I’m a Yankee fan.
I don’t know if you knew that about me; it is something I tend to hold pretty close to the vest. Oh, there are a few hints out there – the large decals on the back window of my truck, the plethora of paraphernalia around my office, the shirts and shorts and jackets, 8 Yankees ball caps, the cell-phone cover, the life-sized cardboard cutout of Babe Ruth in my office, you know – a few minor things. Other than that, I try to keep my sports allegiances to myself. It’s just not something I feel comfortable talking about.
Being a Yankee fan is both a joy and a trial. One word sums up the joy – 27. That’s how many World Series championships we have. The trials come, of course, from those who are jealous of the Yankees’ accomplishments, those who are fans of lesser teams who wish they were the boys from the Bronx. They come from those who feel Yankees fans are fair game for ridicule (though we are uniformly humble and unassuming in our cheering practices). They come from frustrated fans of teams who don’t have the Yankees’ resources.
My love affair with the Yankees began in earnest on Saturday, October 10, 1964. I was watching game 3 of the World Series with my dad on our grainy black and white set. Mickey Mantle led off the bottom of the ninth inning of a 1-1 game. My dad, a Yankee fan since growing up in eastern Pennsylvania listening to Yankees games on the radio in the Lou Gehrig era, was begging for Mickey to hit a home run and end the game. That is exactly what he did. We didn’t call them “walk-offs” back then but that was the first time I remember pulling for the Yankees and rejoicing at their success.
Soon after that game, the Yankees took a turn for the worse. They lost that series and became a mediocre to poor team for the next decade. I still cheered for them even though there wasn’t much to get excited about.
Then, in the mid 70s George Steinbrenner discovered free agency and a new Golden Era was born. Reggie Jackson. Sweet Lou. Catfish Hunter. Thurman Munson. Willie Randolph. And, of course, Billy Martin. Those Yankees were pretty good, reaching 3 straight World Series and winning two of them, both against the much-hated and evil Los Angeles Dodgers.
The second of those years was the greatest of all seasons for a Yankee fan. In 1978, the Yankees started out in turmoil. Reggie and Billy were fighting and the Yanks were losing. In the middle of August they were 14.5 games out of first (no wildcards then) and given up for dead. Then, the Yankee miracle took place. They won…and won…and won again. After 162 games they were dead even with the forces of darkness and they went into Fenway (the vortex of evil in the world) for a tie-breaking game. Down 2-0 with the innings slipping away, light-hitting Bucky Dent stepped to the plate and deposited a ball in the netting over the Green Monster. After a soul-grinding 3 inning save by Goose Gossage, the Yankees were on their way to an easy win over the sinfully wicked Kansas City Royals and the Dodgers – each easily brushed away. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
Then things got bad. Real bad. George Steinbrenner decided to see if he could single-handedly turn my beloved Bombers into a joke. Firing and hiring managers on a nearly daily basis. Trading away any prospect in the Yankee system for broken down outfielders who couldn’t hit anymore. Criticizing and ridiculing his own players. From 1981 until the mid 90s the Yankees were a joke.
But an interesting thing happened in the early 90s. Steinbrenner got in trouble for some shenanigans he pulled against Dave Winfield and was suspended for a couple of years. Gene “Stick” Michaels, one of the former managers, took over the operation of the team. He built the farm system up and in the mid 90s a crop of young talent came up that changed the course of the Yankees over the last 20 years.
You haters say, “The Yankees are the best team money can buy.” Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it a million times. And they do spend a lot of money. But the truth is that the backbone of the Yankees championship teams of the 90s and 2000s was a cadre of farmhands who never wore anything but pinstripes (with one exception). A young man named Derek Jeter (who Steinbrenner wanted to trade!), Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte (left for Houston for a couple of seasons), Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera (G.O.A.T.) and later, Robinson Cano.
This team was different. Oh, they were still hated because of the uniform they wore, but even the haters had to admit that this core group of players (later known as the Core 4 after Bernie retired) was a classy group and a credit to game of baseball.
And now, they are gone. Gone. None of them will ever play in the Bronx again, except perhaps on Old-Timers Day.
I sat in my hotel room in Des Moines in a puddle of tears when I watched Derek Jeter’s last game at Yankee stadium. I can’t help but wonder if it was all staged – Hollywood would reject a script like that because it was too perfect. Derek puts the Yanks ahead in the 7th, then the bullpen gives up three runs in the ninth to tie the game. In the bottom on the ninth, Derek lines a single (yes, an inside-out swing to right field – he Jeterized it!) to score the winning run. That was fun.
But then I saw them standing there. Andy. Mo. Jorge. Tino Martinez. Bernie. And of course, the Mr. Joe Torre. Standing in a line waiting to greet the last of their group to walk away. Jeter didn’t see them and greeted all his teammates. Then, as he was headed to the dugout, CC Sabathia came over to him and pointed him to the reception committee.
