Long time Mets Police readers may recall that I sometimes chat baseball with a friend I call “Mr. Sunshine.”
Sunshine is a Yankees fan. He knows the Yankees will always win and has bought into every last piece of Yankee propganda that bleeds pride and tradition. In Sunshine’s world Johnny Damon was a true Yankee and steroids are things that only happen to other teams.
Sunshine is still convinced Torre will get the ’08 Yankees to the playoffs – something like that. No I didn’t make an error in that previous sentence.
Now that baseball is back so is Sunshine.
Sunshine was asking me about the Yankee ripoff name of the spring training home of the Mets. To me it’s Thomas J. White stadium but perhaps Mr. White was discovered to be a member of Al Qaeda or something and now we have Tradition Field (?). It’s tradition right? Or is that the Yankees’ park? Point conceded to Sunshine.
We also discuss tickets. For about an hour yesterday Sunshine threatened not to renew his Yankee tickets because he wanted to be closer or out in the sun or something. Sure enough he called last night to let me know he’s back in. Yeah, no kidding. Shocker. The new fake Stadium is awesome too.
Sunshine actually has a good deal going because Mrs. Sunshine enjoys the Yankees too and goes with him to games. Every game. She even drives!
Mrs. Mets Police wouldn’t go to Flushing even if I were the starting pitcher, and I’m not kidding because I actually did start a game last September but you were watching Sanchez and missed it. We lost.
Sunshine is one 2 for 4 away from telling me Granderson (is that the new guy?) is a true Yankee. Sunshine will start a 47 year old Jeter and tell me he can still go to the hole.
As Yankee fans go, this one is fun without the usual obnoxiousness. How is the Yankee fan in your life?
Funny stuff.
I actually know a couple of Yankee fans who buck the trend. One is a close friend and colleague. I always find him amusing because he is always convinced that the Yankees are doomed because of some detail or another. While the Yanks were marching to the World Series last year, I think he was throwing his hands up about the last guy out of the bullpen. (This would be akin to crying uncle in 1986 because the Mets were carrying Randy Niemann.) He openly admits he was a Mets fan growing up, so that may explain the incongruous attitude.
Of course, when I think of the Yankee fan, it’s not him I think of. No, I picture the guy who would come out to Shea all decked out in his ghetto Yankee gear (remember when the Yankees wore powder blue jerseys and sideways powder-blue caps? Me neither…) walking around and pointing to the logo and making the “#1” sign… even though the Yankees weren’t even in town. That guy, and all my “friends” who reached out just to let me know that the “Mets suck” last year when the Yankees reached the WS.
The worst are the ones that can see no wrong. Especially when they don’t even really follow the team but still are violently vocal about “Yankees rock!” crap and then don’t know who Brett Gardner is.
I don’t mind a little trash talk, but I prefer after they rub my face in the 8 championships to our 2, that we can at least have an intelligent debate about things like is Hughes able to start, will Granderson hit lefties, etc.