NY Yankees: From Devoted Fans: Hope

As I am always eager to do, I speak with other Yankees fans to get feel for the state of mind Yankees fans have. The polling I am conduct is very un-scientific, and often un-verifiable. This is the only way I can gather any real material other than my own thoughts for this blog. Bear in mind, I don't have any press credentials, and the only way I'll have access to anyone on the Yankees roster is if I buy a ticket and attend a game. I don't think anyone on the team will answer any of my questions there either as they wouldn't be able to hear me screaming at them from the "nosebleed seats."

Imagine this scene playing out in the stands:
Me: “Hey A-Rod! How do you explain your recent hitting slump!”
Drunken fan: “Shut up and sit down, you #@&*%^$! loser!”

Here's an example of my reporting methods. After striking up a conversation with a man wearing Yankees gear at my son's Lacrosse practice, I asked them what he thought of the Yankees’ current nine game deficit in the AL East. He immediately chimed in with an optimistic comparison of this team to the 1978 Yankees. I couldn't be sure if this guy in the Yankees cap and jacket was offering his own analysis of the situation, or if he was merely repeating what he heard on a popular sports radio program verbatim. I’d heard the same opinion on the radio as I drove to the practice field in my environmentally unfriendly SUV only minutes before our conversation.

However, I could sense the mood of this man. I could tell this Yankees fan and dad who was watching his son run across the field, lacrosse stick in hand along side my son, actually believed that this 2007 Yankees team could overcome their current nine game deficit and go on to win the World Series. "After all", he offered, "You have to remember that the 1978 Yankees came back from a fourteen game deficit in July behind Boston to enter the post-season and win the World Championship". He spoke with such vigor and authority that he made this writer believe that this team composed largely of listless, paycheck players could match the stellar spirit or talents of Thurman Munson, or Goose Gossage, just to name a couple.

Another Yankees fan, a co-worker of mine had extreme optimism as well, offered a different take, rather than the 1978 Yankees comparison.
“By July the Red Sox will go about a ten or twelve game skid, right around the time the Yankees will become really hot, and then things will change.” He said. Then, for good measure he added “Don’t worry. The Red Sox will fall. They usually do.” I can’t say that I didn’t worry after that prediction. It was hardly based on anything but the gut feeling of a seasoned fan that sees the Red Sox as unwitting dupes standing in the path of his beloved Yankees. Inevitably, he believes, the Red Sox will fall by the wayside so the Yankees can charge past them and on to World Series victory.

If I was new to baseball and to the Yankees I might just believe him. But replay the final game of the 2004 ALCS in your head and you’ll get the same creepy feeling that I’m getting now as this team goes into the Subway Series against the Mets, and then after that (gulp) up against Boston. As of this writing, I’m scouring the internet doing research on how to build a time machine. 1978, here we come.

Yankees Fans: Never Celebrate, Just Complain

Perhaps fans of other teams do this too, but I noticed a trend among all of my "Yankees fan buddies". They'll talk to me only when the Yankees are losing or when they are having a bad week. No one will ever come up to me and tell me that they saw the last game that they won and it was great. It's as if they expect the Yankees to always win, and when they don't it's time to gripe and complain like the team will never win another game again. For them, disaster looms not only after every single loss, but even in victories where the Yankees left runners stranded on base in scoring position, or a relief pitcher came in and gave up a run or two. "They can't do that against Boston" they'll say. Granted, although the do Yankees appear to be foundering (as of this writing they are eight games behind The Red Sox, and in third place in the AL East), and signing Roger Clemens may be too little help too late, there is no way these fan/friends of mine are going to be happy unless it is October and the Yankees just won the World Series.

Recently, which happened to be the morning after a Yankee victory, I encountered one of the guys I work with who is a regular participant in the Yankees discussions which take place where we work, and I asked that since the Yankees won against the Texas Rangers the night before, why didn't he come to me with a "happy report" on the previous night's game? He said: "Let's not get too excited. If they can win three against Boston, then I'll be happy. But this team doesn't look like it can handle either the White sox or the Mets, for that matter." He may be right, and I'm inclined to agree with him; but if the whole point of being a fan is to derive some sort of pleasure from a watching a game, then, using my baseball buddy’s yardstick for "fan enjoyment", the average Yankees fan get's no joy at all from any regular season game.

The whole Yankee's regular season is a setup for championship in October. At least that's the way the team's organization from George Steinbrenner on down sees it. This attitude has also trickled down to the fan base as well. No wonder A-Rod got booed so vociferously last year even though he put up good numbers. Nothing is too good for fans of this team. It's "Dynasty or Bust" every single summer.

Is this writer, a Yankee's fan, worried that this team does not have what it takes to make it to the post season? You bet I am. Yet, my love and appreciation for this sport, as painful as it may be, helps me to understand that there are twenty nine other teams in Major League Baseball, and that the Yankees can't win every year no matter how much money they spend toward that goal. Yes, I am worried about the team and their season. Yet, I am also worried about Yankee fans and their incessant griping. To paraphrase an over-used line from the cinema: "Spoiled is as spoiled does."

"The Rocket's Pin-Striped Glare"

Yankees fans around the globe are high-fiving each other and shouting "YES!" But, they aren't talking about the Yankee’s television network. They are all celebrating the return of Roger Clemens to the Bronx, and not a moment too soon. Though he most likely won't start again until the end of May, his presence both on the field and in the clubhouse, and all throughout the American League means one thing: the Yankees are contenders...again.

Forget the fact that they opened the bank vault for Clemens and made special concessions for him that they don't do for anyone else (he's free to go home between starts), the Yankees needed to do this, and it was the only move to make. If they lured The Rocket back to Yankee Stadium in the off season with his special condition of returning home between starts, one could raise an eyebrow, or complain about the Yankee’s payroll. But, this deal deserves special consideration. This team is currently 5 1/2 games behind Boston, and that gap could widen to an insurmountable gulf, even this early in the season. In spite of the terrific pitching the Yankees have received from the starters of late (we can erase Kei Igawa's last start from memory with the help of psycho-therapy) this team has a lot of catching up to do.

Bringing in Roger at this point in time was the equivalent of pulling the emergency brake on a runaway train. Who knows who else is going to pull a hamstring? Can the Yankees still rely on guys like Darrell Rasner, who pitched extremely well in his start against the Mariners on Sunday, shutting them down for 5 2/3 innings? Who else out there is a bit sweaty about Matt DeSalvo’s scheduled Monday night start against the Mariners?

There's no argument that plenty of hope was springing from the pitcher's mound both at Arlington and at Yankee Stadium this week. Young Phil Hughes pulled a hamstring while throwing a no-hitter Tuesday night, and Chien-Ming Wang pitched a perfect game into the eighth inning. Both had terrific stuff and made Yankee fans very happy. But, there was still an under-current of doom in the Bronx. There was nothing to anchor the good feelings left over from both of those games and give the team and fans alike something to build on. There was no one, not even the mighty A-Rod or the captain, Derek Jeter, who loomed large enough over Boston's lead in the AL East to make the Yankee's ride to the World Series believable or possible. Only the seven time Cy Young Award winner and no-doubt, walk in Hall of famer himself carries such credentials.

Roger can demand, without explanation, excellence from everyone on the starting rotation. He can motivate the relievers to the point where they might not actually blow every lead the offense hands them. Roger can show the fans that there is still hope in this young season and that this team is hungry, tough, and made of championship caliber stuff.

It may be up to three weeks before Roger Clemens puts on pin stripes again, but with one stroke of the pen, one Major League signing, the Yankees and Roger have put this team, and this baseball town back on the right track for a World Series victory.