My wife walked in and thought I’d lost my mind. There I am blubbering as a bunch of men hug one another on a baseball field.
But I love the Yankees. And the last 20 years, the Derek Jeter era, has been the true golden eera for my boys. Year after year they made it to and dominated the playoffs. They have been a joy to watch. And its gone. An era has ended.
Of course, it all started to end in the winter before the 2004 season when we traded for a steroid-enhanced infielder from Texas (we Yankee fans do not speak his name). He Who Must Not Be Named had some good years and helped us win the Series in 2009, but we could never feel about him the way we did about the Core 4.
And the era really ended in Yankee Stadium in 2012. The Yankees were playing Detroit in the first game of the ALCS championship. In the first game, down 4-0, the Yanks came up in the bottom of the 9th. Two 2-run home runs later, Yankee stadium was rocking and confidence was high that we would roll through the Tigers and go back to the Series where we belonged.
Then came the second worst moment of my Yankee-cheering career. The worst was in 1979 when a news flash told us that the Captain, Thurman Munson, died in a plane crash over the All-Star break. This one came in the top of the 12th when the new Captain ranged to his left to field a fairly simple ground ball. His ankle snapped and he fell in a heap and the heart of the Yankees was gone. We lost 4 straight.
Derek tried to come back last year, but played in only 17 games. This year, he has been a leader, an inspiration, and a .255 hitter.
But Thursday night he was Captain Clutch all over again. It was dramatic, wonderful, fitting – like a glimpse into the old days. But it was also a reminder that those old days are now historical.
It is hard to imagine that next year someone else will be at short. The Core 4 is gone. I suspect the Yankees will spend enough money to field a decent team in 2015. But the glory days of the Core 4 are gone.
It’s gonna be hard for this old codger to get my soul stirred to watch. I’ll keep cheering. If the Yankees are bad, or worse, mediocre, for a few years, I’ll be a fan – like I was in the 60s and the 80s. I realize my passion for the pinstripes is at times out of balance – the Holy Spirit and I have had several meetings about idolatry through the years. I know there are more important things than baseball out there. But all of my life I’ve loved the Yankees and this bunch, this Core-4 led, championship-winning, classy iteration of the Bronx Bombers has given me many a a joyous moment through the last 20 years – more than I can remember.
And when Derek Jeter walked off the field Thursday night, I died a little. As he rides off, the Captain takes a piece of my heart with him!
The United States Post Office introduced a New York Yankees stamp in 1981. They had to recall it because people kept spitting on the image side.
That is funny!
Dean us about to get banned.
“Like” Dean.
Oh my!!
Dave
Who won that 1964 world series, let’s see, let me think, oh yeah it was my St. Louis Cardinals in 7 if I recall. But Lou Brock and Bob Gibson says it all.
And Jeter, well not bad but no Ozzie.
Jeter was a pretty good shortstop, but Ozzie was a SHORTSTOP!
As for the Cardiac Cardinals, their 11th hour Division wins make me nervous!
Talk about a lot of hooey, but this statement takes the cake: “we (Yankee) fans are uniformly humble and unassuming in our cheering practices” Let me tell you how uniformly humble and unassuming they are in their cheering practices. Last year, after falling dead of a heart attack (thankfully, saved by a shock from a defibilator), the doctors decided I needed a stent at that time (they decided I needed another this early summer). While they were implanting the stent, not exactly your run of the mill routine procedure, my pastor at that time was sitting with the fellow who was about to become my pastor (my son) and they were talking about the Yankees. Now there is a very personal connection to the whole deal. My pastor then was Catfish Hunter’s pastor before he passed on to baseball Heaven and he preached his funeral at a FBC in Eastern North Carolina along with the whole team and then owner George Steinbrenner. Even Reggie Jackson showed up, late as usual, and my Son who was a devoted follower of Jackson in his hey day was really enjoying the conversation. All the time my life was on the line, while them thar two preachers were laughing and talking about the Yankees. And a Cardinal fan was having serious surgery. Personally, I ain’t too impressed by all the caterwauling about some retiring has been Yankee ball player although I do have to admit that Catfish almost earned a tear by giving the fellow who had been his pastor and then mine money to give to the needy in the neighborhood with the proviso that he, the pastor, tell no one where the money came from….as if the average Southerner could not figure it out in his Yankee induced poverty from the days of yore. To add insult to injury there sat my son in seventh heaven about his heroes. Anyway, a Cardinal fan can take comfort in the fact his team has won the World Series 11 times for the National League, whereas all of that New York money invested in the Yankees explains their victories. The tough ones are like the Cardinal player who was running around barefooted in an outfield of broken glass, complaining about how the glass was roughing up the ball.
