Friday, February 1, 2008

Best of New York, part deux

Germann has pointed out that I have shamefully neglected to include within the best of New York the immortal NEW YORK YANKEE baseball team. I humbly offer my mea culpa and wish to send you now to the official website of the BRONX BOMBERS, where you can check to see how many hours, minutes and seconds remain until pitchers and catchers report, get news on the new additions to the roster and progress on the new-and-improved Yankee stadium, plus buy official Yankee gear, of which I must have an entire roomful by now. I realize we are operating in a Seattle Mariners environment, but their fans should look at this historically...there is not a more storied American sports team, with the possible exception of the Boston Red Sox, than the Yankees. You need to know about the Yankees if you are interested in New York, because a passion for the Yankees might be the only unifying factor in the city besides the mania to make money...every immigrant group has its own TV station and its own Yankees beat reporter. It was quite a shock in December to see even Russian-speaking public access TV speculating on the team's chances in 2008. And Yankee baseball caps are a cultural statement, both here and abroad...the coolest people worldwide are in NYY headgear.

And then there's the civic chauvinist factor: New York is great, New York should always win, GO YANKS!

I wish to point out that the METS don't figure into this calculus, because they are not Manhattan, they are the SUBURBS. Plus, they are parvenus, only on the scene since the l960s. It would be unthinkable to root for them.

1 comment:

german said...

yes indded who could root for them since they ahave only been in existence since 1962 and opened with the immortal casey stengel as manager and now have the willie randolph at the helm seems like they like pinstripes after all. have you heard that they maybe moving back to the bums old haunt somewhere in brooklyn?