Fandom, I believe, is mostly a product of geography and parentage. I wasn't born with my love of the Yankees, but I was born to a man who loved them. And why did he love the Yankees? Probably because he lived in upstate New York and grew up during the forties when greats like Joe DiMaggio were playing the game. I think parentage is actually the stronger influence of the two - my daughters have grown up in Red Sox country but they, too, love the Yankees. It doesn't hurt that Derek Jeter is so darned cute.
I really resent it, though, when people remark that I probably like the Yankees just because they win a lot. That is insulting to any fan, but this fan in particular because the Yankees have not been overwelmingly successful during most of my most obsessive fan days.
It was in the early 1970s when baseball started to really mean something to me. I had always enjoyed reading biographies and as a child I had read several books about baseball players, including Stan Musial and Leo Durocher. My favorites, however, were those about Babe Ruth and, especially, Lou Gehrig. Just about every American alive knows the story of Lou Gehrig so I won't go into it here except to say, Yankee fan or not, it's almost impossible not to venerate that man. In fact, that's my trump card in an argument with any Red Sox lover - God must be a Yankee fan because he gave us Lou Gehrig.
As I learned about the players I also learned about the game and started joining my father for weekend afternoon Yankee telecasts. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the Yankees were struggling to win games in the early seventies. By the mid seventies they were starting to play respectable baseball and I remember following their triumphs in 1977 and 1978 from afar since I was out west in college by the time the World Series was played. By then so much else competed for my attention that baseball was definitely a peripheral interest. I didn't even watch the 1978 playoff game between the Yankees and the Red Sox, which has been dubbed "The Greatest Game" by author Richard Bradley (How do I know that? I read - no, inhaled - the book, naturally!).
During the busy new-career, new-marriage and new-parent phase of life it's hard for any adult, especially a female adult, to devote the kind of time to the game that baseball requires. When we were first married my husband and I would watch the league championship games and the World Series - none of which involved the Yankees at that time - but after our son came along in late October 1987 we didn't go back to baseball until the World Series of 2001. During those years I was only vaguely aware of the Yankees' success, or lack thereof. I heard of Yankee stars such as Don Mattingly, David Cone and Paul O'Neil but, unlike the players on my kids' soccer teams, I wouldn't have known them if I passed them on the street.
Anyone who follows baseball knows the last World Championship won by the Yankees was in 2000 so when I started watching baseball again it surely wasn't to latch on to the winning team. We started watching the World Series in 2001 because the World Trade Center had been attacked just weeks before and everyone was worried that another such attack might take place during the first championship series game, when President Bush threw out the first pitch.
President Bush and all the fans, of course, survived that game, but the Yankees did not - they were annihilated by the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 9-1. Maybe it was the lopsided loss that took me back to my childhood, or maybe it was the thrill of watching a game after all those years, but whatever it was, my love of baseball was reignited. With my daughters and husband joining me (my son has never been a big fan), we suffered the inevitable highs and lows of a World Series that goes seven games, a couple of them won or lost in extra innings. When Mariano Rivera gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game I had no idea he was one of the greatest closers in modern baseball history. I thought he was a bum.
I've since learned to appreciate Mariano and all of the other Yankee greats. I'm a huge Jeter fan and I also love Jorge Posada and Melky Cabrera. I'm rooting hard for Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and, now, Darryl Rasner, to become the great pitchers it is thought they can be (we really need good pitching - really). And though I'm not a huge A-Rod fan, I'd love to see him break the home run record as a Yankee.
Such is the life of one of a fan. When the Yankee game was rained out on Mother's Day I took it as a personal offense (and it was supposed to be televised, darn it). I'm pining for one of those cool Yankee wristbands I saw in Olympia Sports the other day. And, like countless others, I'll try to work my schedule for the next five months so that I'm able to watch or listen to every inning of every game. Then comes the dark and cold winter, which I will pass crossing days off the calendar, waiting for April.
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Please!
I love spring for a host of reason, not the least of those being baseball season starts again. March fills me with anticipation of this happy event, though I don't pay too much attention to pre-season ball. Around April 2 or 3, however, I set my radio to the local ESPN station, make the New York Yankees game schedule my homepage and settle in for six months-plus of the greatest sport known to humankind.
That's just my opinion, of course, but I know there are millions of people who share it. There are probably even more millions who do not. I have heard the criticisms - baseball's so slow, it's so boring, how can you waste three hours on that stuff?
Obviously I don't consider it a waste. In our frantic, chaotic society, baseball recalls a simpler time. Sometimes it is so nice to just sit and watch a game, to relax and forget about all of life's other demands. Baseball is pure escape and we all need to escape now and then.
That being said, rarely do I just sit and listen to or watch a Yankee game. Sometimes my kids and I play a game of Phase Ten, which is the perfect game to accompany a baseball game. It's not fast-paced so you can stop play to watch an exciting catch or great hit (thank goodness for replays). And it can last about three hours, just like a baseball game.
But more often I have some project to keep my hands busy while the game is on - folding laundry, ironing, clipping coupons, making out my grocery list for the next week, that sort of thing. When I listen to a game, something I do more often, I can keep busy in any of a number of ways. Since my best radio is in the kitchen I can use that time to make cookies or bake muffins for breakfast, start the next day's lunches, clean the kitchen counters, straighten out the pantry, or even catch up on magazines and newspapers. One of baseball's virtues is that it doesn't require one's undivided attention.
