Self Reflection

Now that The Boss is dead and the nation is seemingly overwhelmed by legions of Yankee bandwagon jumpers wearing pink or red Yankee hats, I must now examine my history with the beloved Yankees to see if I'm now a douchebag as well.

FACT #1 - It's true I'm from Colorado but we didn't have a team until 1993 so I can't be held accountable for having picked a team in the first 13 years of life. Most of the family is from NY so naturally I drifted towards one of their teams. Thank god it wasn't the Mets.

FACT #2 - As I was forming my connection with the team, it happened to be during the worst of the Steinbrenner years. I figure the years from about 4 years old (1984) to 13 years old (1993) were when I became locked in to the pinstripes. So was I bandwagon jumper? I hardly think so. To check those standings, in my most impressionable years, the Yanks didn't make the playoffs once, finished dead last once. Even if you add in the next two years, the Yanks lost a first place team to a strike and then lost that heartbreaking wildcard playoff to the Mariners.

1980: 103-59 (lost ALCS)
1981: 59-48 (won World Series)
1982: 79-83
1983: 91-71
1984: 87-75
1985: 97-64
1986: 90-72
1987: 89-73
1988: 85-76
1989: 74-87
1990: 67-95 (last in AL)
1991: 71-91
1992: 76-86
1993: 88-74
1994: 70-43 (strike cancelled season)
1995: 79-65 (lost 3-2 to Seattle in ALDS. E. Martinez walkoff, Jr. scores.)
1996: 92-70 (won World Series, start of the Jeter Era)

How was I supposed to know that things weren't always as bad as they were when I was growing up? We had no Internet back then kiddies. So far as I knew, we were the lovable losers.

FACT #3 - There wasn't just losing during this time period, it was Steinbrenner losing. Jay Buhner losing. That counts double.

CONCLUSION: I earned the right to be a Yankee fan. All of these bandwagon, Jeter groupies can suck it. You don't know what it's like to have Jim Abbott start on opening day or to have Steve Howe involved in your team in any way. Don't get me started on Gerald Williams or how Steiny wanted to trade Bernie Williams 10 minutes after he got to the bigs. We can all make fun of the late arriving Red Sox and Yankee fans wearing multi-colored gear or Yankee jerseys with the name on the back (!) but I'll continue to wear my blue hat high (so long as I can still get some kind of family discount . . .), secure in the fact that I'm better than all these other people that make people like me look bad and that I have not been living my life as an unaware douchebag. Not for this anyway.

EXTRA FACT #1 - I don't care that the Yanks have tons of money to spend. All of you "small market" teams in Los Angeles, Miami, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Boston, Queens, Texas and St. Louis just need to sack up a little bit and try to scrape a few more shekels out of your "small town America" fan bases. Not my problem that your team is broke because of a divorce (Dodgers), or that you can't get Hispanics to watch baseball (Miami), or that you're incompetent (Orioles, Nationals, Mets) or that it's just to hot to play late in the season (Texas). Also not my problem that spending 150 million still leaves you with Varitek, Papi, Wakefield, Dice - K and Lowell (Red Sox). It takes cash and brains my friends. In basketball they talk about getting one for the thumb but the classiest team in all of professional sports is almost half way through lap #2 of getting rings for all the digits, fingers and toes. On the way to 28!

SUCK ON IT FACT #1 - Had the Yankees traded for Cliff Lee, he might have only been the #3 pitcher, given the role Pettitte is on.