Fußball Schadenfreude

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t care much for any level of football.  My feeling for the sport has evolved from apathy to distaste.  Which is kind of tough for me considering I’m one of the handful of people in my city who doesn’t pay attention to the local college team.

Growing up, I disliked football because the start of games meant that summer was nearing an end, as was baseball season (the Yankees didn’t have real postseason prospects until my junior year of high school) and it was time to go back to school.  And sure, now that I’m older (and the Yankees have gotten better), baseball season lasts longer and there’s more for me to do in the fall, yet I still don’t care much for the game.

Last week, someone mentioned that high school teams resumed practice recently and all I could feel was “oh great, here we go again.”  But then I realized that two factors might make this fall bearable: the labor issues in professional football, which may endanger the start of the season, and the corruption involving the college team, which will hamper how they do next season.  (I don’t pay much attention to news involving football, so I apologize if my news is wrong or out-of-date).

I’m sure that either of these two factors might make the fall miserable for some.  And for that, well, I’m kinda sorry.  But honestly, I don’t care.  I plan on watching baseball until late October (or early November, because the baseball season is nearly as long as the basketball season) and after that, I have a bunch of Yankees DVDs to keep me occupied until Spring Training.

The Boss

A few years ago, for no reason at all, I sent George Steinbrenner a birthday card.

I wanted to thank him for giving Yankees fans a winning baseball team. At a time when most owners seemingly tool their profits and ran from their teams, Steinbrenner reinvested his earnings (and more), ensuring that the Yankees would always remain in contention.

I sent the card off adressed to George Steinbrenner, Yankee Stadium, The Bronx New York 10451. I was surprised a few weeks later when I got an envelope from Legends Field in Tampa Florida. It contained a thank you note signed by the Boss himself.

Earlier today, George Steinbrenner died of a heart attack (twenty-something years after declaring that he doesnt have heart attacks, he gives them). More than any other owner, he left his mark on his team. When Ihe purchased the Yankees in ’73, the team had not been to a World Series in nine years, played in a dilapitated building and lacked any real stars. Within five years the Yankees would host three straight World Series at a refurbished Yankee Stadium (although Mike Burke who ran the team for CBS did most of the work on that) and had a number of free agent and home grown superstars.

Yes, early on in his ownership and up to his second suspension in ’90 he was impatient and short-sighted. Upon his return in ’93, his demeanor was different, but he had the same goal- to put on the field a team Yankees fans could be proud of.

Some claimed that through his ways, Steinbrenner ruined baseball. In my view, the other owners who chose not to put money into their ballclubs ruined baseball. By not fielding competitive teams, the other owners hurt the game and their fans.  Meanwhile, Steinbrenner’s drive to win led him to bankroll several winning teams for his fans (to say nothing of the millions he paid in luxury taxes to bankroll those teams whose owners spent little.

Regardless of his methods, Yankees fans always knew Steinbrenner demanded excellence. But more importantly, around the time of his second suspension he gained another trait that would endear him to Yankees fans when he returned: a sense of humor.  This could be seen as early as the fall of 1990, when he hosted Saturday Night Live.  In one skit, he played a Carl, a convenience store manager who had personnel issues:

Carl: It’s just I can’t.. I can’t fire people, it’s not in my nature.

Pete: You can’t keep saying that. If an employee isn’t delivering what you expect of them, you have to fire them!

Carl: Why? Where is it written if you don’t get results right away, you fire people? What kind of asinine policy is that?

Pete: Carl! It’s just good business!

CarlThat’s where you’re wrong! It’s not good business! You can’t have people worried all the time that they’ll be fired if they make one mistake. That’s lunacy! Only a jackasswould run his business that way!

Pete: Carl, this is the way it works: an unsatisfied owner fires people!

