Posted on 10/23/2004 10:27:51 PM PDT by alydar
WATCHING WEDNESDAY night's stunning Red Sox victory in a New York bar full of Boston fans, a friend turned to me and said, "You know what the Yankees have in common with John Kerry? A nasty sense of elitism and entitlement!"
This friend is the editorial page editor of a big New York newspaper, but he's an unabashed Red Sox fan. He wears his baseball cap around the newsroom and sows discontent among his staff. ("I can't wait till the season is over, so he'll stop," one of his colleagues groaned to me.) So he may be a little mental. But in the case of John Kerry and the Yankees, he's right.
Now, I don't follow sports and I have been known to root for both teams during any given competition. But it did strike me as pathetic that many Yankees fans were actually physically ill on Wednesday, stocking up on Imodium and Pepto Bismol, disgusted that they had been forced into a seventh game, and sick with worry they wouldn't win yet another World Series. Yankee fans feel that they own the World Series, after all, and they feel the need to continue owning it.
The same "ownership" mentality exists in the mind of John Kerry, who is so elite and far-removed from the unwashed masses that his favorite Red Sox player is some guy the rest of us have never heard of: Manny Ortez.
Kerry's owned his senatorial seat in Massachusetts for 22 years, and it must make him sick that in order to ascend to the Presidency, he's in the fight of his life to defeat a marble-mouthed cowboy who's been in elective office since only 1994 — and from a banana republic of a state that sometimes thinks of itself as a national entity separate from the rest of the United States. Oh, the disgrace of it all!
There's a presumption that if you are an educated, urbane person walking down the street in an East Coast city, you will of course be a John Kerry fan (and in New York and certain other environs, a Yankee fan as well).
I've traveled from Maine to Virginia this October, and in every town someone wearing a Democratic National Committee jacket approaches me with a look of familial recognition and a big excited grin and asks if I'd "like to help defeat George W. Bush?" (Rarely do they mention their own candidate, who is too boring to elicit voter excitement.)
At first I'd politely respond, "No thanks," and keep walking. But then I realized that doing that allowed them to keep existing in their elitist vision of America, where all "normal" people hate George W. Bush.
Maybe they think I turned them down because I'm a safe female Democratic voter, but I'm late for my Botox treatment — akin to the elitist Teresa Heinz Kerry, who sniffed at Laura Bush for not having held a "real job" while raising her twins. Or maybe they think I already gave to Kerry at the last Barbra Streisand tea party.
To dispel such notions and demoralize the elites and explode their warped reality, I've begun taking the time to respond, "No thanks; I'm actually a big fan of President Bush's." (That's only a white lie. Bush disappoints me on lots of policy issues, but I like him just enough to vote for him. Kerry nauseates me.)
The look of stupor on the faces of these volunteers is priceless. Utter shock. One of them, a Manhattan lesbian, recovered in time to try to rattle me by leering, "But you're too cute to be a Bush supporter." I winked, blew her a kiss, and thanked her. It felt great to spoil another Kerry supporter's day.
Twice I was walking with right-wing European friends — one Scottish, the other French — when we were accosted. What delight to watch the horror on the DNC volunteers' faces when Europeans replied with thick accents that they preferred, in the parlance of the Frenchman, "Boosh."
The Yankees — renowned and reviled for their arrogance, glamour, and glitz — finally got their come-uppance Wednesday night. The Red Sox victory could only be the work of the gods. If the cosmos indeed has it out for elitists this season, John Kerry is next.
What? Oh come on this is bull. Look... as a Yankees fan I don't sit around and say "oooohhh we are entitled to win.... "
The Yankees have earned their place in history... and they have players who work their arses off to win.
This year... we lost... and congrats to Boston they deserve to win and it is that simple. Next year... we will get rid of some people (Brown) and we will come back and do everything to kick your arse...
It is that simple... why do you have to compare Kerry to a team that has won more WS than any other is beyond me...
It seems to me that you have a problem with winning... which is a Socialist trait... and I think that sucks...
well said sir!
Yankee fans have no sense of entitlement. They do have an expectation of winning, but no entitlement.
I have been a Yank fan since age 7, 1975. I don't think this article is fair at all.
Peronally, I think it hit the nail right on the head. :P
Haha! Fair enough! In any event, may the best team win!
Yeah I think it sucks. Look we all want our team to win and this year Boston came back and whooped us. It is that simple. Do I like it? No way... but do anyone of us say we are "entitled" to it? I say "NO!"
We have great players and many of them have the heart to win but in the end... we lost to Boston. As terrible a loss as it was I can only take my hats off to them. They came back from the brink and did it. That is what great baseball is all about and in some small way I am hoping they break the curse.
My friends from Boston act like they have not had sex since 1918 and it drives them to madness... Every year they go nuts explaining why they lost. "Yankees over pay their people... Yankees this and Yankees that..." Ugh... in the end I'm praying they win it just so they shut up about their excuses.
I was at a bar tonight watching my Longhorns and the World Series was on.
A guy next to me asked me who I wanted to win the World Series. I told him the Cardinals because I didn't want to hear Kerry go on and on about how well Fanny Ramirez and Johnny Ramon and all his favorite Red Sox were doing. At the end I tacked on, "that, and I hate yankees."
He laughed (which suprised me-I live on the Westside of LA) and asked me what I meant--the "Yankees" weren't playing.
I said I meant all yankees--everyone from the Northeast (all right, maybe not all, some of them are solid Republican folks). All of the loud, liberal chowder-eating losers in Boston especially.
He laughed.
Yeah, this whole thing about NYY fans thinking they are "entitled" to WS rings is a joke. We understand that we spend bagillions of dollars, and if we don't win, that shows how terribly mismanaged the team has been.
We didn't deserve to win the ALCS because Joe Torre didn't realize that when a knuckle-baller is throwing 60 mph to a catcher unaccustomed to his stuff, the man on first base HAS TO RUN. But Torre had Sheffield stay. And a ground ball to the left side and two passed balls later, the Yankees finally realized that their mistake cost them the game.
Kudos to Boston.
Screw Kerry.
Well they did tonight :). Ive allways kind of been a football fan first though. The sox are just icing on the cake (the cake being the Pats), Who by the way are going to beat up on another New York Team later today. :P
Hehe... that is funny cause we North East "Yankees" Hate the left coasters (all right, maybe not all, some of them are solid Republican folks)
Amen brother...
I agree. The only thing that sucks more than my Yankees right now (and they should all be ashamed of themselves for losing to Boston, period), is that loser John Kerry.
You guys have given us the Kennedy family. . .We gave you Arnold.
You guys gave us John Kerry and Michael Dukakis. . . We gave you Nixon and Reagan.
We're way ahead. But I appreciate that there are conservatives in beantown and all across the Northeast. Those folks are fine by me. They're just swamped with Northeastern liberal crappola.
'we will get rid of some people (Brown)'
.........A broken down 39 years old with nothing left and one more year on his contract for a cool 15 mil? He's going nowhere.
(I don't necessarily agree with the comments in this article!)
Well... how about giving us California electoral votes hmmm??? What??? Not even close?? Well at least NJ is close this year... I will try and deliver...
We'll make him an offer he can't refuse...
I'm neither a Yankee or Sox fan, but I respect both.
I'm still pining away for the return of my "Big Red Machine" of the 70s.
That said, any fan who is passionate about the game, and a loyal fan, has my respect.
By the way, I'm also a diehard Bengals fan. (insert joke here...LOL). And my Buckeyes are having a rough start this year.
Winning is great, but team loyality is better.
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