld once said that pro sports is like cheering for laundry. Free agency has changed sports so much and the players go from team to team so often that you’re really rooting for the uniform.
That’s how I feel.
I’ve felt kind of ripped off all year.
I could leave a comment about you telling me you were a Angels fan after they won the world series, and a White Sox fan after they won, but I won’t. I know you’re a true Yankee fan. And you’re right about free agency, but free agency changed baseball in the 70’s so loyalty to the laundry began back then when George bought the first wave of free agents. Even the Yankees of the late 90’s changed enough parts annually to remain on top. Any baseball fan growing up after free agency began knows nothing of rooting for the same players year after year, and the heartbreak of being stuck in a losing rut year after year, unless your a Mets or Pirates fan!.
try living in Cleveland!
I afraid gone are the days that a player stayed with a team for their careers. I remember when Bob Gibson retired from the Cardinals – my dad took the entire family to Busch Stadium for it because it was a special event. When Ozzie Smith retired, I remember Joe Buck making a comment that Ozzie’s retirement is probably the marking an end of an era. He said when you said Ozzie Smith you knew he was a St. Louis Cardinal.
Former Manager of the Cardinals Whitey Herzog recently mentioned that baseball has changed so much that we wouldn’t want to manage today. He said they used to be baseball teams not a groups of high-priced players looking out for themselves.
I hear ya, Tom. It’s been a strangely hollow season for me as well. Hideki Matsui was my favorite Yankee too. He always played with his whole heart and I loved him for it. So bummed that they traded him.
I have never rooted for a player. (I dont much care for sports unless I get free tickets to a game from someone else). I am a SF Giants fan unless they are playing the dodgers (born in so cal and raised in nor cal)…
I am a Niner Fan unless they are playing the cowboys (cause daddy is from texas)…but couldnt tell you who any of the players are.
For me – baseball is about the hot dogs and garlic fries.