Carl: A stupid owner! A stupid, arrogant, shortsighted owner. The kind of guy who blames everybody but himself! How would you like it everytime something went wrong, I just blamed you, the supervisor, huh? Let’s just fire the supervisor! Then I’ll hire some other guy, and something would go wrong and I’d fire him, and I’d probably rehire you!Then fire you again, bring in someone else, then fire him and rehire you again! Then fire and hire, back and forth until the whole thing’s just a big joke! Is that the kind of owner you want? Some yammering nincompoop in a fancy suit? No way you take that road, ’cause before you know it, you’ll probably be banned from running the entire company.

-from snltranscripts.jt.org

Through things like his SNL stint, the infamous Sports Illustrated cover (above) and other appearances in movies and television, George showed he had loosened up.  And even if he still had some issues with his managers in the ’90s, by now he was an owner that fans could embrace.  I mean how could you hate a guy who would do this for a Yankees commercial:

And if nothing else, George Steinbrenner kept George Costanza employed for more than four years.

Thanks again George.

The Voice

Back in the late nineties when I attended Yankees games on a quasi-regular basis, the Stadium took on the most peculiar echo during the reading of the Yankees’ starting lineup.  Bob Sheppard, who at that point had been the Stadium’s announcer for more than 40 years, would read the lineups.  During his pauses, most of the male fans in attendance (myself included) along with a few creative beer vendors would repeat the announcement, trying to mimic Sheppard’s distinctive voice and the specific order of each spot in the lineup (batting fourth, the Centerfielder, number fifty-one, Bernie Williams, number fifty-one).  But no matter how hard the crowd tried, there was only one Bob Sheppard.

Today, the Yankees announced that Bob Sheppard, who stopped announcing at the Stadium three years ago, died at home.  At the end, he announced games at the Stadium for 56 years, not to mention years as the PA announcer for the New York (football) Giants and several other NY-metro area sports teams.

In the last 10 years or so, announcers at minor league (and unfortunately) major league stadia have been going too over the top in their introductions, sounding more like they’re announcing the main event of WrestleMania than a baseball game.  But Sheppard didn’t follow the trend.  Sheppard announced each players’ name as the individual player wanted it to be announced.  Marty Noble has a great article on MLB.com about Sheppard’s fastidiousness and how he brought life to the words coming out of the speakers at Yankee Stadium.

All I can say is that when I went to the New Stadium last year for a game, the thing that bugged me the most about the new place was that Sheppard wasn’t there.  The team will still be the Yankees, and the new Stadium is their home.  But there was only one Bob Sheppard.

Mowing It Old School

Thanks to all the rain we’ve gotten recently, until tonight, my lawn has gone un-mowed for more than two weeks.

Because it was clear, cool and I had some time, I decided to mow tonight.  When I mow, I usually like to listen to something other than the whirring of the blades.  But I had a problem.  Usually, I’d use not-so-trusty phone, an LG VU as a music player (playing music is one of the few things the phone does well if you ignore the eternity it takes to load the music program).  But the cord that I use to link my headphones to the micro-USB slot broke.

Fortunately, I had a trusty backup that I had unearthed in the basement earlier this week: a Walkman cassette player.  I had gotten this particular Walkman sometime back when I was in high school (mid-90s) but haven’t used it at all this century.  Fortunately, all it needed were some new batteries and a tape.  I found a tape I had recorded off the radio from my junior and senior years of high school.  The tape contained songs like Undone, Buddy Holly, Einstein on the Beach, Allison Road, New Age Girl, Come Out and Play and Basket Case (most of which are also on my phone).  Also on the tape was a radio call from a May 8 1994 game between the Yankees and Red Sox in which Danny Tartabull, Mike Stanley and Gerald Williams went back-to-back-to-back (and as John Sterling likes to add “belly-to-belly-to-belly”).

The thing that struck me was during this time period, for music, I’d listen to WPST, a station out of Trenton, even though (for the most part) I lived in Staten Island, New York.  For the most part, the New York stations were too poppy and PST played mostly alt-modern rock type stuff.  Of course, these days, PST has gone through a major format change (and moved frequencies) and isn’t something I’d even listen to today.

