Being a Yankee fan just isn't that much fun anymore...

The Game Room
1

Maybe having your team reach the playoffs every year sounds like something any baseball fan wants, but it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. At least not in the only way that can be achieved in the modern game: constant retooling via free agency.

I became a Yankee fan in 1970 at the tender age of eight. Those were some pretty bad teams…I think of it as the Horace Clarke era. Some of those teams finished respectably but no trip to the playoffs. Then joy! In 1976 the Yanks made the World Series but were promptly slaughtered by the Big Red Machine.

And then came true joy, back-to-back championships in '77 and '78. Somehow this was even sweeter because of all the years of futility that preceded it. Considering what happened in the previous year, we felt like underdogs going up against the mighty Dodgers.

After that came long dark years of rottens teams, a crazy owner doing ridiculous things almost daily and a loss in the 81 world series. The 80’s were truly miserable for Yankee fans. We often had the offense with Mattingly, Winfield, Henderson et al., but the pitching was dependably bad. With all the money the team had it was a wonder they could be so bad at evaluating pitchers and developing young players.

Then in the 90’s things slowly got exciting again. A big part of the fun was seeing all these young players going through tough times and blossoming into real major leaguers. Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and others came up through the teams minor league system and the team was good again. And of course, they then won four championships in five years. All great, great times.

But since then, it’s just been a long parade of teams cobbled together through free-agency, designed to win every year. Outside of Robinson Cano and a few pitchers who may or may not become stars, there has been precious little player development. It just hasn’t been that much fun to watch. I watch the playoffs every year, every Yankee game and a lot of regular season games. But the championship in 2010 just wasn’t as sweet. It was great, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t like 1996. I was just grateful we made it that year, and after the Braves took the first two games in Yankee stadium I thought, well, we’re not in their class but next year should be really exciting.

It’s just not natural what the they’ve done. Teams should suck some years, it’s just part of the game. Do any other Yankee fans feel this way?

2

Francisco Cervelli and Bret Gardner, no?

3

The Yankees have sucked for some years in the past often enough. In my lifetime (born in 1978) they sucked from 1979 through 1995; then they sucked in 1997, then they recently had a stretch of sucking from 2001 through 2008. We won’t know for sure if they suck this year until November.

4

Wasn’t the groundwork for the 90s championship teams laid when Steinbrenner was suspended?

As to your overall point…well, it’s not much fun for the rest of us either.

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I became a Yankees fan in 1961 at the age of 9. I spent that year watching Maris and Mantle and Whitey Ford and the rest of that crew slaughter the opposition, so my perspective is a bit skewed. Let the other fans say “wait for next year,” our proper place is in the October Classic.

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I want other teams to have a shot, but no. And the player development has improved a lot since early this decade. Cano, Hughes, and role players like Gardner and Cervelli and bullpen guys like Aceves, Albaladejo and Robertson and all came up through the farm system. So did lesser pieces like Miranda and Peña and Ransom. They’ve also got Montero waiting as their next catcher. I’m still hoping Joba turns it around but I can’t be optimistic about him at this point.

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Don’t know about Montero behind the plate; by all accounts he’s major league ready right now with the bat, but defensively and calling a game I believe that Cervelli has the edge.

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Montero will be traded before we get to see him develop. Because there is no develop, just win now at all costs.

If I’m correct, Montero was part of the proposed deal for Cliff Lee. So he’ll go for Joakiim Soria or Adam Dunn or God knows who else.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the Yankees fan.

:wink:

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To update a Red Smith quote, being a Yankee fan has gotta be like rooting for McDonald’s to sell Big Macs.

I’m a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, which historically have been hockey’s Yankees, but when I first started watching them, they were more of a “dark horse” after teams like the Oilers, Islanders and Flyers, etc. If I grew up in the 60s or 70s, I probably would have hated the Habs, or at least have been bored with them, because they won all the time.

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That’s what bothers me. And I know it must sound completely fucking absurd to a Pirates or Indians fan, but I long for a team that I come to believe in over time, a team that might have a shot.
When you bring in ARod and Sabbathia and whoever else, you are supposed to win the World Series. It takes the fun out of it, at least a little bit. But it’s not like I can stop rooting for the Yanks. It’s life long, reflexive, and I hope Mariano pitches until he’s 50.

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Cerrvelli is what, 23, maybe 24? I feel that If Jesus gets traded, it has as much to do with Fransisco’s current development. And haven’t the Yanks developed Hughes and Gardner? They were part time players the past few years that are now everyday players.
Also, I do hope that Gary Gnu is joking with that comment; this Yankee fan does not consider playoff teams to “suck”.

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Little presumptuous, aren’t you?

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If Montero gets dealt it is probably because they don’t think he is able to catch. Cerrvelli is unlikely to hit enough to be an everyday guy, I would doubt that the Yankees would consider him a long term answer. The Yankees system is pretty loaded behing the plate though. Austin Romine isn’t the hitter that Montero is, and not quite as far along, but can hold his own offensively, and actually catch. He is much more likely than Montero or Cerrvelli to be the longterm successor of Posada.

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Ha ha. I was bewildered for a moment. How could I presume something that was? Okay, 2009. I hate lol, but I did laugh out loud.

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Well, to be fair, some of those years ‘we’ were cheated out of a championship by a league-wide conspiracy, instead of the guys choking.

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Let’s see if they stick with it. I’m all for it, they have so many imported stars under contract for years: Sabathia, Rodriguez, Teixeira, Granderson and Burnett.

I’d love to be pleasantly surprised, but it’s different. The homegrown stars of the 90’s equaled the talent being brought in like Cone, O’Neill, Clemens, Martinez, Strawberry and Wells. When you think of Williams, Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte, only Cano seems likely to have a career like those guys. I have hope for Hughes, but beyond that I only see role players. Which is fine, but there is nothing like the homegrown kid becoming a bonafide star.

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The word you’re looking for isn’t “absurd,” it’s “spoiled.” This is essentially the equivalent of a rich guy in an office sitting back at his desk, idealized notions of the salt of the earth working class dancing in his head.

‘Win now at all costs’ means signing Kevin Brown, not trading an extra piece if you need to. (It’s not like they are going to have to gut the farm system to compete this year; they already have the best record in the league.) Montero can hit, the issue is that he may not be much of a catcher. First base is not an option because they have Teixeira, and I don’t know if DH is an option because they’ll need to give Jeter and Rodriguez and Posada at bats at DH over the years. He’s still only 20.

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Please, son, I’m not looking for words. I know exactly what I mean, and the word ain’t “spoiled” because it’s not mine nor my Daddy’s. It’s absurd, and yes it can be, for living in New York provides all sorts of realities not available to those in lesser cities.

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:confused: