A Cubs Fan in Yankeetown...
I have to say that I try to have an open mind, but hear me out on this series of thoughts.
I grew up in Chicago, and I am a lifelong Cubs fan. I know suffering. I know what it is to appreciate a winning season. The couple of trips to the playoffs that I have witnessed were very special.
I have never liked the Yankees, but I have never disliked them with any true intensity either.
Until I moved out East. And I met the Yankee culture and the Mission Statement that explains any season without a title as a failure. I find that to be excessively hardcore and borderline subpar sportsmanship. Don't misunderstand - I get winning, and I certainly understand goals.
But in this case I also find it to be a gross perversion of your objective, because in a major league sport, the quality and success of your competition is important to your livelihood. This is different than the business world, so while many want to link the two and ask the skeptic "Why wouldn't you do everything you can to win?" - the real question at this point for the Yankees may be something closer to "Are we doing something special?" and I would argue that you most certainly are not doing something special. Not anymore. You are doing something rather ordinary. Since their first title, I think they've won nearly a third of the time.
Hearing the media and the fan base praise this team and this championship just rings so holllow, doesn't it? I mean, they've won 27 of these now, they have the highest payroll in the game that is designed to bring in a squad of mercenaries, and the only expectation is to win everything, all the time, all year long, and every year thereafter. So where's the upside in being a Yankees fan? think about it. All you've got is downside. What fun is that?
It's still an accomplishment. But it was an accomplishment that was paid for in full and fully expected.
YAWN! so what.
you know what I mean? It just seems so silly to celebrate this team and yet another championship with such wild enthusiasm.
I know I look at this with an outsider's lens, and from that of someone who hasn't won in a beyond overdue timeframe, so it's probably fair and right to call me a jealous loser. True enough.
But just so you know, Yankees fans, this looks totally absurd and disconnected with reality from the outside.
No offense meant. honest.
Just some frustrated thoughts from someone who must look into vintage cardboard and research to find a year when his team looked like a champion.
|
11-06-2009, 08:08 AM
Similar Threads
Hybrid Mode
