Will the Real Yankee Fans Please Stand Up?!

Its a cold and dreary Friday morning and yes, we're dejected. One nightmare and two heartbreakers later, we're 0-8 to Red Laundry. It's not pretty. Thrilled we are not. But, when the anger and styrofoam cups of beer wear off, we're also realistic. Beating the Sox is more about personal pleasure and redemption at this point than anything else. It's about proving a point. It's about backing up fiery rhetoric in 46 message e-mail chains. We're two games out of first with 102 games left. Not exactly a shoddy position to be in come mid-June. At the end of the day, we know all that matters is our respective records and who wins come the leaves of October. It might be mental with the Sox. It might be the way our line-ups match up. It might be that we've played six games in Boston and only two in New York. It could be Youkilis's little at bat dance (timed to music, its pretty amusing). Maybe its the rain falling mainly on A-Rod's plain. Hell, we do not know. With most of the eight games close, we know its within our grasp. We know we're better than what we've presented on Fenway field this week. And, as much as we want to plead with the MLB to switch our August games with games, starting say tomorrow, we know thats not how this operation works. We have to regroup and focus on winning the rest of our series's in June and July. We've got to live with the trash talk from the greater MA area until we get another shot in August. Even then, we'll have to swallow the fact that we dropped eight straight games to them and that this hasn't happened in 100 years, blah blah blah. That stuff does not matter if we show up playoff ready. Instead of ranting and raving about the Sox, we're going to take issue with an animal of a different color (because frankly red is making us sick at this point).

We want to talk about Yankee fans in NYC. Rather, fans in general in this city of ours. We watched two out of three games in bar situations. The facts are these: a lot of our present company were Sox fans. The NBA Finals were on both nights and the Stanley Cup one. We understand that we chose who we came with and that attention at bars is divided. Those other games are in the post-season. Finding Yankee fans, however, for one of the greatest rivalries in sports was like searching for a tiny unicorn. Crickets. Where are you people? A 102 fever couldn't keep us from one of the games and we had to look behind corners and barstools to find someone NOT wearing pink Sox gear or I-banker getup in Hell's Kitchen. A group of Mets fans cheered against us even though we were rooting for them against the Phillies. When we clapped for getting a Yank on base (yes it was the little things in Tuesday nights game that mattered), a guy actually informed us we were down 7 runs. Yes, we know. We've been here all night. Sorry, we didn't know that meant we were supposed to become mute. Now is when they need us more than ever. Fair weather we are not. Then, theres the people who aren't even Sox fans. No, they just hate the Yankees so they choose to root for you to fail. We get the Yankee hatred. We weren't born yesterday. We even get why. Personal reasons are personal reasons. It's still not classy to only root for a team to fail when you don't care for the other team playing. Do we want the Red Sox to win all their other games? Not exactly, but we don't travel up to Copley Square and get in fans faces when they are playing the Twins. To all the random haters: We actually do care. Our emotions are riding on the team bus so the fact that you get enjoyment out of our misery is worse than all the things you probably hate the Yankees for. The real Yankee fans in NYC need to get off their oversized couches and show a little team spirit. Regardless if we can't win a game against the Sox all season (which we will), they need to GET UP. THIS IS YOUR TEAM PEOPLE. To the Mets fans that are rooting against us, please stop. Its not helping anyone. When we play each other fine, go nuts. Otherwise, remember: the Yankees have a New York infront of it for a reason. Let's enjoy a small slice of comradery. And to the people that get in our face when we're not even playing you, our guess is that your own team could probably use all that energy you spend being hateful.

So, we're gonna end this on a positive note because we too sometimes get a little too carried away. It sucks boys. We know you wanted this. We did too. Bad. Last night, really really bad. But, its the nature of the beast. You have incredible fight in you. We have lots of heart. Now let's go get first back.

The Joke's on You

For some reason we are much funnier when the Yankees are losing. We've been envisioning a post a la Seth Meyers' "REALLY?" bit from SNL asking the Yanks what they are thinking with Berroa on the roster. I mean really. But it doesn't really matter if Berroa comes in for Lexi in the 8th when we're winning 12-3. As far as we're concerned, Berroa can play every position when we're winning by 9.

