What's Wrong With the Yankees?

A-BENCH for A-Rod! LOL!

The New York Yankees are mere moments away from their third game against the Tigers in Detroit for the American League Championship, and I am conflicted. I am conflicted because the Tigers are leading the series two games to none, and I expected this to be a lot closer and compelling.

Dozens of my friends are fans of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox; the two most prominent baseball franchises since the Strike of '94, if not in all of baseball. The former, in particular, gets the most exposure, television coverage, postseason accolades, individual awards, and notable players. The late George Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees from CBS in 1973 for a ridiculous seventeen million dollars; according to the March 30th edition of Bloomberg Businessweek, the Bronx Bombers' franchise value is $2.85 billion. The Yankees even have a television channel devoted to showing Yankee games all the time o_O

What I Do Hate About The Yankees: Nick Swisher and his constant, over-the-top celebrations for EVERYTHING!

Many dudes call in to the local sports radio show in Toronto, and argue for a salary cap in baseball, but only in the rarest of rare cases are those dudes Yankee fans. The team you despise the most is usually the one with the deepest pockets, are always on television (see Dallas Cowboys), have the best players (see Los Angeles Lakers), are constantly building on their illustrious history (see Manchester United), or have one of the biggest trophy cases in all of professional sports (see New York Yankees...oh wait!). There are loads of us "Yankee Haters" that would love nothing more than to see the New York Yankees suffer in grandiose style. However, for me anyway, to actually watch it happening is kind of sad.

To their credit, none of the Yankees make excuses for the lack of offensive output (maybe A-Rod). Offence is sexy, exciting, intimidating, and puts fans in the seats; since the days of the Babe and Joe Dimaggio, Yankee Nation takes pride in their team for its offensive prowess and defensive artistry (see The Flip).

Something Else I Hate: The Yankees lose two games, and all of a sudden there are parallels to 1996. Totally different team (2012 is not 1996), more money, Twitter, this is the ALCS (not World Series), and they are playing the Tigers (not Atlanta Braves).

A-SMILE for A-Rod! LOL wait, what?

The perfect setup would be for the Yankees to reach the penultimate stage, and blow it in true "Red Sox style" fashion. If they had an eighty-six year history of failure and jinxes, I would be the happiest Blue Jays fan in the world. The game of baseball would be better for it, without question! However, for the sport to be compelling and dramatic as it is, we need the New York Yankees to be the actual "New York Yankees" of old. That separates our lads from the "evil empire", and the more disdain we feel for the enemy the more love and respect we have for our team. That is systematic for all professional sports, and not just baseball. Hopefully, the Yankees will get some of their magic back against Scott Verlander and the Tigers tonight, so we can see the Bronx Bombers blow it in game seven! What?

It must feel good to be a Detroit Tiger player though; that team flew right under the radar, and are playing loose as a goose!

(All images and video are property of Major League Baseball. You may also notice a reduction in links to sites such as Wikipedia or YankeesBaseball.com for team information; all you need to do is ask a Yankees fan, and they will tell you everything you need to know about the Yankees.)