My Response
(AFOMG spoke earlier. Sip speaks now.)
Yankee fans are morons. They are spoiled and they don't understand what it means to lose. They write themselves off after a few bad losses or if they fall behind a couple of games in the standings. They stop watching the games. They do everything that is wrong in baseball.
For basically the first 23 years of my life my team was a loser. We had a run in '99/'00 but then we were still second to the Braves. We won in 1986 but I was only 4. In 1988 my dad promised me the Mets would beat the Dodgers and they didn't. It was basically the only chink in his otherwise shiny armor.
Because of this losing, any sign of hope was a great feeling. The thought of making a run brought me to Shea 30 times a year even when the team really had no chance.
It was this hope that made me love baseball.
Since 2000, Yankee fans lost this hope. They didn't need it. They didn't crave the playoffs or a division title.
They became entitled. The Yankees were winners, for now and for always. Or so they thought.
When it was June and Yankee fans were 5 games back of the Orioles, Yankee fans found this completely unacceptable. These were the Yankees. The Yankees played in October. They had the money and the stars and the aura and the mystique. They couldn't take the losing and wrote their team off. Then, surprise, surprise, the Yankees won. And surprise, surprise, Yankee fans were back.
In 2007 Mets fans, for the first time, have felt this sense of entitlement. Our team is so good that we basically expect it to make the playoffs. If the Mets were to fall 5 games back of the Braves, Mets fans would be in shock.
In short: In 2007, Mets fans are in place that they haven't been in my lifetime. They expect their team to win. Yankee fans are in a place that they haven't been in about 10 years. Their team isn't winning.
And I'm not going to be as QUICK as the masses to accept these changes.
I don't accept the Mets as the NL East winner this year. It hasn't come that easy to me for 23 years of my life. I have no reason for it to be so easy now, even if it is.
Do I hope the Mets win it all? Of course. Would it be unacceptable to me if they didn't? No. I am not a Yankee fan.
At the same time, I will NEVER accept the Yankees as a loser (at least not in the standings). For the entire part of my true understanding of baseball, the Yankees have won. They have some of the most talent in the game (this isn't rocket science) and talent usually leads to wins.
Do I hope the Yankees lose? Of course.
But to say the Yankees season is over is to be a Yankee fan.
Baseball is not that easy. Anything can happen. As Mets fans, we believe in the impossible: Ya Gotta Believe. Right?
I can hope every day that this Yankee fall continues just like I can hope that the Mets winning will never end. But the day when I get greedy, when I take for granted what's going on and assume that the Yankees are done, is the day I become the fan that I have hated for a very long time.
And I will never be that person.
We all have our right to an opinion. Some of us can sing Sweet Caroline in the 8th inning. Some of us can think that Aaron Heilman should have been a starter. We can all disagree on a lot.
But one thing that we all are is Mets fans. Another thing we all are is Yankee haters. How we choose to act on these interests will vary amongst us.
I am cautious, paranoid and expect the worst. When it comes to baseball, I am usually a glass half-empty guy. That comes from many a John Franco/Armando Benitez outing during my teen years that have scarred me for life.
The rest of you might be more glass half-full types. I wish I had that optimism. My good pal Happy Will does. We're still cool.
That's all.
Vaya con dios,
Sip
(Pic courtesy of coffeepulse.com, amazon.com)
Yankee fans are morons. They are spoiled and they don't understand what it means to lose. They write themselves off after a few bad losses or if they fall behind a couple of games in the standings. They stop watching the games. They do everything that is wrong in baseball.
For basically the first 23 years of my life my team was a loser. We had a run in '99/'00 but then we were still second to the Braves. We won in 1986 but I was only 4. In 1988 my dad promised me the Mets would beat the Dodgers and they didn't. It was basically the only chink in his otherwise shiny armor.
Because of this losing, any sign of hope was a great feeling. The thought of making a run brought me to Shea 30 times a year even when the team really had no chance.
It was this hope that made me love baseball.
Since 2000, Yankee fans lost this hope. They didn't need it. They didn't crave the playoffs or a division title.
They became entitled. The Yankees were winners, for now and for always. Or so they thought.
When it was June and Yankee fans were 5 games back of the Orioles, Yankee fans found this completely unacceptable. These were the Yankees. The Yankees played in October. They had the money and the stars and the aura and the mystique. They couldn't take the losing and wrote their team off. Then, surprise, surprise, the Yankees won. And surprise, surprise, Yankee fans were back.
In 2007 Mets fans, for the first time, have felt this sense of entitlement. Our team is so good that we basically expect it to make the playoffs. If the Mets were to fall 5 games back of the Braves, Mets fans would be in shock.In short: In 2007, Mets fans are in place that they haven't been in my lifetime. They expect their team to win. Yankee fans are in a place that they haven't been in about 10 years. Their team isn't winning.
And I'm not going to be as QUICK as the masses to accept these changes.
I don't accept the Mets as the NL East winner this year. It hasn't come that easy to me for 23 years of my life. I have no reason for it to be so easy now, even if it is.
Do I hope the Mets win it all? Of course. Would it be unacceptable to me if they didn't? No. I am not a Yankee fan.
At the same time, I will NEVER accept the Yankees as a loser (at least not in the standings). For the entire part of my true understanding of baseball, the Yankees have won. They have some of the most talent in the game (this isn't rocket science) and talent usually leads to wins.
Do I hope the Yankees lose? Of course.
But to say the Yankees season is over is to be a Yankee fan.
Baseball is not that easy. Anything can happen. As Mets fans, we believe in the impossible: Ya Gotta Believe. Right?
I can hope every day that this Yankee fall continues just like I can hope that the Mets winning will never end. But the day when I get greedy, when I take for granted what's going on and assume that the Yankees are done, is the day I become the fan that I have hated for a very long time.And I will never be that person.
We all have our right to an opinion. Some of us can sing Sweet Caroline in the 8th inning. Some of us can think that Aaron Heilman should have been a starter. We can all disagree on a lot.
But one thing that we all are is Mets fans. Another thing we all are is Yankee haters. How we choose to act on these interests will vary amongst us.
I am cautious, paranoid and expect the worst. When it comes to baseball, I am usually a glass half-empty guy. That comes from many a John Franco/Armando Benitez outing during my teen years that have scarred me for life.
The rest of you might be more glass half-full types. I wish I had that optimism. My good pal Happy Will does. We're still cool.
That's all.
Vaya con dios,
Sip
(Pic courtesy of coffeepulse.com, amazon.com)
posted by Sippy Momo at 2:19 PM
4 Comments:
Well put, Sip.
I disagree. Yankee fans always think they are the best even when they lose. Ask any Yankee fan about the way they are playing right now and they'll give you a history lesson about the number 26. Notice you didn't ask them about history but that's what you'll get.
You're problem is you don't have any memory of the 1980's when the Yankees field team after team of overpriced free agents (and mediocre pitching) and never won a thing.
They did this for a decade and basically wasted Donny Baseball's career.
It's not written in stone that the Yankees ALWAYS win.
What you see as an aberration...a flux in the cosmos, is actually the Yankees returning to their form.
In 1981 the Yankees took the Dodgers to 7 games in the world series. They didn't get back to the playoffs until 1995.
It was only Steinbrenner's suspension from Baseball that let competent front office people put the dynasty team together. George was smart enough not to break what wasn't broken until 2001.
The Yankees are back to where they were for a decade. This is nothing new.
Very nicely put. As a Red Sox fan who has watched a team's fanbase slowly become "that guy," I refuse to follow suit.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying success, it's when you no longer enjoy that you are no longer a true fan.
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