One of the sweetest things about the Red Sox winning the World Series (I love the sound of that - the Red Sox winning the World Series), aside from the fact that it sticks it to Yankee fans, is the idea that the Yankee fans have to watch out for Boston next season.
Until the Sox proved that they could beat the Junkees, Junkee fans didn't take Boston seriously. After all, they'd say, they've never beaten us in a big spot, and the so-called Curse still lives. Well, no longer! They can beat the Yankees (they're not intimidated), there's no more curse (not that I thought there ever was), and you have to admit that Theo Epstein is a hundred times better at what he does than Brian Cashman is, so Yankee fans, beware of Boston!
It'll be sweet to see Joe Snorre and the other Junkees next season as they watch the Red Sox accept their World Series rings. If you thought Snorre looks 85 now...
Life is beautiful!
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Cashman and Epstein don't even belong in the same sentence as one another.
In the winter of '03, Cashman spent $8 million on Jose Contreras. Epstein spent $1.25 million on David Ortiz.'Nuff said.
Let's not forget that it took 86 years to win a world series and 18 years to actually get into another world series. You want to be a smartbutt and say "OH YEAH WELL BOSTON HAS WON A WORLD SERIES AND THEY YANKEES DIDNT" go for it... but hey, at least there isn't an 86 year interval for the Yankees to win a world series. 2090 is a long time away buddy... have fun waiting!
...and another point on the 18 years to reach the world series comment, here's my take on that:
Yankees fans seem to be so stuck on the Yankees of the late nineties, which in reality -- it took these yankees 16 years, until 1995 (the year after the strike mind you) to reach the world series again... which also included a 13 year streak without reaching the postseason.
Now I will hand it to you on the great Yankees teams of 96, 98, 99 & 2000 (and maybe 2001)... those guys had heart, but it is as Jeter stated during the historic American League Championship Series of 2004, it’s a “different team” now.
The only remaining Yankees wearing rings from that 2000 team are: el Capitan Derek Jeter, an old Bernie Williams, who let's face will be fighting Jason Giambi for playing time in 2005, Jorge Posada who's numbers continue to drop steadily, and side note, looked as if he had lost all motivation to play the sport during the 2003 & 2004 playoffs, and finally the "untouchable" (and also aging) Mariano Rivera.
Now back to the legacy of the Yankees...
So called Yankees fan speak of their rich legacy as if they have stood by it throughout all these years, when in reality how many of them stood by their Yankees through their 16 year stretch like the Red Sox fans did with their "cursed" teams.
Between 1963 and 1994, the Yankees won 2 World Series, consecutively in point, and I think we all can recall what happened in the 1978 season, as well as the 1977 season... the red sox won 97 & 99 games in these seasons, to sit at home and watch the Yankees carry home the hardware.
Now anyone who claims to be a Yankee fan since before 1963 has to be... let's say 55, to be nice to the old timers out there who might actually still remember when they were 12 years old…
That brings me to the “Mantle” years... now every fan of baseball in the world respected and adored Mickey Mantle, but not every fan in the world is a soul selling bandwagoner.
Okay, that may have been wicked harsh.
The Yankees won 7 out of 12 World Series during Mantle's Years. (1951-1962, excluding 63-68)
Then before him was the greatest Italian, that I believe, has ever lived (next to the fictional Italian Stallion -- Rocky Balboa); Joe DiMaggio who played up until the Mick's rookie season, hence, passing the torch.
He won 10 World Series in his 16 seasons. Now before I start sounding like a history report, and before I start talking about Babe Ruth’s impact on the Yankees, here's my point:
I loved those yankees teams too, hell I ever shared an applaud to the 1996 Yankees, especially seeing Wade Boggs finally get a ring... but those guys were likeable characters -- The Paul O’Neils and the Jimmy Keys, David Cones... Scott Brosius, David Justice & Luis Sojo.
That Dynasty Is Over.
Now the Yankees fans of recent years have had exactly two things to boast about to Boston, aside from the never-ending acclamations that Derek Jeter & Mariano Rivera are the greatest baseball players on the planet -- those 2 things are as follows: one being the fact that they had always beat the Red Sox, well that one is over. And 2 being they had won more world series than the Red Sox, well there are only 3 spans that in my mind as a Red Sox fan that kill me, the 4 championships from the late 1920's-1934 when Babe Ruth was there (wasn’t there a depression or something in that span too - oh well I’m sure that’s not relative)… the 1977-78 seasons that Yankees edged us out, and the great dynasty teams of the late nineties. Other than that, the Yankees need to come down from their mountain, scatch that, from their hills, and realize that it has been 4 years, and the team is different, in fact heading in a downward direction as the Red Sox are heading upward. The nineties do not matter anymore… Bill Clinton is no longer our president, the Macarena is out, and MTV is no longer playing music videos…
Legacy is not going to win you a championship… And my apologies to the old-timers who remember the Mick from when they were children, but you’re not the ones chanting 1918, and I commend you for that.
To the rest -- It’s time to step off the band wagon, to shut your traps... It's time to actually watch the great sport that is baseball, and learn something. This sport doesn’t consist of simply picking up a newspaper box score once or twice a month before heading to a Yankees game, at which you look silly at when you fail to name the starting lineup or 3 of the 5 men currently in the pitching rotation. It’s a commitment, and to those who aren’t ready for the rocky road ahead, a culture shock to the young generation of Yankees fan, I have nothing but pity for, because they’re about to miss a whole lot of great baseball when they simply tune out.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to root for the Mets.
Paolo DeVito
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