Codica3 Posted August 8 Report Share Posted August 8 I thought you might like this. Grabbed it off another board that someone posted it on.mike vaccaro - nypostAugust 8, 2003 -- JOHN McDERMOTT is 14 years old, and yesterday, a few hours before the Yankees put the Texas Rangers back in their place, he announced proudly, without a trace of irony: "I have been a die-hard Yankees fan my whole life." Poor kid. He'd come in from Garden City with his father and his brother and was bedecked in his game-day finest: Official No. 25 Jason Giambi jersey. Fitted Yankees cap, signed in silver ink by Mariano Rivera. Bursting binder stuffed with carefully encased baseball cards, to be removed only in the sacred event that a Yankee with a Sharpie is in the vicinity. I ask him, "Die-hard? When in your life have you ever had to die hard with the Yankees?" He has an answer for me. "When I was 8," he says, stone-faced and solemn. "They finished in second place that year." That would have been 1997, a dank, dark year to be a Yankees fan, when they were reduced to accepting the American League's wild-card because the Baltimore Orioles had the temerity to finish ahead of them in the AL East. In a past era of Yankees dominance, such behavior inspired a novel entitled, "The Year the Yankees Lost The Pennant." We know it better as the musical "Damn Yankees." "That didn't feel so good," John McDermott says of the terrible drought of '97. "I try not to think about that." Welcome to the fresh generation of Yankees fans, reared on nonstop excellence, who've never much had to live and die with their favorite team, only live with them, in glory and splendor. The last time the Yankees finished lower than second place, John McDermott was 3 years old. Which coincides with the approximate level of behavior of most other Yankees fans, beginning with (but hardly limited to) the No. 1 Yankees fan currently co-starring in a Visa commercial near you. To be a Yankees fan in the year 2003 means never having to bite your fingers, chew on your cuticles, pace around your living room. Only you do anyway. Why? Because we don't have an All-Star right fielder, that's why! Because the bullpen is in disarray, that's why! Because these Yankees are setting themselves up to be the kind of bomb in October that "Gigli" is in August, that's why! THAT'S WHY! "I don't think anybody wants to go through what we went through last year," reports Jason Ferrara, 16, who came down from Westchester with an uncle. "That was hard to deal with." It does make you wonder how much fun it really is to be a Yankees fan sometimes. For most fans, watching their team win a championship, just one, is a life-altering experience. You invest so much angst into your holy personal quest that when it arrives . . . well, only true fans could relate to that famous sign at Madison Square Garden in the Rangers spring of 1994: "Now I Can Die In Peace." Yankees fans don't celebrate victories anymore as much as they breathe sighs of relief 100 times a year. They don't enjoy seasons as much as endure them. Aaron Boone arrives. Gabe White arrives. Jeff Nelson arrives in some kind of strange Seattle airlift of mercy. Still Yankees fans ask: What's next? Who's next? By God, we can't stand still, WE'VE LOST A GAME THIS WEEK! Where is the pain? Where is the suffering? Isn't it more noble to root for the Knicks, soon to be entering a 31st straight year in the wilderness; or the Jets, who rule purgatory with a green fist; or even the Mets, who but for the grace of providence, Bill Buckner and a little shoe polish might still be searching for their first ring? I ask John McDermott this question. He ponders it for half a second. And looks at me like I'm out of my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pookie23 Posted August 8 Report Share Posted August 8 :blown:From 1981 - 1993...your tearm was absolute GARBAGE...those days will come again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codica3 Posted August 9 Author Report Share Posted August 9 Originally posted by spragga25 :blown:From 1981 - 1993...your tearm was absolute GARBAGE...those days will come again. And I'll be waiting for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pookie23 Posted August 9 Report Share Posted August 9 No you won't - you'll jump ship like the rest of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codica3 Posted August 10 Author Report Share Posted August 10 Originally posted by spragga25 No you won't - you'll jump ship like the rest of them Oh no..Not this one..I'm a lifer.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crosspatrick Posted August 10 Report Share Posted August 10 could u imagine how empty yankee stadium would be if the yankees started sucking for 10 years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicman Posted August 10 Report Share Posted August 10 it happens to all teams. they go through a cycle of success and then suck. teams like yankess go through it also, the only difference is that their cycle of success usually is more prolonged and is more often than other teams and the periods where they suck are shorter and farer in between.of course having the $$$ to get the top players in the game helps, but having good people in decision making positions and steinbrener not firing coaches left and right everytime the yankees go on a 3 game losing streak also is important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismakk69 Posted August 11 Report Share Posted August 11 Originally posted by spragga25 :blown:From 1981 - 1993...your tearm was absolute GARBAGE...those days will come again. I've been a Yankee fan from those years and can't imagine myself ever jumping ship. Even in 86 when the Mets won the series, I was cheering on the Yanks through their shitty season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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