Despite being a Jets fan, I've been blessed as a sportsfan. I grew up in a baseball split house. My mom, sister, and I were Yankee fans while my pop and brother were Met fans. But neither side hated the other team so we used to go to both Yankee and Met games all the time. Because of that, my first great sports memory was the dissapointment of the 1976 Yankee World Series loss to the Reds. It's more of an emotional memory than remembering events. I remember the dissapointment of my family. Then 1977 and the great penant race of '78, which both culminated in Yankee championships. I was also able to celebrate the Mets' triumph in 1986, unfortunately, their last championship.
Since I've been following baseball I've got to celebrate 8 championships in my lifetime (8 Yankee titles and 1 Mets). That's more than I could ever ask for. That has balanced out the annual heartbreak of the Jets (who went from laughing stock to perennial contender) and the embarrassment of the Knicks under the stewardship of the Scourge of New York Sports, the second worst owner in the history of this town, James Dolan (he's not 1st only because the worst owner committed outright fraud to buy the Islanders and ended up in jail because of it. Yes, Dolan only fell to No. 2 because someone else was a criminal).
Now another postseason for the Yanks is upon us, the 20th in my lifetime. Amazing considering the Yanks missed the posteason for 13 straight years. This is a tough matchup in the first round against the Detroit Tigers, who I think is the best team in the American League. I'll be rooting hard as I always do, but at the same time I'm eternally grateful for the wonderful memories I have of championships past.
No comments:
Post a Comment