Reggie probably didn’t show up till October
Dr. Willingham,
I am truly sorry you had to endure such torture before your heart surgery…that is pretty low to put you through that…but, then again what else is one to expect from Yankee infidels…”those people” lose all sense of decency when they start rambling about the “Detox Bombers”, um…I mean Bronx Bombers.
On similar note – I too am sick of the “Jeter is a class act” crapola that keeps being spouted…
He has “dated” through more women during his major league career than he has fielded ground balls, however he is a great baseball player…so maybe the latter trumps the former in determining class acts. 😉
Just sayin’
My wife had gone to bed on Thursday night as I watched the game. When Jeter hit the game winner, I was yelling and laughing like a little kid again watching The Mick, Yogi, Whitey and the rest. It was a great night. I didn’t cry but my eyes were sweating when he did what was his pregame ritual of bending down and thanking God for being able to be a Yankee as he was ready to leave the field.
It was a great night for Yankee fans who haven’t had that much to cheer about since Rivera was escorted out of the game last year. And a great night for any baseball fan.
I’m not a baseball fan, but I did get a tear in my eye when you mentioned the old days are gone forever. You have totally messed up my day. With my physical strength being almost gone, I long to have it back. Thanks Dave, now I’m depressed.
Every father wants his little boy to grow up and be just like Derek Jeter the womanizer. Great player, yes. Class act? Hardly.
Typical jealous Orioles fan. Jeter has been a class act on the field every day of his career.
He is not , to my knowledge, one claims a relationship with Christ. He has not claimed to be saving himself for marriage.
If I had a grandson who was a ball player I’d want him to play just li j e Jeter.
Do you demand that standard of all Orioles players as well?
Petty.
Dave,
The Catholic baseball fans call him Saint Jeter.
when you call someone “classy”…I would think they includes off field antics as well.
Miller, were you one who separated president Clinton’s escapades from his dignity? Did you argue – “It’s unrelated to his office.”
I guess by the “on field only” arguments – Jamis Winston is a class act too…only on the Field of course…of course sexual assault accusations, stolen crab legs, stolen Burger King coke refills, and table announcements not withstanding. 😉
Jealous? Bless your heart. You must not realize that the Yankees are 12 games out in the AL East.
Bawhahahahahaha!
Jeters last game has happened…Adams boys are playoff bound.
Whoever the AL boys are they will play my Cardinals.
And did adam b. Just say “bless your heart” to miller?
That’s hilarious!
That’s humility!
A couple of guys on this stream could learn a thing or two about class from Derek.
I’m out.
Plus i’m very happily married so I won’t be looking to follow Jeters example. 😉
Thank you.
As a Texas Rangers fan (I know, let the laughter begin) I started to die just a little ways into this article and half way thru was about to call 911 so I stopped there.
Clark
I would be interested in knowing why you would be a Rangers fan. Is it some sort of a medical thing perhaps? Or maybe you lost a bet. 🙂
They its Jeter’s last game. They had a Jeter Day a couple months ago.
He’ll probably play in the play-offs. He most likely will take a year off and sign with Boston.
oops, “they Say…”
It’s all just an illusion…
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2212188-derek-jeter-truther-wants-you-to-know-the-captains-final-home-game-was-rigged?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial&hpt=hp_t2
You know, I sat there watching that game thinking, “They couldn’t have cooked all this up, could they?”
The go-ahead RBI.
Then the 3 runs in the top of the ninth.
Then the set up for Jeter to win it.
It was pretty perfect.
too perfect. Ol’boy just happens to throw his slowest pitch since the all-star break.
C’mon. You don’t really believe they fixed it, do you?
Baltimore was still playing for the possibility of having home field throughout the playoffs. And Jeter is pretty universally respected in the game (except for a couple of yahoos here and Keith Olberman), but not enough to give up your team’s homefield advantage to fix a game.
I will admit it was the kind of perfect ending that gives conspiracy theorists room to work, but I don’t believe it.
Unless Jeter is a Calvinist. Hmmmm……..
Personally I think it was a Communists plot
maybe not “fixed”, but “helped”. He still had to hit the ball.
I don’t care if you call me a conspiracy theorist. I think NASCAR is fixed too. lol
Go Dodgers
Where?
Why?
Wow! that item about the whole affair being staged was really interesting. Just like the idea that the Yankees whupped the Southerners. They did not; they had to draft every German and Irishman coming ashore. That whole affair back then was also staged, only we got the short end of the stick: Poverty for almost four generations. Can’t say I am sad that slavery had to go: that was a bad idea from the gitgo and one of the reasons God allowed that war. Even James Petigru Boyce said something to the effect that we would have the war, and we would lose it because of the way Southerners treated the families of African Americans back then. But who knew the salt that would be rubbed into the wounds, salt like the above blog by a VP of the SBC no less. By the way did you fellows know that some 60-70,000 African Americans drew pensions from the Confederate States after the war for service during the war? If I can just hijack that Yankee fan’s blog, we will have some fun.
