It is extinct for the eye to see
My ideology it is dead and gone
Almost forgotten for the eye to see
- "My Little Empire" - Manic Street Preachers
Living on the West Coast of Canada, I have had the fortune/misfortune of admiring the Majors from a distance. I was brought up in Calgary during the 80's, so I have always had a certain kinship with the underdog. Three hours north were the big boys of hockey and most of the time our team was the one watching the hoisting. I guess this spilled over in to baseball, because I always saw a player in pinstripes as pure evil.
It made sense. They have been trying to buy championships for as long as I can remember, there is the hardly endearing over-confident swagger, and they have been winning more often than not, so you know, it gets old. In 2004, I cheered the greatest comeback in the history of sports from Roberts' stolen base to Damon's game seven heroics. I guess at the time I ignored that Boston had broken the curse by becoming precisely what they had claimed to hate. That would be the three qualities I mentioned earlier about the Yanks. Except for the winning part, but a funny thing happened over the last five years. From my Uecker seats out here just off the Pacific, they became interchangeable. The pinstripes and the red, white, and blue jerseys were now synonymous.
I do understand this rivalry. If you have any team that you love, chances are there is one that you detest with "a hatred that only love can understand." An old Brooklyn dodgers fan once said that. I do have that. I know that there are players that the other team may not like especially, and you especially love it when that player succeeds against the team you hate because it is an extra dagger through the heart.
Going in to the August 6th-9th series between baseball's behemoths, the New Englanders had won 8 straight against the Bombers this season. New York managed to win the first game of the series by a bunch, then somehow, as it often does with these two, a classic wandered in to New Yankee Stadium. I did not get to see it live, but when the highlights came on at a bar I was at with my brother, I got the idea something special had happened that night at the ballpark. Five and a half hours of two teams giving their all to beat the ones they wish to beat the very most, and neither side faltering. As I watched, I somehow found myself wanting the Yanks to pull it out. In the bottom of the 15th I got my wish. Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run shot to walk off the field the hero. My transformation to the dark side was was complete as I shouted out at the screen, "Attaboy, kid!" You see, I know how this player is the most hated player to a majority of the Red Sox fans, so there is that extra dagger I was talking about.
I was sympathizing with the enemy. Again, it makes sense. I have no real dyed-in-the-wool relationships with either team, they are now the ones not winning as much, and let's be honest, that "aura and mystique" is actually pretty sexy. The heartbeat of baseball pumps out of New York and has for a long time. A brief look back at the best the game has ever had to offer reveals this to be so. They still spend more on their team than anyone else, but it really is because they can. There is some cash in New York. If you don't believe me, check out which team has the second highest payroll. Even so, to understand the Yankees is to love the excess that comes with it. I understand that now.Now, I have not abandoned my underdog roots altogether. It would take the second greatest comeback in the history of sports for my team to make it to the post-season this year. I know that to be a real sports fan for most teams requires humility. Just look at the Cubs. Their entire fanbase is centred around the concept. The Yankees are not like most teams. Were A-Rod to be more humble, it just would not fit. It is OK for their fans to say, "The boys are gonna win it all this year" after one game with more than a quarter of the season left to play. This is something I hate hearing from any pseudo-sports fan, but you know why we pinstripe supporters can get away with it?
Because there is a very good chance we will win it all, ya bum.
I can tell from all the way over here.
