These Yankees Deserve to Lose!

The millennium New York Yankees deserve to fail as much as the mid to late 1990’s teams deserved to succeed. Baseball is a game of integrity, tradition, intensity and respect. These Yankees have lost their sense of all four.

Some will say that being a Red Sox fan I have no right to comment on the New York Yankees. I will argue that this blog has more to do with the game of baseball than it does the New York Yankees. I have never liked the better team from New York, but there was a time when I respected them. I will never forget my first game at Yankee Stadium; May 2000. I was 19 years old living in the city during an internship in Bronx. Spending some weekends watching series’ at Fenway enjoying all that the historic park had to offer as a child, my parents had never dared take us to New York for a game. I am almost certain that it was because we could not afford to stay in Manhattan for two nights but the Howard Johnson next to Fenway was certainly affordable. Couple that with the fact that HOJO was located directly next to the player entrance to the Park and we were little always looking for autographs Fenway was a great choice (I hated George Brett and loved Roger Clemens for their respective treatments). Regardless, I had to transfer trains at 161st from the 4,5,6 line to the D train to get to my teaching internship a few blocks from Fordham. That means every single work day for 5 months I had the pleasure of viewing the beautiful and historic Yankee Stadium. It was time to buy some bleacher seats!

The feeling as you approach the inner areas, and ultimately the field itself, was just like Fenway. Yankee Stadium exudes history and tradition and commands respect much the same as Fenway Park. The open air joined with architectural strength and beauty takes your breath away every time. At the beginning of the game the bleachers called out players one by one and each player responded with a gesture of some sort showing complete respect. The style of baseball I enjoyed that day was sophisticated dominance done with integrity, pride and efficiency. The Yankees earned my respect. Since that World Series Championship season…they have lost it.

There are many inexplicable reasons why I loathe the current Yankees team and organization but there are many reasonable ones as well.

Integrity has been somewhat of an issue over the years for the Yankees, whether it be Steve Howe, Dwight Gooden, Daryl Strawberry and others. However, the teams of the late 1990’s played a brand of baseball that any true fan of the game should not only respect, but hope that their team should one day experience. In fact, I was jealous. The Yankees were the epitome of all that baseball should be and the Red Sox seemed to have heart but lacked the polish and class of a champion. Those Yankees deserved to achieve everything they accomplished. These Yankees deserve to be at the bottom of the American League East and sit 13.5 games out of first place.

You might ask why am I going on this rant and rave; shear disgust. Several years ago I began to lose the respect that the Yankees had earned when its fans not only began to question the best closer in the history of baseball, but to “BOOOOO” him after several weak outings following difficulties with the Red Sox and others at the beginning of the season. This clear lack of respect, class and appreciating may be a microcosm of today’s culture but it has no place in a timeless classic like baseball. Mariano Rivera earned the right to never be “booed” at Yankee Stadium for the rest of his life. Hell, they should retire his number while he is still playing.

So who cares Joe….that was two years ago. Well it has happened again. The past two games the fans of New York have booed Joe Torre. This is a man that brought you to the mountaintop time and time again. A manager that led a bunch of role playing scrubs to the zenith of baseball SEVERAL times. Joe Torre is a man, much like Rivera, that has earned a free pass from stadium-wide ridicule. He should be questioned maybe even asked to leave. But he should never be booed out of town. There is no other time in my short life where such an outright disregard for tradition, achievement, and integrity has been displayed. This speaks to the current state of the Yankees organization, fans included. The approach that led them to championships is long gone and all that remains are a disrespectful, me-now, group of booing “fans” and overpaid unmotivated “talent” everyday in the lineup.

The New York Yankees used to embody what baseball is meant to be. As a result, they were champions. Now, I hope they finish in last place. Not because I am a Red Sox fan and they are the Yankees, but because as much as it may be insane to say…I miss the teams of the late 90s. I miss the respect and tradition of the rivalry. I wish I could still respect one of the best organizations in all of professional sports. But I can’t, because it is apparent in their actions that they don’t respect themselves or the game that they get the play or watch while I stand outside the stadium hoping to get some bleacher seats.