For just a second there, I think I kind of got being a Yankees fan, but then I stopped caring

I know it's been years but I don't man I just love that picture.

I'm not an especially virulent Yankees hater.  I don't take a particularly strong stance against the Yankees, as stances against the Yankees go.  I do, however, have a lot of problems with Yankees fans.  Not the completely legitimate, from New York, cradle-to-the-grave Yankees fans, because, well, fine.  And I'll give an exemption to anyone with a plausible family tie to Yankees fandom, even, as in, ok you're from wherever but your grandmother from upstate New York is a Yankees fan and you love your grandmother, ok, I get that, fine.  But the Yankees fan of convenience is basically the most loathsome of creatures, in that they have essentially chosen to support power for the sake of power.  It is not inherently fascistic to be a Yankee or to be born a Yankees fan, but it is a clear expression of a totalitarian mind to have willingly and consciously chosen to be a Yankees fan.  You will find me pretty unshakable on this point.

But I work with a guy who I totally like who is also a Yankees fan.  A bit of a tricky case, because he's from Atlantic Canada, and so naturally one would think Blue Jays, except that he's older than that, so you'd think Expos, except he's not, so you'd think Red Sox (we are part of their mlb.tv black out zone, as part of Major League Baseball's plans for nobody to see the teams they could potentially like), but no, Yankees.  I suppose you could just say, well, if everybody around him grew up Red Sox fans, which is entirely plausible, maybe Yankees as a kind of youthful contrarianism or something?  I don't know, I really like this guy, he's great, so I kind of let it slide.  Anyway, me and this other guy -- a third guy, who is actually now a wandering, mournful, teamless Expos fan, and you would know this instantly just by the look on his face whenever he talks about baseball, which is a lot  -- were getting pretty worked up about the prospect of another awesome baseball season, and this Yankees fan friend of ours just wasn't (baseball) feeling it, and we asked why.  "No pitching this year.  No chance."  

And yeah, the Yankees starting five is really a starting two, and unless some 2001 Randy Johnson/Curt Schilling scenario plays out, this will not necessarily be the awesomest of years to be a Yankees fan.  But do you think they'll win less than 90 games?  I'd totally be surprised. But that might only get them third place, though, and you hear it all the time but it's really true: if the Yankees don't win the World Series, that season is truly a failure, because what's the excuse?  They have absolutely no disadvantages, and every conceivable advantage.  So if you're a Yankees fan, and they go on nearly a decade-long dry spell like they totally, totally did between 2000 and 2009, that's absolute misery.  Because there's nobody to blame, nobody external.  The only reason the Yankees ever lose is that they did at least one thing and probably many things horribly wrong.  There is a potential for self-loathing and recrimination in Yankees fandom that I think is probably singular in all of sports, and I honestly felt at least for a moment that it is a misery not to be wished on anyone.

Then I thought about how the Blue Jays haven't won ninety games in eighteen years and pretty much decided that this guy and everyone like him can go to hell.

KS