A Rocky Road For The Yankees, Legacy

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 playoffs. Now this all of course changed when George Steinbrenner returned from his MLB suspension and began using his gambling winnings to buy up players.

Now I will hand it to you on the great Yankees teams of 1996, 98, 99, 2000 (and maybe 2001)... those guys had heart, but it's 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 it will be fighting Jason Giambi for playing time, 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" (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 10 years old.

That brings me to the "Mantle" years... now every fan of baseball in the world respects 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 even shared an applause to the 1996 Yankees, especially seeing Wade Boggs finally get a ring... but those guys were likeable characters -- The Paul O'Neills 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 acclamation 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 beaten the Red Sox, well that one is over. And the second 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 first is the late 1920 early 1930s 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), also the 1977-78 seasons that Yankees edged us out, and finally, the great dynasty teams of the late nineties. Other than that, the Yankees need to come down from their thrown -- realize that it has been 4 years, and the team is different, in fact heading in a downward direction as the Red Sox are in many ways heading upward. The nineties don't 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 most of the Yankees fans out there today running their mouths, in actuality, were not around when the legacy of the Yankees all began... 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 bandwagon, to shut your traps... It's time to watch the great sport that is baseball. 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 for those of you who aren't ready for the rocky road ahead, a culture shock to the young generation of Yankees fans, whom I have nothing but pity for, because they're about to miss a whole lot of great baseball when you simply tune out.

Maybe, just maybe, it's time to root for the Mets.

Paolo DeVito
Transplanted Red Sox Fan