It was weird having to switch sides on the tape (and even fast-forward physically through some commercials).  Because of the tape format, some of the songs (especially the Weezer songs I’ve heard thousands of times) seemed a bit slow.  But overall, it was an entertaining mowing session and I’ll probably use the Walkman again in the future.

I should mention that the Walkman isn’t the only ancient piece of equipment I used today.  This is our mower:

Griffey Couldn’t Beat The Yankees This Time

April 30, 1998
Yankees 9, Mariners 8 (10 innings)

As a Yankees fan in the mid-nineties, there was one team I detested more than all others.  It wasn’t the Red Sox, the team’s historical rivals.  Nor was it the Blue Jays, who ruled baseball in the earlier part of the decade.  But rather, it was the Seattle Mariners, who beat the Yankees in heartbreaking fashion in the ’95 AL Division Series.  And on the Mariners, there was one player who I hated/feared more than all others: Ken Griffey, Jr. who destroyed the Yankees in that five game series in ’95 and always seemed to do damage whenever he was up to bat.  Besides, as an obnoxious Yankees fan, I felt Griffey was overrated, while my team’s Centerfielder, the less-flashy, but equally (if not more so) laid back Bernie Williams was underrated.

Well, earlier this week, Griffey announced his retirement.  He put up some great numbers in his day (cleanly, I might add), will surely make the Hall of Fame and while I can respect him and what he’s done, I still dislike him.  Once an obnoxious Yankees fan, always an obnoxious Yankees fan.

I remember one game in particular where, if I had not been an obnoxious Yankees fan, I would have appreciated his offensive abilities.  Unfortunately for me, he put up a few runs early on in this game.  But in the end, the Yankees somehow managed (in thrilling fashion) to defeat the hated Mariners and Griffey’s awesome display of power didn’t really matter that much.

The date was Thursday April 30, 1998.  The Yankees were wrapping up the first month of what would be their greatest season ever (or at least of my lifetime).  I was wrapping up my junior year of college.  My roomate Jon (the convert) and I should have been working on a group project for one of our classes.  Instead, we decided to head to The Stadium with our suitemate Royce to catch a Yankees game before finals started.  Because it was a mid-week game, the Stadium wasn’t near being sold out and we managed to get seats in the lower level on the third base side.

David Wells, who was erratic early on in the ’98 season started for the Yankees.  He gave up four runs in six innings, two of them to Griffey, who hit two home runs (with future Yankee Alex Rodriguez adding his own home run).  Despite the fact that the Mariners struck first, the Yankees showed up to play, with the lead see-sawing back and forth until it was 7-4 Yankees going into the eighth.  In the eighth, Mike Stanton gave up four runs, before Darren Holmes (“that young man from Colorado,” who seemingly was behind a number of Yankees losses early in the season) shut the Mariners down.  The game went into extra innings thanks to a Tim Raines solo shot in the bottom of the ninth.

Mariano Rivera quieted the Mariners in the top of the tenth.  In the bottom of the inning, Tino Martinez singled in Chuck Knoblauch to seal a win for the Yankees, sending the crowd home very happy.  Despite Griffey’s two home runs, the Yankees came out on top.  Griffey would only be in the league for another season and a half and the Mariners never really again struck fear into the hearts of Yankees fans.

As Griffey put up Hall of Fame numbers, our Centerfielder won four World Series rings.  I’d rather have Williams’ career.  But then again, I’m an obnoxious Yankees fan.

Goodbye Mr. Fat [Poster] Toad

This weekend, The Civee and I cleaned out our basement.  Sadly, I had to dispose of this:

Typhoon Irabu Poster

The image quality is horrible because I took the picture in the basement.

Yes, it was framed.  Sadly, it suffered some major water damage, but that’ll happen to things left leaning up against a basement wall.

