Rumble in the Bronx

Dr. Uetz

A coworker of mine arrived at work yesterday wearing a Yankees cap. I reacted immediately with a long string of expletives and rude gestures. "Take that piece of shit off!" was the first thing I said. And it spiraled downward from there. It was some of the most pure rage I had expressed for quite some time. And it felt good. It felt natural. Because hating the Yankees is one of the few things most baseball fans share. And I would add here that most Yankees fans are not baseball fans. Yankees fans - with the likely exception of people geographically allowed to be Yankees fans - are posers and simpletons with no self-respect. They are people who could never explain the farm system, don't know who Branch Rickey was, and couldn't pick Eddie Gaedel out of a police lineup where everyone else was a starting forward in the NBA. Perhaps I'm being harsh. But I hate the Yankees.

When I was young I asked my father how he had become a Mets fan. He explained that he had been a Yankees fan first, but then after 1960 the Yankees fired Casey Stengel and he could never root for a team that fired Casey. So he followed Casey to the Mets and never left. Those are the words of an educated fan of baseball.

There is honor in Yankees history, but one cannot live in the past. And I certainly cannot live with coworkers wearing the logo of Steinbrenner & Co.

Let me end with a plug. If you have not yet read Joe Queenan's "True Believers," I highly recommend you pick it up. It's a fantastic book for any true sports fan that includes a great piece on "die hard" Yankees fans. Queenan hates the Mets. But he's a Phillies fan, so I understand.