The Hipster Yankee Fan

I've never been the best in terms of Halloween costumes. One year, my senior year of college, my buddy and I went as Lloyd and Harry from "Dumb and Dumber" and we did it really well. The blue and orange suits, top hats, canes, etc.

This Halloween I decided to go as a hipster. I'm about as generic a guy as you'll find so I thought this would be a clever and inexpensive way to have a good Halloween.

I went down to my hipster buddy Jason's house so that he could make my costume.

A pair of white hightops, tight jeans, a Weezer t-shirt, corduroy blazer with an "I Drink Liberally" pin on the breast pocket, a mesh hat, scarf, and, somewhat later, some giant headphones -- I had my giddyup, I was ready to go.

Jason and I could not be more different people but we remain good friends. He is into art and vegetarianism while I like sports and fried food.

He is a Yankee fan while I am, of course, a Mets fan.

So we sat there at 8 p.m. on Friday over a bottle of Jack Daniels and talked life. Jason's a really smart, interesting kid on the fast track to a prominent law school. I am a pretty bright guy who dreams of beating Theo Epstein (or whoever that new guy in Texas is) as baseball's youngest GM.

So there we were, the Meat and the Intellect, and the conversation progressed to baseball and this blog.

Jason tried to argue with me how he would want to drink with Alex Rodriguez. That he was a classy guy and whatnot. I gave this one no shot and said, "no, A-rod is a ......"

Jason then went on to make a pretty interesting point. He asked me, "How could you not love the history of the Yankees?"

See when you think about baseball's past you think of Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. Sadly, a lot of baseball's history belongs to the Yankees.

I'll be the first to admit that I have a soft spot for Notre Dame football, the storied franchise in College Football. Does this make me a hypocrite?

Had the hipster called me out?

My response? "Fuck the history."

The Yankees of 2005 have about as much of a connection to the Yankees of the 1920's as I do to to hipster culture. That is, we both share the same costume.

Babe Ruth was a fat, sloppy, drunk who partied all night and played baseball by day.

Mickey Mantle was a womanizing drunk who happened to also be the best switch hitter of all time.

Derek Jeter is a well groomed, politically correct celebrity who can do no wrong.

Which one of the three do not fit?

See the Yankees of today use their history as a way of making themselves feel worthy and entitled to being "The Almighty Yankees."

Unfortunately, the Yankee greats were a bunch of good old boys who partied and played ball, the way jocks are supposed to do things.

Going back to Friday's blog, I asked myself would I want to drink with Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth. The answer is a resounding yes.

These guys were fun, wild ball players. They were Lenny Dykstra with a ton of power. They were "DUDES."

Yet these guys, who more resemble Steve Howe than Mariano Rivera, are what give the Yankees their storied history. People talk about the numbers that they put up and the championships that they won and not the debauchery that they caused. These guys are about as far a cry from the class of today's Yankees as I am from liking art.

Truth is, I find the Yankees of the past to be very likable.

Am I amazed by how good Mickey Mantle was. Yes. Do I care that he was an abusive drunk? Nope.

Do I get the chills thinking about Babe Ruth calling his shot in the World Series. Of course. Does it matter to me that he was a fatzo who never found a piece of food he wouldn't eat? Not at all.

Do I think Derek Jeter is a clutch player who may be as smart as anyone to ever play the game? I do. Do I care that Derek Jeter is a really classy guy? Not one bit.

On Halloween night, as I was walking to the party I was going to, thrown by some solid Long Island Mets fans (note: the only acceptable Long Islanders) I was stopped on 17th and 3rd ave by two grungy looking kids, a guy and a girl.

The girl said to me, "I know this may be weird, but umm, like, do you know where I can score some pot?"

I laughed for a second, to which she added, " It's just that i saw the Weezer t-shirt and I thought... well, you know."

I told her sorry, I'm the wrong guy and walked away. I felt vindicated. My costume worked.

Does this make me a hipster? After all, a fellow hipster and fan of hipster culture thought I was one.

The answer is no, of course not. Sharing a uniform does not make you something you're not.

The 2006 Yankees of A-Rod and Jeter share no connection to the Yankees of old. They are stiff, boring people who are good at baseball. They aren't wild and crazy, nor are they very likable as ballplayers. There is pretty much no connection between the Yankee greats of today with the Yankee greats of the past.

Except that they wear the same uniform.

RIP G-Baby,

Sippy Momo