Here is Posada with Ortiz and Youk rounding third and headed for the plate on a Lowell double...(Photo and caption courtesy of Kurt Busiek)
The strangest thing happened last night. I was watching the Sox with my dad (I try to watch as many games as I can with him and my mother…they’re a lot of fun to watch the games with; it’s almost like being at the park!) and we turned on the Yankees/White Sox game.  Wilson Betemit hit what we found out to be a tie-breaking, pinch-hit, RBI double for the Yankees in the seventh inning – and I cheered. Apparently, my dislike of Ozzie Guillen, currently, outweighs my dislike of the Yankees. Go figure.
Back in 2001, when the “world” was, seemingly, rooting for the Yankees to win the World Series, I rooted for the Diamondbacks. I watched game 7 of the WS with my dad at my side and my sister on the phone and the three of us screamed and cheered and cried (my sister and I cried…yes, we’re a little nutty) because we were so happy the Yankees lost. We never fell into the “the Yankees should win because of 9/11” crap (hello, anyone remember a rally cry for the Mets that year? Didn’t think so.) and were thrilled that the evil Yankees had lost to the “lowly” Diamondbacks. (Up until October of 2004, that Game 7 in 2001 was what I listed as my “favorite baseball moment”. Seriously.)
For years, my father insisted he wouldn’t ever root for the Yankees.  And then, suddenly and without fanfare, he did. Not just last night, but in the games they played against the Rays as well. Apparently, my dad wants the “cool hat” too.
He’ll always “hate” the Yankees (hell, I will too). They’ll always be the “Evil Empire” or whatever other name you choose. (I prefer MFY.) But nowadays, there’s no fear. Hasn’t been since 2004, maybe even 2003. They’ve become a footnote to the new, ultra-successful, Red Sox. It’s a great feeling to scoreboard watch and then realize that you just don’t care AND that it doesn’t matter.
Which is why these quotes from Jorge Posada did nothing but make me laugh and realize how times have changed. For the first time since 1993 (thanks to Mariel for pointing out my goof!) they Yankees are probably not going to make the playoffs. Jorge Posada (Sid the Sloth: credit for the nickname goes to my sister Camille) is out of the rest of the season and it’s the final season at Yankee Stadium. I’m not sure how much worse things could get in Yankee-land. But Sid’s focus is on 2003. Dude still holds a grudge against Pedro Martinez.
“I thought he was going to hit me in the head with a bat after we had the fight and he pushed Don Zimmer,” Posada said. “It was ridiculous. I mean, he throws at Karim Garcia because he’s losing the game. I mean, there’s no class.”
There’s so much wrong with that quote, I don’t know where to start. I’ll just leave it at this: Pedro got charged and tossed the guy charging him to the ground instead of allowing himself to be knocked over. Even Don Zimmer, the guy doing the charging, admitted HE was the one at fault at the time. Someone charges me, I don’t care who they are or how old they are, they’re going down. And I don’t have a pitching arm worth millions of dollars.
Pedro is having none of Posada’s bitchiness and responded today:
“When I pointed to the head, it wasn’t precisely to tell him that I wanted to hit him in the head,” Martinez said. “Nah. He’s a human being, he has a family, and I’m a professional. [The pointing to the head] was because he cursed my mom. I was telling him, ‘I’ll remember that.’ ”
Martinez said Posada should have known better than to insult a fellow Latin’s mother.
“He knows – he’s Latin, as much as he pretends to be American, he’s Latin – that cursing your mom in Latin America will get you into a fight,” Martinez said. “That’s something I would never do to his mom, because she doesn’t play. She’s not on the field. She’s someone you admire and respect, and I didn’t like that.”
Even today, with the Mets in a pennant race, Pedro is more relevant than old Sid, and that seems to be pissing him off.
So while I might not have the deeply burning hatred coming out of my pours for the Yanks these days, every so often one of them reminds me why I always will hate that team…even if I root for them once in a while.
3 comments for “The hate never really goes away…”