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It's easy to see why people become New York Yankees fans.
I just don't understand how it could possibly be much fun.
Sure, the whole purpose of rooting for a particular team lies in enjoying its victories. The Yankees have more of those than any team in sports. But when the wins and championships become inevitable, what's the point?
And let's face it--the fourth pinstriped World Series title in a row and fifth in six years is exactly that. Inevitable.
People who can't bring themselves to face the truth point to New York's flaws. Paul O'Neill may not make it through his final season. Tino Martinez has become one of the least productive first basemen in the game. Scott Brosius isn't much more useful at the plate. From the looks of things in Tampa, Chuck Knoblauch still can't quite make that throw to first.
But all that was equally true last year, except that O'Neill hadn't declared a retirement date. New York also endured David Cone's meltdown, got very average regular seasons from Roger Clemens and Orlando Hernandez, spent more than half the year without invaluable swingman Ramiro Mendoza and watched midseason pickup Denny Neagle turn into the lefty Ed Whitson.
Even with a creaky lineup in baseball's most offensive era ever, and the rash of injuries to its pitching staff that Yankees-haters had waited for throughout the latest golden age, New York cruised into the playoffs after taking September off. Once there, the Yankees got a scare from Oakland, then romped to another championship.
Not that the Yankees didn't slip some. After back-to-back World Series sweeps in 1998 and '99, New York actually lost one game to the crosstown Mets.
Over the winter, the Yankees let Neagle and Cone depart via free agency. The replacement--Mike Mussina, one of the two most prized free agent pitchers on the market. Long the ace in Baltimore, Mussina fits in as New York's fourth starter.
That's the part that makes the Yankees so tough to like for those of us who weren't born that way--not that New York spends so much money, but that it always seems to spend it the right way.
At this point, I'll admit my bias--I grew up a Mets fan, for reasons I still can't quite explain. But I do understand that in Niagara Falls, like most cities without a big league team of its own, there are two kinds of baseball fans--those who root for the Yankees, and everybody else.
That second group consists mainly of two sub categories: Boston and Cleveland fans. Those people, I get. They wait, and hope, and pray for something that might never come. Yankees fans, meanwhile, allow a bad eighth inning by a middle reliever to ruin a 10-5 runaway. Watching their team win another championship is a birthright to be expected, not a pleasure to be anticipated and savored.
Ever since selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919, the Red Sox have been the natural enemy of the Yankees, in the sense that the gazelle is the natural enemy of the lion. It may be faster, leaner and more beautiful, but eventually, it's going down. Still, there's always the hope that maybe, just once, the lion will slam into the brush and the gazelle will prance to victory.
During the natural life of most Cleveland fans, though, the Indians have been more like a deer that crosses paths with a tractor-trailer. Those over 60 might remember Cleveland's last title, in 1948, but many more recall the miserable years since.
From 1960 to 1993, the Indians were never within 10 games of first place after Sept. 1. That's 34 straight autumns without even an absurd hope of reaching the postseason. The especially unfortunate among the Cleveland faithful were born, lived and died without experiencing their team in a pennant race. In 28 of those years, the Indians lost more games than they won.
Of course, Cleveland turned it around after moving to Jacobs Field in 1994, reaching the World Series twice in the years since. And losing.
Once again, the Indians and Red Sox present the two main obstacles to the inevitable. Boston signed Manny Ramirez away from Cleveland and the Indians replaced him by grabbing Juan Gonzalez.
Boston also picked up a new collection of has-beens like Cone and barely weres like Hideo Nomo. The Indians apparently think that the same pitchers who weren't good enough last year can get it done this time.
Their offseason activities give Cleveland and Boston the two most potent offenses in baseball. They also show that neither team's management fathoms why the Yankees keep winning it all--because pitching ultimately wins.
Always.
The only other team that seems to fully grasp that fairly obvious concept is Atlanta. But the Braves always found a way to blow it, even before their rotation of aces reached middle age.
Except when they beat Cleveland in '95.
Even with Opening Day less than two weeks away, there's not a lot of realistic hope abounding for anyone else.
The Mets didn't have good enough arms to beat the Yankees last year. In the offseason, they let ace Mike Hampton leave for Colorado and think they can replace him with the likes of Kevin Appier and Steve Trachsel.
Then there are all the pretenders. Toronto, Texas, Cincinnati and Houston have the bats, but not the pitching. Florida and Oakland have good, young rotations but lack proven hitting. San Francisco and Los Angeles don't have quite enough of either (and the Dodgers have Gary Sheffield). Most of the millions Colorado spent on Neagle and Mike Hampton will wind up flying out of Coors Field. Arizona was too old last year, and didn't get any younger.
So, in the end, we get to hear "New York, New York" over and over right up until Halloween. Again.
And at least half of us can keep trying to figure out why the rest enjoy it so much.