It's time to look at what's going right in this country. At this time of year, look no further than baseball's annual Fall Classic. America's team, the New York Yankees, is back in the World Series. Last year, in the depths of the Great Recession, the Yankees broke their streak of 13 straight playoff appearances finishing in third place in the AL East.
However, during the off-season, the Yankees undertook their own stimulus effort and opened their own infrastructure project - a brand new Yankee Stadium. The advocates for domestic nation building should take note. The Yankees' investment of over $420 million in C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira have propelled the team back to the playoffs and their first World Series since 2003. If only our nation's economy could rebound as fast as the Yankees have. Therefore, as a fan on the journey to a world championship, I offer my thoughts on being a Yankees fan.
I am not from New York State. I don't possess the fallacious birthplace or residency requirement to be a New York Yankees fan. These pseudo prerequisites for fandom I shrug off whenever someone questions why I'm a Yankees fan from San Francisco. While I respect and admire the passion of the birthright Yankees fan, it's not as if the state of New York produced the players on the roster. In fact, on a given summer night, the majority of fans present may be from outside of New York City. On the New England-centric Boston College campus I get these queries all the time. In fact, I welcome them. I love the controversy ill-founded allegiances create. I love the jabs and the presumptions that are made about Yankees fans, as if stating that Californians have no legitimate reason to love the Yankees will undermine my allegiance to them. In fact, thanks to technology, the limiting factor of media markets no longer exists. I can watch the Yankees as easily from Manhattan or Hong Kong thanks to MLB.tv.
The love one has for their team defies the need for justification or qualification. I don't have to say I liked the Yankees before 1996, and therefore I'm not a bandwagon jumper (I thought we applauded success in America, not chastised those who applaud it). It transcends logic and reason. Yes, I still loved the Yankees just as much even though I had to endure the Jason Giambi era. My love for baseball and the New York Yankees is a visceral connection that reaches my core. It's something that is hard wired into your childhood development and passed down through families. However, I'm not an absolutist. I readily concede; pure passion does not justify blind allegiance or replace the need for comprehensive knowledge of your team. Just like everything else in life, you ought to know what you're talking about.
Fundamentally, my love of the Yankees comes out of respect for the game. Simply put, the Yankees play the game the right way with class and hustle. Nowhere else is this more apparent than in my childhood hero Derek Jeter. For 14 years he put together a Hall of Fame career that exemplifies success on and off the field. This year Derek Jeter won the Roberto Clemente Award for his work with his Turn2Foundation. Beyond a winning team, this is what the Yankees are about.
What team you root far is hardly an irrelevant fact. The game of baseball has a distinct connection to our culture. It has been one of the few constants during our country's ups and downs. As an American, the team you root for helps define who you are. It's part of the fiber that holds our country together. I find talking baseball with someone is a great way to get to know them.
Moreover, the game of Baseball is as much a metaphor for life as it is about scoring runs and winning games. While one could argue that the game has become a corporatized profit machine at the Major League level, the lessons of the game still exist. There is camaraderie, teamwork, failure, and success. Each team has its own identity and speaks to the character of the fan.
I've waited six long years to see the Yankees make it back to the World Series. When this column runs it will be either on the eve of game seven in the Bronx or the Yankees will have already captured their 27th World Championship the night before. No matter what happens, my support for my team is unwavering despite what anybody says.
Kevin Swanson is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at kswanson@bcheights.com.
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