One Yankee Fan Purports to Speak For Millions of Other Yankee Fans

How often can you say this: whew, what a Monday!

First, we got Big Leadeded. Always a thrill to check that morning roundup and see our blog's humble name among those cool enough to make the cut. And if anyone reading this is new, as in, you hadn't seen us before yesterday and were somehow motivated to return this morning, we appreciate it. Poke around a little bit. If you don't like what you see, go to one of our links. I guarantee you might enjoy us or someone we plug.

Second, we got into a couple reasonably bitter comment fights. For the second time in two weeks we squared off against some angsty Padres fans, in addition to exchanging words with a couple of Simmons supporters in the post that was linked on The Big Lead. What can I say; I'm not exactly proud of how often we get into these nerdy wars of words... but they're still fun anyways. Hey, what's the point of living in your parents' basement if you can't anonymously argue with other people living in their parents' basements?

Third, longtime FireJay reader, interviewee, and whipping boy Jeff Pearlman had this to say about the Yankees, their season, and how their fans (supposedly) perceive the way things went down in 2007:

When did a baseball season in New York become solely about the finish line, and not about the journey? How can a team that clawed its way out of a 14½-game hole be deemed a failure for falling to a team -- the Cleveland Indians -- that features two of the league's top five starting pitchers? Do the memories of Alex Rodriguez's 54 home runs and Chien-Ming Wang's 19 wins and Derek Jeter's steely determination and Joba Chamberlain's meteoric rise fade to ashes without a diamond-studded ring?

Is this who we are?

Is this what we've become?

Yes, I know plenty of ink has been spilled on this topic. But Jeff's angle interested me because of an email I received from FireJay tipster/reader Tom E. In Tom's words:

Of course, the “voice of the fans” is a ploy that Pearlman did not invent. Many columnists use it to express disapproval without admitting that they are the ones who are doing the disapproving. I suppose that claiming that the fans are upset allows them to avoid directly confronting the coaches and players they are skewering.

In my house, where three die-hard Yankee fans reside, we certainly were disappointed by the Cleveland series, but we also took pleasure in what we thought was an exciting season with a great comeback and an influx of exciting young players. And watching closely on TV, I didn’t get the sense that the fans at the game were anything but supportive. The gross generalizations that claim to have insight into how millions of people feel about a team and its season are weak, at best.

Tom: thanks for the insight. I certainly and obviously appreciate it. Now let me basically restate what you said in my own less articulate terms.

Whoa whoa whoa. Listen. I'm no Yankee expert, but this is mildly suspicious to me. Maybe that's how Steinbrenner feels about your boys. Maybe he feels that anything less than a championship is automatically a failure, regardless of circumstances (like being fifty games out in May or whatever it was). But here's the question- do many/most/all Yankee fans feel that same way? You never say for certain that that's the case. Meanwhile, the impression I get from interacting with a large number of Yankee fans on the web (besides just Tom) is that most of them feel the season was definitely a success. At the very least it wasn't a failure. The number that want to see Choke-Rod resigned, as well as the number that want to see Joe Torre brought back, speak volumes to that end. So who's setting the standards... millions and millions of devoted fans, many of whom are mature adults with well developed decision making capabilities? Or a crusty old bastard of an owner who's never been famous for is rationality? I'm just saying is all.

Anyways hopefully our week ends up being as exciting as I promised. Thanks for checking in and be sure to tune in frequently lest you miss out on a sissy-ass comment fight.