Tagged: Yankees
Big Salary, Big Lie….Big Deal
The A-Rod news is simply not a surprise. I don’t even consider it to be a massive news story. Show me the list of great players who DID NOT use performance enhancing drugs during the steroid era. THAT is the massive news story. Let A-Rod’s quick admission and apology be a lesson for everyone about how to handle a crisis like this — at least Alex was smart enough to learn from Rocket’s gigantic errors.
The Yankees Make Life Sweeter
The Yankees are in town for a weekend showdown, and Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen has written a well-timed article
making a case for the forced extinction of the chant, “Yankees Suck!” I
couldn’t agree more with Kevin, and his article reminded me of a piece
I wrote in March, 2008 for the Sox and Pinstripes blog, about why Red Sox fans actually love the Yankees more than we hate them. Here’s an excerpt from that article:
I’m Vice President of Red Sox Nation, and I love the New York
Yankees. Are you a Red Sox fan who’s shocked by this statement? Guess
what, you love them, too. In fact, the longer you’ve been a Red Sox
fan, the greater your love is for them.
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a world without the
Yankees. Imagine there’s no rivalry between the Boston and New York
baseball teams; in fact, there’s no legitimate “rivalry” between the
Red Sox and any other team. Goose Gossage was never a nemesis and David
Ortiz never hit those dramatic
walk-off homers.
Mariano Rivera played for the Reds so we hardly knew
him, and George Steinbrenner owned the Phillies so his name merely
rings a bell. 1978 never happened, but neither did 2004.
Do you find this vision enticing? Nah. Like me, you appreciate the
way things have turned out so far (the painful times made the jubilant
times more jubilant), and you’re dying of anticipation as you think
ahead to future seasons of the greatest rivalry in all of sports.
You’ll never root for the Yanks, but you’ll be happiest when they’re a
top-notch team that buys whatever superstar they want…. then loses to
the Red Sox in games that really count. And you’ll give Derek Jeter a
“standing-O” in his last at-bat at Fenway Park because, like me, you
deeply appreciate what he has contributed to your enjoyment of The Game
– as a Yankee.
To read the article from Sox and Pinstripes in its entirety, click here.
Red Sox Nation Loves The Yankees
The
rivalry is back, with the Yanks taking the first of their 18 regular
season meetings this year. 17 more games before October? That’s the
equivalent of an entire New England Patriots season. Almost an
overdose. And with the rivalry stoked by that construction worker who buried a Red Sox t-shirt
in the foundation of the “new” Yankee Stadium, we’re all assured
another century of emotionally charged competition. Would you say that
“the rivalry” is the best aspect of being a Red Sox fan? I would.
Along those lines, I wrote a guest post at the Sox and Pinstripes blog about why most of us who profess to hate the Yankees actually love them. Here is an excerpt:
I like to think that, before I was born in
August of 1968, God let me choose the circumstances of my life: “Well,
being a rabid baseball fan seems like a lot of fun,” I told Him, “So I
think I’d like to live sometime during the 19th, 20th, or 21st Century, on Earth.”
“All right,” said God, “but please be more specific. When and where, exactly, would you like to be born?”
I thought about it and replied, “I hear that
sports rivalries are charged with emotion and excitement, so please put
me in a city whose team has a fierce rivalry with another team – the
fiercest in all of baseball – and let me be born at a time in history
that will allow me to experience that rivalry at its peak, OK?”
“Consider it done,” said God. “But one more
thing – would you like to become a fan of the team that wins more
championships than any other during the 20th Century? Or
would you like to become a fan of the team that wins the first World
Series in 1903, but later on experiences a championship drought
virtually unparalleled in professional sports?”
“Hmmm.” I pondered my options. “Just make me a
fan of the team that gives its fans the lowest lows and the highest
highs. I want to experience the greatest possible range of emotions as
a baseball fan during this lifetime.”
“No problem,” said God as He cracked a knowing smile.
To read the entire guest post at Sox and Pinstripes, click here.
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To download the songs, “I’m A Member of Red Sox Nation” and “Opening Day” for free, please visit my other blog, Crawdaddy Cove.
It's a Kind of a Family. It's a Kind of Insanity. 