When I say Yankee fan, I am not talking about the thousands of fair-weather fans who have jumped on the bandwagon as a result of success. For my generation, I'm talking about the days when Pat Kelly and Randy Velarde were the double play combination. I'm talking about the other brave souls who watched Danny Tartabull bat in the clean-up spot for too long. These are the fans who suffered with Mattingly and through the Mike Gallego years. Whatever you want to call them, up until 1995, the New York Yankees that I knew were terrible. They were an underachieving, overpaid group who represented a legacy that I knew of but didn't understand. I rooted for them anyway, as did others. If you are one of those fans, you can appreciate what I am talking about.
Everything changed when Derek Jeter entered the Yankees organization. Derek Jeter is not one of the greatest players ever; he is not even the best shortstop in the American League. Here's one for Boston fans: Nomar is a superior shortstop, both stronger and overall better at the plate as well as in the field, but I would not trade Jeter for anyone. There has been no better postseason player in the last 15 years. Jeter may not be the best player on the field, but he is the one that no opposing manager wants to face in October. Go ahead and say how bad he is, how he's not worth his money, how other shortstops (Miguel Tejada? give me a break!) are better than he is. In the playoffs, no one is consistently better than Derek Jeter.
My main gripe, however, is not the underappreciation of Jeter but that supposed "experts" and many people whom I've asked claim that Yankee fans don't enjoy winning as much as other baseball fans. They say that we are spoiled by success. I don't know what will happen at the end of October, but I will be just as glad as any other fan of any other team if the Yankees win the World Series. I know how it feels to have your favorite team win the Series, and I love it. Who cares about the length of time? It is just a number that, in my opinion, really needs to be put in perspective. In the last couple of years, the Red Sox have had good teams. They have been consistent playoff contenders. Amherst students who cheer for them know that it's been 85 years since they've won a World Series, but for these fans personally, it has only been 18, 20 or 22 years. For me, it took 12 years before I savored my team's first Series victory. And I'm sure that the joy I felt as a 12-year-old watching John Wetteland retire the Braves is the same joy that Red Sox or Cubs fans would have felt if their team won this year.
True Yankee fans are not jaded by success. If anything, it makes us hungrier for victory every year. We've experienced the joy of winning, and it feels good. It feels damn good. The notion that winning is routine, expected and not appreciated is absolutely absurd. Fans of baseball like to see their teams win. No one says that Boston fans don't like winning as much because they seem to chant "Yankees suck" whenever possible. They are not chanting "Go Boston," but does anybody doubt their loyalty? Although the comparisons are different due to recent (and not so recent) success, the same is true of Yankee fans. Watch the excitement in the dugout when the Yankees score a run. Watch Jeter (the camera always shows him) after anyone on the team contributes. Go to the Bronx, Westchester, Bergen County or anywhere else in the country where there are true Yankee fans. We're cheering just as hard for our team to win as anyone else. And no, we don't take winning for granted. True fans don't do that. And no, the New York Yankees do not take the fun out of baseball. If you like the Red Sox, chances are you hate the Yankees. I'm going to venture a guess and say that your hatred of the Yanks results only from your love of the game and your team.
Go ahead and hate the Yankees. I'm sure it's not that hard to do. But don't say we don't enjoy winning. Steinbrenner thinks otherwise, and the ridiculous payroll is indicative of that (yes, it is ridiculous, but the way the rules are structured, it is also inevitable). I might not have gone screaming around campus, but I, along with thousands of other fans, was damn happy to see the Yankees beat the Twins and the Sox. So, for Jeter and company: forget the unforgiving New York media. They don't represent your true fan base.