Back in my single days, this looked pretty cool on my wall.  Of course, three years ago, it was more of an ironic statement than an item promoting a baseball superstar.

Or Typhoon, if you will.

For the life of me, I could never understand why they didn’t sell items (be they posters or name-and-number t-shirts) with the player’s name written in Japanese.  Even though he’s no longer a Yankee, I’d still like a Hideki Matsui Yankees name-and-number t-shirt with “松井 秀喜” instead of “Matsui” over the 55.  And I have two Irabu t-shirts, but both of them are in English.

Oh well, one can always hope they take that marketing approach with the Yankees’ next Japanese superstar.

Till then, I’ll keep myself amused with other things I find in my basement.

Twenty-Seven!

The 2009 baseball season is over and the New York Yankees have won it all.

My first instinct is to say that all is right in the world. That with this victory, the new house feels like a home. But there’s more than that. While the 98-99-00 championships were great, this year’s championship is the first after many years of having great seasons, but underwhelming (or in the case of last year, no) postseasons.

This whole season, as a Yankees fan, was an exciting one.  You have the new ballpark, imports Burnett, Sabathia, Teixiera and Swisher, all of the come from behind and walkoff wins.  And then in the post season, the Yankees dispose handily of Minnesota, vanquish the longtime foes from Anaheim, Los Angeles California and finish it all by beating the defending champions.

As someone who was at the game the last time they won a series in The Bronx, this one definitely feels good.  I’m going to enjoy this.

And I’ll try convincing The Civee that Hideki is a suitable name for a boy.

Great Win, Ugly Caps

It’s nearly November and the World Series hasn’t even started yet.

At least the ALCS is over, with the Yankees finally taking a postseason series from the Angels. It was a long series and I’m glad it’s over.

Watching the postgame coverage though, my thoughts aren’t of the Phillies or the awesome performances of Sabathia and Rodriguez, but rather the ugly AL champion caps the Yankees had.

So now it’s on to the World Series. Here’s hoping the Yankees can wrap things up by Thanksgiving.

The Game's The Thing

I’ve had a conversation similar to the following each of the past four Fridays:

Random Person: So you watchin’ the game this weekend?

Me: I’m going to watch all three of them (insert comments about the Yankees’ opponents or how they fared over the past few days).

RP: Yeah, it’ll be a…wait…what?

In most instances, the random person who I’ve encountered in the elevator, or while out to lunch is talking about the local college football team.  I’m not.  And I don’t care about football, much less the local team.

As I’ve previously mentioned, some of these fans use the phrase “go bucks” to start, end and punctuate sentences.  Even suggesting that their team doesn’t factor into my weekend plans totally throws them off track, and in some cases, has been responded to with outright hostility.

Not that I care.  I just think it’s fun to mess with them.  Once baseball season is over though, I’m going to have to change my tactic.

I have to admit, the football game does factor into my weekend plans slightly.  Often, it’s the best time to go out and do something, whether it be shop or eat, as a  majority of the city is distracted. As long as I’m doing anything but watching their game, I’m happy.

Breaking Up The Days of Greatness

Since aught-five, the last weekend in March/first weekend in April has been a time of celebration here in the Kingdom.

Dubbed by some as the Days of Greatness, one of those weekends for the past five years has seen WrestleMania that Sunday night with Major League Baseball’s Opening Day the following day (sometimes both occasions end up on the same day, but I won’t complain).

Well, it looks like the proximity of the two events has gotten too big for the world to handle, as next year, the two are slated for separate weekends.  WrestleMania 26 will be March 28, with Opening Day scheduled for the following week.  Of course, this is based on MLB’s preliminary schedule, so there’s still chance that could change (and if it does, I’ll never again call Bud Selig the sport’s worst commissioner ever).

While I’m disappointed that WrestleMania and Opening Day will not be held the same weekend, I have to admit that of all the years for this to happen, this isn’t going to bug me that much.  I have something else going on early next April.