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

[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.