For a few years now the Yanks have been the butt of every joke imaginable. A-Roid/ A-Fraud, Torre hating on his old players, the alleged broken curse (which we agree was Red Laundry just being bad for 86 years), paying big bucks for players who don't perform, and more recently, stealing taxpayer's money to build a stadium that they didn't need. But we haven't really heard these jokes lately, have we?

Apparently the joke now, is on the rest of baseball. We don't believe in curses or superstition, and while it's only been whispered so far, the way the Yankees are playing, no one would be surprised to see them win their 27th championship. Yeah, we said it. And everyone is thinking it now, so there isn't much to be said, is there? Got Jokes? No, but we've Got Melk.

Red Laundry has gotten a lot of people on their bandwagon lately, but they really are just the Susan Lucci of baseball. The woman was nominated 21 times for an Emmy. She was the talk of the Soap Opera world for 20 years. When was she going to win? She's got all the right stuff. Then something crazy happened, she actually won. There was buzz, and people got over it. To be fair Red Laundry won twice. But does anyone really care if they win anymore? Not really. Red Laundry is Twitter, and the Yankees are Facebook. It's new and exciting, all the celebs are on board, but in the end, it's never going to be cooler than Facebook. It doesn't have the history or the money that Facebook has. Papi Grande ain't got nothing on The Great Bambino.

Suddenly Torre is wishing the Yankees nothing but luck. We love Torre- love. You are a Yankees icon. But we read the book. Ouch, Joe. We agree that Lexi is fun to pick on, but give us a break. It was all fun and games out there in LALAland with your cool new car commercials and no rain delays until your old team realized it didn't need you. Now you're up late with Nam-like dreams of Melky in the bottom of the 9th. Do you think he'll still be wishing us nothing but the best when we have a better record than the Dodgers? We don't think so.

We haven't heard anyone complaining about how much we paid for Lexi anymore. We guess when you have almost as many RBIs as games you've played in and are hitting a home run at least once every 4 games, people start to think maybe you are worth $275 mill. We haven't heard too much complaining that he hasn't cashed in on his many bases loaded at-bats recently (but seriously, we wouldn't be upset with a GS this week). And Manny Being Banny has definitely shut people up on the steroid front. Does anyone even know that Lexi is dating Kate Hudson? Sure they do. Does anyone care? No, cause he's playing good baseball and everyone knows it. We haven't seen a purse on his arm in quite awhile and frankly we think it's going to remain that way.

So, maybe there is nothing funny about the Yankees these days. And that's a-OK with us.

Hate it or Love it, The Yanks on TOP

Since we last checked in, our boys have climbed to #1, first sharing the top of the AL East with Red Laundry and then breaking away to lead the pack. We only lead by half a game, but we are holding on tight.

Will Leitch of NY Magazine has an interesting story about Yankee potential. It has been quite the turnaround. Things probably couldn't have started off worse. We remember the mess that surrounded us upon beginning this blog. Everywhere around us there were bad omens. We half expected to see black cats crossing home plate. All that money and below .500?

We're not sure of the exact cause and there has been much speculation, but the bottom line is we've come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. Pies in face. Wins stacking upon wins like pancakes. Errorless streak that matches the all time record of 17 consecutive games. Looking down at the Jays, Rays and the team-that-we-will-not-mention. We wrote a letter to the them a few weeks ago that we feel has been more than backed up by what we've done on the field. We're ready for June 9. Is June 9th ready for us?

The question Leitch poses is a good one. We like it's ambition. Can we.....win the World Series this year? Everybody whisper. But, it's really not too early to ask. We are playing good baseball. Things have more than improved across the board. In all areas. On the other hand, in a 162 game season maintenance is everything. We need to stay up and keep it up. Key words: stable pitching, solid relief and no more than one batter having a big papi (code word for drought people). Tex busted out of his lump like he was aboard a rocket in May but will that be a summer long trip? There won't always be pies in the face and flair (though it can't be denied that we do love the dramatic) but we can't have things sour if we want a chance at Jeet's 5th ring.

The ridiculous record of the Dodgers aside, we are hanging in there with most division leaders. As we know all too well, however, things can change fast and the standings can be shaken up like a shuffled deck of cards. All we can is do keep on keepin' on. So, let's close out the Tribe tonight and we'll be at the stadium tomorrow night to personally welcome Tejas.

Happy June. Here's to a great summer streak. We take nothing for granted.