Tough Stretch for Yankee Fans

10/28/07

An open letter to Yankee fans.

Dear Yankee Faithful,

Before I begin, you must know I come with a bitter hatred for your organization from top to bottom, which includes you as an incredibly obnoxious, uneducated fan base.

However, as a Mets fan, I can't talk right now about my own ball club, although nobody seems to care much about us anymore with all the headlines you're team has been making, and for all the wrong reasons.

Tonight I pity you. I really do. Over the last few weeks you have:

-Been embarrassed in losing a best of 5 series to the Cleveland Indians.
-Fired one of the most beloved managers in the history of New York Sports.
-Saw the Red Sox come back from 3-1 down to defeat those same Indians which gave you so much trouble.
-Had the (soon to be named) American League MVP, and arguably the best player in the sport opt out of his contract, leaving millions on the table in search of millions more.
-Saw your bitter rivals then go on to sweep the Rockies in the World Series, giving them more championships (2) than post season series victories (0) since blowing that 3 games to none lead in 2004.

Yankee fans, my heart goes out to you.

Losing Torre may end up being the biggest blow, despite the fact many would argue that losing stray-rod hurts more. From a personnel standpoint, Alex Rodriguez is a player you simply cannot replace. His run production is off the charts and unless you have a way of plugging Albert Puljos into your line up, you're gonna miss him. A lot.

However, Joe Torre is somebody that I can undoubtedly promise you is going to be missed. Making 12 consecutive post seasons was anything by automatic. The talent (and payroll) was always there, but somebody had to make sure it all fit together and performed. And Joe Torre, for all his faults, was able to do that to the sound of 4 championships, 6 pennants, 10 division crowns and 12 CONSECUTIVE playoff berths.

Whether its Donnie Baseball, Joe Girardi or Tony Pena, they have big shoes to fill. Not that I'm an expert or anything, but to save face after the Torre dismissal, Mattingly is the "True Yankee" choice, but the right fit is Girardi. He has experience (although only a year) but can handle young players and especially young pitchers, something the Yankees finally seem to have a few of.

But right now, I can relate if things seem like they are slowly spiraling out of control. But worry not because you are the mighty Yankee, the evil empire. You will go out and rebuild. Hopefully for your sake (and I believe you will) Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte are resigned (money shouldn't be an issue with A-Rod saying bye).

For the immediate future, we can commiserate together as our misfortunes have gotten the best of us. But that beautiful thing about this beautiful game is that February is only 3 short months away, and before we know it pitchers and catchers will be reporting.

Until then, hang in there, because as we say in Flushing, theres always next year.

Or the year after that.


Sincerely,
Adam Fier
Disappointed Mets fan 12 years and counting...(hey- thats almost ironic...almost.)