It’s ok to be a Yankee fan. I’m not talking to you fair-weather fans who are wearing day-old baseball caps, but the true diehards who rooted for the Yankees in the hot summer sun even when they were 14+ games out of first place; the true fans of baseball. Yes, the Yankees had yet another post-season collapse, but it’s not the team’s on-field exploits that caused me to question my faith as a fan, despite what Red Sox Nation will have you believe.
This post-season featured another episode in the annual Torre saga: a high payroll, superstar-laden team having a round one failure, George Steinbrenner issuing an ultimatum, and Yankee management still tendering another contract. The difference this year? Joe Torre turned down the Yankees. My entire world tilted.
While the Yankees have seen better days, the fault lines (such as starting pitching) were there well before Game One played out in Cleveland; remember they had to have one of the best regular season comebacks in baseball history just to make it to the playoffs. If they were going to fire Torre though, which I was against, I wanted to see it done quickly and with the respect he deserved. Sadly, this was just wishful thinking
Keeping the Yankees in the national news is a guaranteed money maker, and Yankee management knows that. Baseball is currently in a golden age (despite the steroids abuse scandal), and the Yankees are its fussy diva. They are the team you love to hate or hate to love, but either way, you pay attention. The Yankees have an entire sport divided on their every move; is it any wonder that the Yankees cable network is worth twice as much as the team itself?
It’s hard to admit, but Boston pitcher Curt Shilling touched a nerve when he stated the obvious that the Yankees were “making sure we were updated every 15 minutes about when they were actually going to name their manager.” This was after more than 2 weeks of constant coverage on Torre’s fate. Sure New York’s rabid media plays a large part in the firestorm, but someone has to feed the beast, and no one else in baseball has done that better than Steinbrenner & Co. Ray Ratto of CBS Sports sums it up perfectly:
New York, though, throws its drama at you whether you want it or not, and demands that you be interested far beyond your capabilities, which is why the Torre story has so run its natural course.
Who else but the Yankees could turn a managerial job change into such high-stakes drama? At least four other MLB managers have moved on this season, yet none of them have had the relentless coverage of the Torre saga. Watch the national news and be hard-pressed to find any team in any sport coming close to the Yankees for coverage. A Google Trends search of George Steinbrenner shows that its not just people in the New York metro area who are curious about him. Call me na�ve, but is the team that I’ve loved since my childhood become nothing more than a “brand?”
Since their last World Series win in 2000, I’ve watched the “House that Ruth Built” being torn down for a new ballpark, the team consistently overpaying for “superstars” who lose in the post-season, Yankee heroes insulted by team executives and now Torre treated like an interim manager. Any one of these alone is a staggering hit to the hallowed legacy of the Yankees; collectively, they are near fatal blows. But it is this same legacy that sustains me as a fan.
DiMaggio, Gehrig, Mantle, Jeter, Torre – they all have their faults as people off the diamond, but there was no mistaking that they truly believed in what the Yankees stood for and they showed it nearly every day on the field. It is the players and pride that make the team and ultimately derive its value, not the other way around. This is what being a Yankee fan stands for.
While other fans may chide me for supporting a team that “buys” its victories, and forces out one of the greatest managers in the history of baseball, I still wear my pinstripes without hesitation. No matter what obstacles are thrown in its way, know that the Yankees will always be a team of history and heritage, as it always has been.
I have no doubt that Joe Girardi, the new Yankee skipper; will guide the Yankees into the next chapter with great class and success. After next season though, he’ll be doing it across the street, in the “House that Torre Built.”
12:26 pm
You don’t have to know much about baseball to appreciate the loyalty, passion, and emotional investment of Yankee fans for their beloved pin-striped team. You folks are an enthusiastic lot! I bet if you were to survey brand managers across the country about the three wishes they would ask the proverbial genie in the bottle to grant, no doubt the great majority would ask for their own brands to be met with “Yankee Fan-esque devotion”… Heck, I know I would.