My Great Awakening

Last night during Sunday Night Baseball, I did something that would have made the 14 year old version of myself hunt down the new me, wait until I fell asleep, and then smother my new self to death with a pillow. You see, for the first 21 years of my life, I considered myself to be a huge Boston Red Sox fan. On top of that, I hated to New York Yankees more than anything else in the entire world. The climax of my hate probably occurred at the age of 14 during the 2001 World Series, when on back-to-back nights Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius tied the game up in the bottom of the ninth against the D-Backs (Byung-Hyun Kim is still to his day the least clutch baseball player in the history of the world). I was young and impressionable back then (not to mention even dumber than I am now), and would find myself swearing at the tv in my bedroom on a Thursday night. 8 years later, I have changed my ways, and found new things to become angry about (people who don't get cheese in the omelette line in the cafeteria). I also thought I had developed a fool-proof strategy to combat my anger along the way as well: drafting as many Yankees as possible for my fantasy baseball team. I saw it as a win-win situation: the Yankees lose and that's great or they win and thus I win in fantasy. However, something just overcame me last fall during the ALDS and I don't exactly know why. Maybe it was Nick Punto overrunning 3rd base in the playoffs and everyone around Minnesota being satisfied that they simply just made the playoffs in a terrible division again, or maybe it was the simple idea that when it was a close game in the series, the Yankees were going to win. Or maybe it's just the simple fact that the Yankees are the truest example of a professional organization ever known to humanity and we all should be cheering them on. So last night, I sat down for the Sunday Night Baseball game of the week, and can truly say that I wanted the Yankees to beat the Red Sox.

I must admit, I was not given the fairest shot to become a Yankees fan when I was a boy. My opinion of them was clouded by the idea that they won with crybabies like Paul O'Neill, evil-doers like Roger Clemens, and talent wasters like Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. My mind has changed though (I win a lot in fantasy), and I have my reasons (stats free for once).

1.) If you have the money, spend it: This means that you go out and get someone like Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia because it's pitching and 3 run homers that win championships. I'm really over the teams that have gotten caught up with the whole defense wins championships in baseball idea (Boston) and go out and sign Mike Cameron. Yeah that looks great, especially when the Yankees got Curtis Granderson and your own line-up has JD Drew batting in the 5 hole. Wait who bats 5th for the Yankees? Oh yeah, the next Triple Crown winner (you heard it here, or if you were at the Ole Baseball fantasy baseball draft of 2009), Robinson Cano. The Yankees also are in the top 5 in all of baseball in terms of having players from their system on the current 25 man roster.

2.) The Yankees have cooler players than the Red Sox: Derek Jeter is baseball's best model for consistency (after Pujols), Jorge Posada is a success story, Cano and Granderson define sweetness, Arod and Teixeira are dudes, the worst 2 hitters of their order, if that's possible, are an on base and a stolen base machine (Swisher and Gardner), and CC Sabathia is a true ace. On the other hand, Josh Beckett is a tool. I feel so far removed from the Josh Beckett that shut out New York in game 6 of the 2003 World Series, and am too focused on the one who throws at people and has a 7.46 ERA.

3.) Building a team based on defense is stupid.

4.) The Red Sox are trendy (I despise being trendy).

5.) Mariano Rivera

So as I go on this year, I will be cheering for the Yankees (and the A Team), and hoping that they finish second in the East to the Rays!