Thursday, October 21, 2010

Will the real New York Yankees fans please stand up?

I wasn't surprised when the Yankees took Game 5 yesterday evening. Yes, I would have preferred the Rangers take it then and there, and then spray ginger ale all over the Yankee "Faithful" while shouting "How's this for fan interference? DO YOU FEEL INTERFERED WITH?!?"

But that was a pipe dream, really. You cannot depend on CC Sabathia throwing two stinkers in one series. He is just too talented for that, and definitely worth every penny the Yankees threw at him (not to mention all the money they must spend to feed him).

That being said, I fully expect Texas to take it. Even if Phil Hughes pitches a gem tomorrow, the Rangers have the trump card, which in this case is an ace (clever, right?). Cliff Lee is as close to unbeatable as it gets in this postseason. His career ERA is 1.44, and the Rangers will even have home field advantage to fall back on.

Yesterday, one of my friends asked me why I care so much about this series, as the Red Sox aren't in it. After telling her that she clearly didn't know me at all, I gave the old line about hating the Yankees, but that's not the most accurate reason. The fact is, I don't really care too much about the team, it's that I really want the fans to suffer.

The entitlement that Yankees fans seem to possess as a group is absolutely astounding, and it's positively infuriating. I've never met a Rangers fan who was in any way annoying, dismissive, or patronizing. Part of this is undoubtedly a consequence of geography: I live in the northeast and go to school in Connecticut, so I don't run into many Rangers fans.

In the last few days, however, the Yankees-related posts I've been seeing on my Facebook feed are downright rage-inducing, which only makes me hope even more fervently for a Rangers victory, if only so that the Yankees "Faithful" would understand that it actually takes some "faith" to be a fan.

So, without further ado, here's a series of screengrabs from "fans" I actually know... their names and those of the commenters have been obscured for privacy's sake, but I'm sure they'll feel your judgment nevertheless:


First of all, this girl thinks she's British. She is from Manhattan. The real point of this one is to totally showcase the sense of entitlement that fans like Green have: it's not "I hope Cashman goes after Lee," it's "Lee is the best so obviously we'll get him, because, like, who else can afford it, lol."

Obviously when the man who won the 2008 Home Run Derby - IN YANKEE STADIUM - goes deep, it's "lucky." The Yankees never lose because they played poorly, it's because the other team got lucky. Thanks for the lesson, pink. I also think he's forgetting about the other SIX runs the Rangers scored that night. Pretty lucky, eh?

Again, obviously the Rangers couldn't be a formidable team: they're not the Yankees! (Or some other big-market team, like Boston, or Philadelphia.) Get a clue: the Yankees and Rangers SPLIT the season series.

Apparently you can only recognize and care about a team when they are winning. This would, I suppose, explain the lack of Washington Nationals fans. Hello, it's called "faith" for a reason.


Only when the Yankees win the game can they be "real." Since real Yankees never lose, the ones who lost three games to the Rangers must have been impostors planted on the field by that diabolical Nolan Ryan.

For the record, these are all people who are self-defined "diehards." I'd hate to see how fickle their bandwagoners are.

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