Re: MLB 2017: Playoffs, World Series, and Off-season.
LOL. Yes, that's all correct.
I was getting Kekich mixed up with the pitcher Steve Kline.
And to Kepler's point, yes us Yankees fans were always arrogant. Even when they sucked (and when I became a fan) we still had all that history to rub into other fans. So, I get your point. But, I still became a Yankees fan (mainly because of my mother's side of the family; my father was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, but when they left town, baseball ceased to exist in his mind, so he didn't care what we did) when they sucked, and stuck with them even when the Mets were the ones doing the winning. Remember, I was responding to Jen's original comment.
And wasn't Celerino Sanchez the one who replaced McKinney at third?
My Yankee watching began with Sanchez. For some reason as an 8-year old I loved the meter of his name.
Other Yankees I remember from that time: Roy White, Bobby Mercer, Horace Clarke, Ron Bloomberg, Ron Swoboda. Mercer was the only one who was worth spit. I was
very confused to discover Swoboda's place in Mets lore (I was too young to be cognizant of the 69 miracle) because when you first follow the sport the situation at that moment freezes in your mind as if it has always been. I actually think this is a reason I have no issue with the Yankees. To me, their psychologically "correct" level, even all these years later, is still that they suck. For me, mentally, the Pirates and Orioles and A's and Reds and Dodgers will always "naturally" be good, and the Yankees and Angels and Indians and Padres and Astros will always "naturally" suck. That's just where they belong, by Divine Fiat.
The Yankee fans were arrogant but that isn't actually what bugged me. It was (is) that sort of mewling entitlement that when the slightest thing goes wrong they whine like they have been denied their Constitutional rights. Yankee Fan is not the braggart athlete who really can throw the ball 50 yards who demands to be the neighborhood team QB. He's Richy Rich, who grabs a second helping of cake at the birthday party before every kid has gotten his first, because he's just
entitled to it. The canonical Yankees fan is Donald Trump. There are equivalents in other sports. Patriots fans. Lakers fans. Azzuri fans. Minnesota hockey fans. Hell, Notre Dame football fans, of which I am one.
Now, none of that is real, probably (except Note Dame fans -- we
really are as-sholes -- more than you know). I'm just talking about the perceptions of an 8-year old who had to choose an allegiance. The Yankees weren't the dark side because they were arrogant. They were the dark side because they would cry when the wind hit them the wrong way. They had a glass jaw, but because Mother always kept them safe from harm they felt like they were The Golden Child.
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You just can't help wanting fans like that to endure an eternity of losing. They deserve it.
