Living In The Past

It is one year since my late-night, double flat tire adventure in the parking lot of a local Kroger supermarket. Time has passed and wounds have healed, but it's still a hell of a story. You should check out the "Without A Car In The World" post from October 11th of 2005 and enjoy. How's that for resting on your blogging laurels? Lame.

In other Living-in-the-Past news, how about these baseball playoffs? The Detroit Tigers, the Oakland A's, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the New York Mets. Welcome to the mid-to-late 80's everyone! It takes me back. I remember game 6 of the '86 World Series when, on the brink of closing it out, the Red Sox blew the game on an easy-out error and went on to lose the Series to the Mets. That same night, I spent the night at a friend's house and lost 6 teeth. Six teeth!! In one night!!! I was wearing an orthodontic device that finally shoved all my remaining baby teeth out. At once. What a night!

Speaking of the playoffs, my Yankees are out again. It sucks that they completely crumbled, but I think they have made me and every other non-New Yorker Yankee fan free to like the team as much as we want. What do I mean? Allow me to explain...

Whenever it comes up that I like the Yankees, fans of other teams look at me like I have disgusted them and say something like, "The YANKEES? How can you like them? They just buy up all the talent. It's not fair. They are evil!" (I don't think people give this reaction to New Yorkers who are fans. Yankee-haters realize it is natural for them to like the team from their city. And they are afraid the New Yorkers will mug them.)

First of all, if you don't like it, write a letter to the MLB and get them to change the rules. At the moment, everything the Yanks do is completely legal and, if they have the means, they should do everything possible to be competitive. (If you are going to write that letter, by the way, also ask them to standardize field design and size. It makes no sense that fielders have to cover more space in some stadia* than others and that homeruns in some cities are outs in others.)

Now, the Yankees have lost - in grand style, I might add - each of the last six years. They are clearly not tearing everyone else apart. They clearly have not ruined Major League Baseball's competition. The playing field, while not standardized (see parenthetical tirade above), seems to be level. Except, of course, for the Devil Rays. (Sorry Mom and Dad!)

So I don't want to hear it any more. I am a fan of the New York Yankees. They are America's team. They are pride, power, and pinstripes. They are 26-time world champions and, even though they've tried their best to ruin the Greatest Sports Year Ever, they will be back.

*I took Latin for 3 years in high school. I don't recommend doing that, by the way, but I believe stadia might be the proper plural form of stadium. Explaining this would get me beaten up in the Bronx (proper Latin plural for the Bronk). Or maybe mugged.