Mockery from a Redsock fan (Someone must pay for this)

I'm posting this locker quote in hopes that Mr. Girardi knows how to use it in his next team meeting.

This came today:

Dear Mr. (el duque),

As I write this, the Yankees are have fallen behind the Cleveland Indians by a score of 22-4, so I realize that this cannot be a happy time for Yankee fans.

I am sure that the run production of the past few games will likely lead wags in the city newspapers to call the new park things like “Steroid Stadium,” and to make fun of the designers and all those who had a role in planning it. But that can be attirbuted to the negativity always present in such publications.

I, on the other hand, am writing to assure you, a Yankee fan, that at least one bright spot has become apparent in the new Yankee Stadium: It is clearly a kinder and gentler place of employment for both the Yankees and their opponents.

Even today, as the Yankees are being drubbed by the Indians, there are none of the boos that have terrorized underperforming Yankees of the past. Hitters swing at nothing, pitchers serve up home-run balls, and fielders look like juggling acts, and yet… and yet, the fans are remaining decorously silent.

It is a scene that I am certain will warm the hearts of baseball fans everywhere, and should make Yankee fans, often known best in the past for their accuracy when aiming AA batteries at opposing players, proud of themselves.

Clearly, those who can afford seats in the new ballpark are cut from a different cloth. For them, issues like Wall Street performance, the brands of cars they can afford to drive, and perhaps even their families, are far more important than the outcome of a game, a series, or even a season.

These are people who understand that baseball is, after all, just a game, and that the sun will rise tomorrow even if the Yankees are buried so deeply in the basement that they will be unable to catch so much as a glimpse of it.

I am sure, too, that opposing ballplayers have noticed that in the new Stadium, instead being seen as the enemy, to be ridiculed, jeered, and even thrown at, they are seen for what they are: visitors who deserve the respect of their hosts.

I for one applaud this change, and am convinced that it will last for many years to come. In fact I am sure that this new civility will last for as long as the new Yankee Stadium stands.

And to that, I can only say “bravo.”

Bill

*
Dear "Bill,"

Thank you for your hurtful comments. It's always refreshing to read thinly-veiled sarcasm, when it can be so artfully applied to the Yankox rivalry.

Unfortunately, I believe you misunderstand the bottomless depth of the Yankiverse. Unlike Fenway, where the fans are named Meghan and Zac, our fans actually have no names. They have numbers. Big numbers. And though they not be accurate in the hurlings of their AA batteries, they don't mind paying $100,000 for a bad seat, because the money will go to buying the next Redsock player who measures up.

Unfortunately, it looks as though you boy, Jacoby Ellsberry, will not make it. I do, however, think he has a future with Disney, as long as High School Musical sequels are still selling.

Good luck with Big Pappi. Tell him Mo Vaughn says hi.

el duque