Do we need Villains?

In my favorite movie, Major League, there were a few villains. There was the Yankees and Clue Heyward. There was Rachel Phelps, the callgirl turned owner who wanted the Indians to lose. But that movie wasnt about beating the bad guy. Instead, it was the good guy, our team, The Cleveland Indians "winning the whole fucking thing."


In Point Break we see Johnny Utah, a hero of mine, take on the coolest most captivating bad guys in recent film history, the Ex-Presidents. These surfers by day bank robbers by night, led by Bodhi, are just so damn cool that you almost want them to get away with their crime. You just need to see them on screen.

In baseball, I have the Mets. They are my Major League. They could be playing the Braves or the Brewers and they will always be my #1. I get the same chills watching them win as i get when Jake Taylor points to the bleachers before his dramatic Bunt and Run rbi single to win the game.

On the other hand there is the Yankees. Like Bodhi in Point Break, I need the Yankees. They are so good at being hatable that I am drawn to them. I need them to win so I can continue to root for them to lose. I need Jeter to hit .310 and date Vanessa Minillo so that I can yearn for the day when David Wright hits .320 and canoodles with Lindsay Lohan.

So then the age old question comes about...What do i like more, loving the Mets or hating the Yankees?

In my heart i like to say loving the Mets, cause deep down i think that is true. the 10 run 8th inning game on June 30th, 2000, with my Dad and my dearest Squall man at my side, was one of the best moments of my life.

At the same time, when Luis Gonzalez blooped a single over the outreached glove of a smiling for the camera Derek Jeter, I felt a similar bliss. Me and my buddy's blasted "we are the Champions" and poured champagne on each other and celbrated in laughter as our yankee fan friends, who had been forced by shame to watch in another room, sat there in disbelief.

I bring these sides up now as I think about this year's world series.

I love the world series cause it is baseball and it is baseball's biggest stage. I am forced to like it as a baseball fan but deep down i really do just love it.

But i dont yearn for this world series. I dont lose sleep like when the Mets made it in 2000. I dont talk about it constantly like when the Yankees make yet another fall classic.

Instead, after a 6 hour marathon at my favorite sports bar, where my fantasy football dreams were shattered by Lamont Jordan and the Detroit Lions Defense (Thats right, the Detroit fucking Lions), i went with a lovely coed for some chocolate cake and coffee.

We had a nice time and in the back of my head i knew that i was missing the first couple of innings of game 2. But i didnt yearn for that game.

I am usually the first to cast aside a female for a major sporting event. Ive never been a huge proponent of mixing girls and sports. But at 9pm last night i was happier to be shmoopie with this girl than to be SM "dude"back at home.

On my train ride to work this morning i thought about what i had done.

Was I a sellout?

Had i lost my balls?

Perhaps.

But while i see every movie about baseball, there is only one Major League.

and while i think Keanu Reeves is the messiah, he will never face a better group of bad guys.

I realized. I love the Yankees. I hate them so much that I need them. Its like the more my brother beat me up when i was 6, the more i wanted to fight him.

In the soap opera that is baseball, we need the Yankees. For fans of the 29 other teams a world series comes once every ten years. This being the case, we need the Yankees there so that we can root for them to lose.

Otherwise we have what we have this year. The White Sox and The Astros...Podsednik vs. Ensberg...and me sipping rasberry tea instead of watching the first 4 innings...And not truly hating myself for doing so.

Surfing's the Source,

Sippy Momo