Now, gentlemen, let’s try to build unity here. Can we find anyone who was truly a class act both on and off the field? Someone whom we all can affirm? Someone who won the MVP three times? Someone who ranks fourth in career hits? Someone who made the MLB All Century Team?
Someone who married his high school sweetheart and remained faithful to her for 72 years of marriage until her death? Someone who appeared in every All-Star game of his career?
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, Stan Musial.
HURAH!!!
Leave it to a Cardinals fan to sully the discussion.
By the way, just for the record, the Yankees teams of the late 90s and early 2000s that won 4 WS in 5 years (and if the serpents from the desert hadn’t gotten lucky – still bitter about that one – it would be 5 in 6 years) were full of solid believers.
There was a great article in Sports Spectrum magazine about it a few years ago.
So, any fan of a team other than the Yankees is a hater, but you Yankee fans hate on the best organization in baseball, the Cardinals. 🙂
Just for the record, that 1964 series your Yankees lost — to the Cardinals and Bob Gibson. And the Cards hold a 3-2 record over the Yankees when they have met in the World Series.
I think Jeter is a class act, but the Cardinals are the class of the Senior Circuit and, of course, our pitchers still bat unlike the girls in the American League, and your “designated hitters.”
We live in a fallen world, Nate. In a fallen world, people cheer for the Cardinals.
It happens.
Well, Dave, I’ll be cheering for the Cardinals long after you stop cheering for the Yankees.
Especially THIS October. 🙂
Yayuh!
A ‘Southern Gentleman’. Back when Harry Carrey was the announcer in the South Central states, the Cardinals were noted for being a southern gentleman’s team. The Yankees like the rest of the North were considered to be the barbarians and, thus, uncivilized. Glad to know you, Bart. By the way, once I moved to St. Louis, I use get free tickets to the front row. Saw Stan Musial hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 14th inning, when the score was tied. I think it was either the Pirates or the Phillies. Anyway the pitcher for the other side, if memory is serving me correctly, was Robin Roberts who was upset by some hecklers, when he was warming up in the bull pen.
Dr. JW
Your sister and I got those tickets on several occasions.
Dave
On a serious note you are correct. The cardinals have had and still do have their share of solid believers.
Dr. Bart
That says it all. No reason to continue this thread. Time to move to another subject.
BTW, The Man also has (had) a great restaurant in St. Louis…Musial and Biggies. The greatest thrill of this St. Louis kids life growing up was to watch Mr. Musical play. Still have the baseball card. Love the restaurant as an adult.
For Christmas last year my father-in-law gave me one of Stan Musial’s harmonicas. Pretty neat, huh?
My mother’s neighbors and the mother-in-law of the missionary for the North American Mission Board has some neighbors who were eating ou Musial and Biggies…and well the story is funny. Maybe I will tell it or my brother-in-law. Yes, D.L., I know you and my sister managed to finagle those tickets out from under my nose. It is what turns in-laws into outlaws. Fortunately, I am sure, I forgave you all anyway. (I had clean like forgotten that trickery. Hold off on the forgiveness business until I check it out. After all, there needs to be some forgiveness. This is not quite like the Yankee fans who have no reason for pride, because money bought it all. Wall Street backs its team with moola.
I couldn’t read past, “I’m a Yankees fan.”
Heathen.
Tsk! Such language out of the so-called winners.
Well, I guess if the shoe fits, I’ll just have to wear it.
A Braves and Yankees fan are hunting together when the Braves fan grabs his chest and fall motionless. The Yankees fan calls 911 and says, “My friend just fell dead.” The operator said, “Calm down. First make sure he is dead.” The operator hears two gunshots and then the Yankee fan says, “Ok, now what.”
As a Cardinals fan the only team I dislike more than the Cubs is the Yankees and the Red Sox fall into a close third. Yankees are about to enter into an area of losing because they sold all there talent to pay A-Rod.
Yankee Stadium will be quiet this October as Fire works are going off in Busch once again
Yes sir Andrew, happy days are here again!
Stan the man joined the son of my cousin for a snapshot. Later, my cousin who had her hair done by the same beautician as Mrs. Musial happened to mention and Mrs. Musial said she would take the picture home and have Stan autograph it….which he did. Stan was a first class sportsman.
No doubt!
I’m not even saying players must be believers to be considered worthy of compliment….I am only saying that calling a blatant womanizer a class act…is well…not classy.
Call him a hall of fame bound beast on the feild … I’m with ya. Call him a loyal Yankee – I’m on board. But classy – that’s a bridge way too far.