Frontpage Features

BY BILL LEEMAN

I like tradition.  
Tradition is steeped in rites and rites are the hallmark of a civilization.  

It has always been the tradition to host the opening game of the baseball season in Cincinnati, usually on a Wednesday afternoon.   So when I heard that this year the first game would be played  between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday night, I got my curmudgeon on, and started to grouse.

When I clicked on the TV  to watch, it took all of about 2 seconds to get into it, and get into it big.  

You know, after a long winter break, the first time you see that grass, the first time they're playing one for real, when you feel that electricity, well, there's nothing like it.   It's damned exciting, period.  Watching on my big HD TV almost felt like I was in the stadium.    And it didn't hurt a bit that it was the Yankees and Red Sox, in an absolutely GREAT game.   Why, it felt almost like a the playoffs, and here it was the first game of the year.    How satisfying to see the lead go back and forth, what a pleasure to watch two of the best lineups in baseball duke it out against some of the best pitchers.   And how gratifying to see the almighty Yankees go down, and to see the big lug from Vallejo take a loss in the process.

Of COURSE I'm pulling for the Sox (...and anyone else who's playing the Yankees).   I'm a fan.   A baseball fan.   Now, there is a small distinction I want to make here, and it is this:   There are fans, there are baseball fans, and then there is: The Yankee Fan.  

And I think The Yankee Fan, more than any other factor, is why we love to see them fall.    

It isn't necessarily the trainloads full of C-notes that the Yankees rain down on the players, it isn't necessarily that the odds are always stacked in the Yankees favor, it isn't even the fact that their throwaways would be starters on most teams.   No, it isn't any of these.  It is the smugness of The Yankee Fan.   The patronizing, sanctimonious, sneering which, combined, go into building the kind of poor character that only money can buy.

When the Yankees lose, The Yankee Fan doesn't understand what it is that happened.  The Yankee Fan always looks to the Yankees, as in, "What did we do wrong?"   Because they cannot comprehend being beaten by another team.  The Yankee Fan is not capable of giving credit to another team for beating them.   And that is why it is so satisfying to see them go down.   Oh, what fun.  

It's probably not fair to condemn every Yankee fan, I mean they're not all sanctimonious.   Some are merely condescending.

But enough about the Yank-wads.

I was talking about opening day.    Several great things happened, included our fabulous Tim Lincecum, who really didn't seem to have it that together during spring training, was in total command as he shut down the Astros for seven innings.  Not only that, but the Giants got 10 hits and scored 5 runs off their old nemesis, Roy Oswalt.  

Of course, when you look around the league on opening day, the Phillies scored 11 runs, and the Cards did too, with Pujols homering twice.   The Braves scored 16.  Gives a little perspective to the Giants and their five runs, no?

Other great things about opening day:   Neil Diamond out on the field at Fenway in the bottom of the seventh, singing "Sweet Caroline."    Was that great, or what?   The entire house singing along...  That was something.

Also:  It's so nice to see the flag-wavers out in the Bleachers at the Oakland Coliseum.   Too bad the TV commentators get drowned out by the P.A. system about half the time.  I mean, how bush.   Does Charlie Finley still own that team, or what?

Spring training is nice, and cute, and relaxed, but when they start playing the games for real, under the lights, in the big stadiums, well, this is what it's all about.
Baseball is back.   161 games to go.   Oh, boy!