In this day of HDTV and cable sports channels it might seem a little strange that I actually enjoy listening to a sport rather than watching it, but I do. Not that I don't love to watch when I have the chance but, except when the Yankees play the Red Sox and we can watch them on the New England Sports Channel, I don't have that many opportunities. Occasionally Fox, ESPN or TBS will feature a game so between the three of them I average about one televised game a week (though last weekend all three featured Yankee games so I was treated to three glorious telecasts in a row!). But baseball is actually the perfect sport to listen to because the pace is slow and you have plenty of time to form pictures in you mind to follow along with the action. Yankee radio announcers John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman know the sport and the team inside out and I learn a lot from their chatter. And, as I said before, I can do a lot of other things in the time it takes to listen to a game.
Besides, I grew up listening to Yankee baseball. Though we could count on WPIX out of New York City for weekend games, many games were not televised and so, fanatic that I was, I was forced to use my radio. In those days, the early and mid-seventies, the announcers were Phil Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer. I remember liking Messer's voice best - it was pleasant and professional - but Rizzuto was definitely the voice of the Yankees. I can still hear the Scooter's famous "Holy Cow!" echoing in my head whenever a Yankee player hits a homerun or makes a great catch.
Most games I listened to at night while I was supposed to be sleeping. Rarely could I sleep until the final score was in. The Yankees of my youth included players like Bobby Murcer, Roy White, Graig Nettles, Lou Pinella, Willie Randolph and, my favorite, Thurman Munson. In the early seventies they were not a winning team and many nights my heart ached as I turned of my radio. But another great thing about baseball is that it is such a long season. With more than 160 games to play, hope springs eternal for a baseball fan. Every game is a blank slate, a new opportunity. League championships are often up for grabs until late September, sometimes right up to the last game. As Yogi Berra once famously said, it ain't over till it's over. Baseball fans know how much wisdom that little Yogiism contains.
For now, however, this post is over. Tomorrow I will continue to wax philosphical about the sport that ranks right up there with Mom and Apple Pie in the American value system. Right now, however, I'm going to have some lunch. Maybe a hot dog.
That's just my opinion, of course, but I know there are millions of people who share it. There are probably even more millions who do not. I have heard the criticisms - baseball's so slow, it's so boring, how can you waste three hours on that stuff?
Obviously I don't consider it a waste. In our frantic, chaotic society, baseball recalls a simpler time. Sometimes it is so nice to just sit and watch a game, to relax and forget about all of life's other demands. Baseball is pure escape and we all need to escape now and then.
That being said, rarely do I just sit and listen to or watch a Yankee game. Sometimes my kids and I play a game of Phase Ten, which is the perfect game to accompany a baseball game. It's not fast-paced so you can stop play to watch an exciting catch or great hit (thank goodness for replays). And it can last about three hours, just like a baseball game.
But more often I have some project to keep my hands busy while the game is on - folding laundry, ironing, clipping coupons, making out my grocery list for the next week, that sort of thing. When I listen to a game, something I do more often, I can keep busy in any of a number of ways. Since my best radio is in the kitchen I can use that time to make cookies or bake muffins for breakfast, start the next day's lunches, clean the kitchen counters, straighten out the pantry, or even catch up on magazines and newspapers. One of baseball's virtues is that it doesn't require one's undivided attention.
In this day of HDTV and cable sports channels it might seem a little strange that I actually enjoy listening to a sport rather than watching it, but I do. Not that I don't love to watch when I have the chance but, except when the Yankees play the Red Sox and we can watch them on the New England Sports Channel, I don't have that many opportunities. Occasionally Fox, ESPN or TBS will feature a game so between the three of them I average about one televised game a week (though last weekend all three featured Yankee games so I was treated to three glorious telecasts in a row!). But baseball is actually the perfect sport to listen to because the pace is slow and you have plenty of time to form pictures in you mind to follow along with the action. Yankee radio announcers John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman know the sport and the team inside out and I learn a lot from their chatter. And, as I said before, I can do a lot of other things in the time it takes to listen to a game.
Besides, I grew up listening to Yankee baseball. Though we could count on WPIX out of New York City for weekend games, many games were not televised and so, fanatic that I was, I was forced to use my radio. In those days, the early and mid-seventies, the announcers were Phil Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer. I remember liking Messer's voice best - it was pleasant and professional - but Rizzuto was definitely the voice of the Yankees. I can still hear the Scooter's famous "Holy Cow!" echoing in my head whenever a Yankee player hits a homerun or makes a great catch.
Most games I listened to at night while I was supposed to be sleeping. Rarely could I sleep until the final score was in. The Yankees of my youth included players like Bobby Murcer, Roy White, Graig Nettles, Lou Pinella, Willie Randolph and, my favorite, Thurman Munson. In the early seventies they were not a winning team and many nights my heart ached as I turned of my radio. But another great thing about baseball is that it is such a long season. With more than 160 games to play, hope springs eternal for a baseball fan. Every game is a blank slate, a new opportunity. League championships are often up for grabs until late September, sometimes right up to the last game. As Yogi Berra once famously said, it ain't over till it's over. Baseball fans know how much wisdom that little Yogiism contains.
For now, however, this post is over. Tomorrow I will continue to wax philosphical about the sport that ranks right up there with Mom and Apple Pie in the American value system. Right now, however, I'm going to have some lunch. Maybe a hot dog.
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