Looks Whose Back

When you are growing up as a kid like a lot of things in life, you are sponge absorbing all sorts of things including sports. You pick your favorite teams and the ones you hate usually with some help from your dad guiding you in the right direction. I would like to think my dad did a pretty good job of that by making sure I hated the New York Yankees (including most NYC teams), Kentucky Basketball, and the Dallas Cowboys. When I was younger without my dad's help was bothered by the success of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Looking back on that, I was probably an idiot for dissing Jordan but I rocked a Reggie Miller #31 jersey instead. I just wanted to be different.

Anyways moving on, the reason I bring all this up is because time has come again for me to hate the Yankees. They are the best team in baseball right now after sweeping a four game series from their hated rival Boston Red Sox. We thought that Yankee Stadium was new Coors but the New York pitching proved us wrong this weekend with some dominating pitching performances from AJ Burnett, and CC Sabathia. If Burnett/Sabathia are that good for the rest of the year, I really dont see anyone beating the Yankees when playoff time roll along.

I like when I have a team to root against for no matter what. When the Yankees sucked, it was kind of like my childhood hatred was falling out of flavor due to not really needing to hate the Yanks with that much passion. They were a third place team last year not some world beaters like they had been in the 90s.

The other big thing that helps me hate this New York team is the fact they really dont have any likable guys. Granted, I will always keep CC close to my heart for all his hard for the Milwaukee Brewers and will never forget that season. But other than CC, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter, is there anyone really to like as an average fan of baseball? Sure you respect the likes of Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixiera but they seem to have less of a personally than Biff from Back to the Future.

I hope the Yankees get all the way to the World Series with the media at full tilt and then like the last two times, they were there... New York loses. The Yanks then are just the AL Pennant winners like in 2002 and 2003.

-Charlie.