Old, tired, and sick of it

I finally became a fan in 1967, I believe it was. It was not a great time for the Yankees, but I had no first-hand experience to really understand that. So, I watched the games whenever an Albany TV station deigned to show one, always on the weekends, and I listened to almost all the rest on my transistor radio thanks to WSNY (was it?) in Schenectady, the home of the Polish Program every Sunday--a polkafest my dad never missed.

So this edition of the Sunday News, which dad subscribed to (providing one of my tenuous connections to the Big City, where I ended up living for 40 years), broke my Catholic schoolboy heart. The Mick. Quitting. The one real bright spot on a dismal team, along with Mel. 

I had come to sports a lot later than the other kids and did not exactly have any skill sets to speak of, so I ended up being the "Official Pitcher" a lot of times in neighborhood softball games. I pitched for both teams, never batted, and thereby earned the nickname "Mel," which hung on for a few years.

The Yanks weren't good, as you know, because most of you lived through that era, too. But I stuck with them, admiring Mike Burke's long sideburns and flare-bottomed windowpane suits when he showed up (groovy, man). I figured they eventually had to get better, which they did. It took 10 years before they won it all, and I was shocked to see that a number of Yankees were really, really good. Who knew?

Of course, by then I was at the tail-end of my college haze, and I don't remember much of the season. There were drugs to be found and music to be heard, and baseball became a side interest to some degree.

But I have kept following the Yankees, even when they sucked, and Mattingly was the bright light that saw me through the dark times. The late 90s were a miracle. Finally, the dynastic team that I had never known.

And it's been downhill ever since. In the face of failure, the management's attitude has been sickening. Fuck, CBS cared more about this team than the three-headed monster that runs it now.

None of this is news, insightful, or edifying in any way, shape, or form. But what a shitty way to slide into old age, and the limited years therein. Just another huge disappointment in a world that's devolved into nothing but a huge--and frightening--disappointment.

The Yankees are a shitshow that accurately reflects the larger shitshow we live in. The troika are a lot like our so-called leaders. They're doing it all right out in the open, blatantly lying about it, with no accountability whatsoever.

Living in Germany is not helping. It's all too deep in my bone marrow.