10-18-2004, 06:17 PM
Quote:still, 26 world championships. you actually have the balls to complain about a decade or so without a championship.
Yeah, the Yankees have 26 world championships. And I've only been alive for four of them.
As Keyser said, there is a beauty to the history of the franchise, and in looking back at the seasons and the championships, but's its not like I knew what it was like to watch the 1961 season, or the 1927, or the 1978 season. I appreciate the 1996 championship more than the 1927 championship, because I watched the team work through that 96 season, the difficulties that arose, the great wins they had along the way that season. I felt what it was like just stepping outside my door after that WS win, how everyone in the city was joyous. It was amazing. All the 1927 championship would be is from what I could read in books. And for the 22 other championships, or the 33 AL pennents, it's not like I can re-live those years, and cherish those championships, from what, some highlight programs on YES and ESPN Classic, and dvd compliations? I'm suppose to get an appreciation for what it was like to have the Yankees win the WS 22 times, and be able to sit back in my chair and say , "Yeah, Red Sox need to win, maybe I should stop cheering for the Yanks."?
Like I said at the start, I've only been alive for 4 World Series wins. Which means 95, 97, 2001, 2002, and 2003, I've seen the Yanks make the playoffs and lose. 5 out of 9 times, they've been beaten in series play in the playoffs. And which means, ever since I was able to consciously follow baseball, lets say 19 years now, 9 times, during those 19, did they make the playoffs. 4 of those times they won everything.
From 98-2000, the Yankees were just dominant. Jeter, Williams, Pettite, O'Neil, Martinez, Posada, Cone, Rivera; together, they had beaten the best team in baseball in 96, and then were eliminated by the Indians the following year. They certainly were never on those 22 other world championship teams before them. They were on 1 team, the 96 team. Why would anyone be OK with them saying, "Yeah, we got elminated, but, hey, the franchise has 22 championships, not that we had anything to do with them, so it's ok if this bunch of guys doesn't make it." I believe that ballplayers play to win the WS, and I also believe that they would like to win a World Series for a town that wants them to win. They came back, re-built, some new faces added to try to get back to that World Series, and win.
By 2002, still had Jeter, Williams, Pettite, Posada, Mo, now had Clemens, O'Neil and Martinez were gone, Soriano and Mussina come in, Giambi comes in. They all wanted to win the WS for NY, and they couldn't. How do you establish a relationship to these new players? They talk about it, how each player has that one game in which they become a "Yankee", which I think is kinda crap; I'd rather see how they react as part of a team, what their contributions are, and how they exhibit, through their play in the season and postseasons, their desire to want to win, not just for the Yanks, or for themselves, but for the people that support them, New York.
The metropolitan areas follows two baseball teams, two football teams, three hockey teams, two basketball teams. We have alot of people in the tri state area that want to see these teams win championships.
If this is about money, well, then how come the Yankees have all this money to spend, and teams like Arizona don't?