This is why

[pecunium]

I am a baseball fan.

I am, in specific, a Dodgers fan.

My second favorite team is whoever's playing the Yankees. When the Yankees play the Giants I am torn (my dislike of the Giants was a vague thing; until the season the Giants were completely out of the running, and had damn near no one in Candlestick... until the last three games of the year. The only thing the Giants could do was keep the Dodgers out of the playoffs. I had no problem with them playing their hearts out. It was rather the fans, who were stomping on the Dodger dugout so firmly that coversation couldn't happen and [so the papers said] things were falling off shelves. Giants management said, "nothing you can do to stop the fans". In Dodger stadium they'd have been ejected, but I digress).

Now, the Yankees aren't really in a position to swagger. They've bombed for the entire century. When they brag of how many pennants they've won, and how many of those led to World Series victories, well looking at those wins, they've been no more than average since expansion.

Not that this has stopped them from spending beaucoup bucks to try and bring back the glory days of "Joltin' Joe"

Hell, it hasn't stopped them from thinking they are still in those glory days.

Which leads to shit like this:

Griffin Whitman, a 10-year-old Red Sox [team stats] fan from Swampscott, was excited to attend his first Yankees vs. Red Sox game Friday night. The young autograph -collector was even more thrilled to score Yankees outfielder Shelley Duncan’s signature before the game. That is, until Griffin read the message from the 27-year-old rookie: “Red Sox suck! Shelley Duncan.”

Fuck the Yankees.

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

MLB should have come down on this like a ton of bricks. As should have Yankee management. Not only is it classless, it makes baseball look bad -- especially if there is no official disapproval.

Young fans are the ML future fan base. They can't afford to ignore that. Not to mention it makes all their sportsmanship messages to Little Leaguers look phony as hell if they won't at least condemn such a glaring example of poor sportsmanship.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I agree with you about the Giants. That they are the local team, and that they are frequently given fawning coverage at the expense of the other, better local team, makes me want to scream.

I'm a Mets and Devil Rays fan, myself. I figure being a DR fan should not disqualify me from rooting for other teams, since the Rays have been so historically bad that if I did not follow other teams as well the season would cease to have meaning past mid-July. If that late.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Teams I like.

Dodgers.

Red Sox.

Cubs.

Indians (this is a holdover, and it's an intellectual like, not a visceral one. I was a kid in Cleveland. My grandmother was a baseball fan. She grew up in Cleveland. She was at the park for the unassisted triple play. She loved the Indians. So I have a soft spot in my heart for them.

Other than that, I love the game. Those folks who talk about the worst day fishing being better than the worst day working, miss the mark.

Going to the park, seeing the subtleties of the play on the field; swapping stories with other fans (I had a great discussion with a guy brave enough to wear a Giants' jacket to Dodger stadium) those are joys beyond measure.

Which is why I came to think the Giants didn't deserve to win; because their fans seem to be actively against that sort of comaraderie.

Yankees' supporters, well they are arrogant. It was so sweet to see A-Rod humbled by Gagne. A-Rod said Gagne was nothing, and Gagne fanned him. A ball, two fastballs and a, just a little off of it change up.

Whiff. Are there sad sacks in the ranks of Dodger fans...? Yeah. But not so many. Hell, I think we're all afraid Vinnie would scold us.

TK

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Giants fans can be pretty classless. As fans are much nicer.

I became a Mets fan because they were the closest thing we had to a local team growing up: they wintered over in St. Pete before they moved to Port St. Lucie.

The famous Sidd Finch story was set in St. Pete.

But I agree with you about the game, and about what's so lovely about it. The Giants... well, I could go on and on (and I'd better not get started on Barry Bonds and the way he acted his last game or we'd be here all day).

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

One of the best games I was ever at was an As game, back in Sept. (IIRC) 2002.

They were playing Kansas City and it was some of the best, awful, baseball I've ever seen.

As I recall, they gained a lead, lost it, regained it, lost it, and won in extra innings, to win their 20th straight victory.

And I had the ticket by accident.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No, it wasn't extra innings, it was the bottom of the ninth; it's just that they'd been up for ages, and KC managed to tie it up.

Ah, fickle memory. The Expos lost to the Sox, in 11; on a home run, in in the only grand-slam I've been in the park for; and that went over the Green Monster (in Old Fenway).

TK

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I realize signing autographs gets to be old, and that there are people who are crass enough to use kids to get autographs on things they intend to sell later on. But that's just wrong. I wish I could say it was just a Yankees thing, but alas, it's not.

And while we're on how we catch baseball fanhood and team fanhood from our elders, I caught the Cardinals from my mother, who's old enough to remember both the World Series where Grover Cleveland Alexander came in, hangover and all, to pitch in relief and win the thing, and the Gashouse Gang as well. It was good to see the Rebirds beat Detroit last year (no ill will to Detroit fans, who've had a long dry spell to live with) and help ease the pain from the '68 series.

I have to say, I think I'm a fan of the game first, and of any specific team second.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

Wow, that just puts the "ass" in "low class."

As a New Englander, I've had enough embarrassing moments from that particular rivalry (Adam Viniteri's "Yankees Suck" chant at the Pat's victory celebration in 2002 comes to mind), but behaving this way to a kid is beyond the pale.

"Say it ain't so, Joe," indeed.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Man, you shoulda heard the backlash here. Boston is a serious sports town and especially love their Sox.