Yankee Fan

I've been a Yankee fan since the 1977 World Series. It's the first baseball I can ever remember knowing about or understanding. The Yankees beat the Royals in the playoffs and then beat the Dodgers in the World Series. The same thing happened the following year. I wanted to know more about baseball and started playing on my small town team that my dad coached. I started collecting baseball cards and my mom got my brother and I each a half box of cards for Christmas. Since the Yankees were the big winners, I tried to collect mostly their cards and wanted to know more about the team. My dad encouraged this since he grew up a baseball fan and a fan of the New York Yankees. His favorite player was Mickey Mantle. I started reading about the players that contributed to the history of the Yankees and Mantle was my favorite, too. I read biographies about Ruth, Maris, Mantle, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and all the rest and wanted to know more about the players of the day like Reggie Jackson, Craig Nettles, Ron Guidry, Sparky Lyle, and Goose Gossage. I knew girls that thought Bucky Dent was the cutest thing and had his poster on their wall. I could mimic the pitching styles of Catfish Hunter, Tommy John, and Luis Tiant.

I've been a New York Yankee fan since those days and have followed them and all of baseball every year since to some degree. They are consistent winners. I've heard all the derision over the years about them paying large salaries and buying up the best players, but people don't seem to understand that you still have to play the games. Also, the Yankees have a huge history of being winners. They have had this history long before George Steinbrenner and his antics. There is a Yankee tradition of excellence that hasn't been matched in baseball. There have been 101 World Series' played since the first in 1903. The Yankees have been in 39 of them. They have won 26. The closest team to that kind of record is the St. Louis Cardinals. They have been in 16 World Series' and have won 9. The Oakland Athletics have won 9 out of the 14 they have been in. It's tradition and the fans expect to win every year. The Yankees have also had the highest run of World Series Championships with 5 in a row. Winning is expected. Isn't this what we teach our children when they learn about life? We expect excellence.

I've been fortunate enough to see a few Major League baseball games in my life. My first was at Busch Stadium watching the Cardinals and Dodgers. Roger Freed hit a 3 run homer to end the game and win it for the Cards. That night must have been his highlight that year because it was on the back of his baseball card the following year. I got autographs from Ron Cey, Boog Powell, Ted Simmons, and Roger Freed. I've seen the Astros play the Cardinals twice. One of those games I sat in the right field stands and watched Nolan Ryan win one for the Astros 4-3, I believe. I've also seen three Royals/Yankees games. I was fortunate enough to see them win two of the three. I got autographs from El Duque and David Cone. Cone signed his baseball card for me as we sat right behind the Yankee dugout and El Duque signed a baseball for me through his bus window.

I own a Yankees cap, a Yankees leather jacket, and over the years I have owned a T-shirt and those plastic hard hats you can get at fairs and such. I also have an autographed baseball from that 1977 team that was sold through Post Raisin Bran with a small plastic stand. I don't have all the baseball cards I had as a kid, but I have a few. I remember selling my Mickey Mantle card. It was tough to part with and I probably shouldn't have. I still have the book "And On The 8th Day God Created The Yankees".

There are bigger fans than me for sure. I'm just an average fan, not a bandwagon fan. I like rooting for winners and enjoying the history of this team as it unfolds. Just thought I'd post a few memories of days gone by with the hope of more to come.