There were many years that I spent as a Yankee fan. All through the eighties while the Mets were winning, I was a Yankee fan... there were good years and bad during that time but back then, there wasn't any wildcard so it meant the Yankees often ended their season without a trip to the playoffs.
Only two divisions of seven teams each meant if you didn't win the division your season was over.
Don Mattingly was my favorite player. He played a great first base winning several Gold Gloves but he also hit for average. He even had a hitting streak that had people talking about Lou Gehrig's hitting streak. He hit home runs in several consecutive games and the biggest scandal that involved Mattingly over the course of his career was him getting or not getting a haircut.
I suffered through years of mediocre play and the tantrums of George Steinbrenner who all too often inserted himself in the operation of the baseball team to the team's overall detriment.
I watched as players I loved were cast off or traded without rhyme or reason in making an actual team.
Finally in 1995 Mattingly was unceremoniously shown the door and the Yankees bought in Tino Martinez in his stead. Buck Showalter was let go, Randy Velarde and Mike Stanley left, all players I liked and I had had enough, that was it for me.
No more Yankees!
That last year I went to one of the playoff games against the Seattle Mariners. It would be the last Yankee game I would go to for some time.
I would often go to abywhere from 9 to 12 games each season. I would bring friends or co- workers but the one thing that bothered me, fan's behavior.
You couldn't bring a lady or a kid without being embarrassed. The behavior and the language of the fans was disgraceful. It was ironic because that behavior got even worse when they got rid of the old red hatted ushers and replaced them with Police officers.
You'd think the opposite would be true but it wasn't, if anything it got worse. There were times it was just sad. I saw a man with a young daughter while I was sitting in the lower level of Left Field a few rows off the fence curse like a sailor.
Another time I was at a game with a woman from work and there was a group of about 12 guys on the upper deck all trying to outdo each other in terms of outrageousness.
The point is when I switched to being a Mets fan something magical hapoened, I was able to go to a game and not be worried about unruly fans.
Why?
Really I don't know and can't explain it. Is it the Bronx versus Queens? Is it being on Long Island? Is it American League fans versus Nationak League fans? Maybe it's the DH?
The point is it's something so noticeable, the game experience is so dramatically different, even Yankee fans I know who've gone to games with me have commented on the difference.
If you want to take your family to a game you're likely to have a better bet taking them to Citifield rather than Yankee stadium.
One other thing really annoyed me all those years I was a Yankee fan, even though the Metro North tracks went a stone's throw from Yankee Stadium, there was no direct service. If you wanted to take the train to the game you had to go to 125th Street, walk across to the Lexington Avenue line and take the subway back up three stops.
Same thing on the flip side.
They fixed that though, within the last dozen years or so they finally got off their butts and built a station at Yankee Stadium.
Thing is I really wish they hadn't.
Now I get to ride with the very same fans I so detested. Metro North stops almost all it's trains at Yankee Stadium. If you get stuck at work late and it's on a day when there's a home game you have the wonderful joy of a huge crowd of inebriated assholes suddenly flooding the train. What was quiet is now noisy and rowdy. It's worse than any subway car at rush hour because it's a slew of people from the hinterlands who are on an adventure.
Wednesday there apparently was a day game. How do I know this? Well Wednesday happened to be the day I was going in late to work and as luck would have it, the 11 am train I was on was the Yankee Asshole Express. It was just filled to the brim with those glorious morons,
Oh joy! What a wonderful way to start the day. I had figured on being on a quiet, deserted off peak train only to find myself in the subway at rush hour. Really, how can people be intoxicated at 11 in the morning!
Considering my trip to Beacon Tuesday night and the 3 hour commute that entailed, I am already anxious for the week to be over.
It's moments like these I must remind myself of the many good things I do have because there's simply no good in remaining in a snit.
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