Ecce gratum et optatum

[ihcoyc]

Of the various emotions that carry you through the baseball playoffs, there are few moments of greater sheer joy and relief than seeing the elimination of the New York Yankees. Now you can relax. Now it's all good sportsmanship, may the best man win, pip pip, cheerio, and all of that crap. For there are teams you like, and teams you dislike: but there is only one team that you hate.

I suppose the ideal would be not to see the Yankees in the playoffs at all. But that ain't going to happen. Even I have to give them credit for being the best team money can buy. They must have fans somewhere, for Steinbrenner to get all that money, but they ain't here.

I guess I want to see the Tigers win this year. But for Cleveland, the place where I was born, and the Blue Jays (guffaw!) they are my team I guess. I grew up to the AM radio sounds of WJR, WXYZ, and CKLW. My sister lives close to Detroit now. It has been a good long time since the Tigers were good. I support them, then, in a moderate and genteel way. But hatred of the Yankees sustains me and penetrates to the very core of my being.

Comments

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

As it does us. We can't stand the god damned Yankees. Burn in hell, Steinbrenner!

As to the Tigers, we remember our father listening to Detroit Tigers baseball games on the radio in the basement -- we could watch and listen through the floor register -- but curiously enough they were fairly absent from television, where one mostly saw the Cardinals and Cubs. The other team we followed closely, for some reason, was the Mets.

The real problem with the Yankees is their history. They did have some terrific players in the olden times, and now they act like they're God's gift to baseball. Roger Angell says even their fans are snooty bastards. Actually he said they were "overdressed, uncomprehending autumn arrivistes" and that was, what, thirty years ago?

[ihcoyc.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I could understand liking the Yankees in the 1930s, or liking the Casey Stengel Yankees: but liking the contemporary Steinbrenner Yankees is simply impossible. Even if they lose, their payroll is simply bad for the game in general.

[prgrmr.livejournal.com]

Amen! As a transplanted Ohioan in New England, I've two perspectives from which to hate the Yankees, being now both an Indians and a Red Sox fan.

What part of Cleveland are you from? I grew-up in Lake county. My earliest memory of radio was my sister proudly showing off the AM set she got from our grandparents, and listening to WIXY 1260. I must have been just 4 or 5 at the time.

[ihcoyc.livejournal.com]

I was born in Shaker Heights. I moved to Ontario when I was 4 years old, so my memories of Cleveland are rather foggy; but Cleveland is the town where I was born.