Love vs. Respect

Some times topics just come to you for no reason and no relation to anything going on at the time.

You can respect someone with out loving them and probably vice versa. To illiustrate this point I am going to use the New York Yankees. The Yankees? Where the fuck did you come up with the Yankees it is not even baseball season. I know, and if baseball doesn't come around soon I am probably going to lose my sanity and my ability to resist the homicidal urges that have been surfacing lately.

For those of you who don't love baseball the way I do, I must tell you that everyone hates the Yankees. Everyone. Except Yankee fans. And we won't even talk about them. If there is a group of people more despised than the Yankees it is Yankees fans.

Hate is a strong word so we will say no one likes the Yankees there is a whole lotta residents of New York C that don't even like the Yankees. The problem with this is that the Yankess ARE baseball. You can't get around it. Can't ignore it.

The Yankees are baseball.

The way The Cowboys used to be football.

And the way The Celtics used to be basketball.

And the way Wayne Gretzky used to be hockey.

Ask any guy, even one that has his head so far up his ass that he doesn't like baseball which Major League Team exemplifies baseball. The Yankees. There is no getting around it. They have more World Series Rings than any other team, and you have to respect that. Which is probably one of the reasons we hate them so much.

I had this conversation with someone when the Yankees came to town a few years ago to play our beloved Cubs because she couldn't understand why it was so important to see the Yankees play at Wrigley. The way they hadn't since 1938.

I still haven't made it to Yankee Stadium but it is on the list. The house that Ruth built. It is those of you who don't know that the Yankees are baseball that don't know why I have to, in my lifetime go to Yankee Stadium. But not before I go visit Fenway Park. The Big Green Monster. Baseball. They way it used to be played. No 'roids. No million dollar contracts. No bullshit. Baseball. Guys who would pitch 40-50 games in a season. Guys who would play for the fans. Guys who would play for the love of the game.