“Yankees Suck, Yankees Suck …”. You’ve heard the chant, you’ve seen the bumper stickers, you’ve seen the t-shirts. What’s the deal with this chant? Even here in Red Sox nation, “Yankees suck” is somewhat of a polarizing issue, with some believing that it’s a sign of solidarity among Sox fans everywhere, while others believe it’s an embarrassment because of what it says about the psychology of the people who endorse it.
But what does “Yankees suck” actually mean? Obviously, the Yankees don’t suck in the performance aspect of baseball. You can’t write a history of baseball without mentioning the accomplishments of this club. Even since the inception of the aforementioned chant, the Yankees have had team success, making the playoffs every year since 1995, and for the most part have conducted themselves in a highly professional manner. So, “Yankees suck” can’t refer to the performance of the team.
What else could it mean? Well, the verb “to suck” has several usages and meanings in colloquial language today. Sucking on a lollipop? That’s probably not what Red Sox fans are referring to either, but one could use the word to describe dismay with a situation such as “that sucks!” I think we’re getting closer to the true meaning now. A Sox fan during the ‘90s might have said something to the effect of “it sucks that the Yankees win all the time” or “it sucks that the Yankees can spend as much as they want to on salaries” or numerous other complaints about the arch enemy. After rattling a few of these complaints off, it’s easy to see how the rabid, irrational Sox fan foaming at the mouth with hatred for his team’s eternal rival descends into “you know what? The Yankees suck!”
So, “Yankees suck” is truly the complaint of a Red Sox fan against the unfairness of the baseball world based on his inferiority complex with the New York Yankees. Of course, this is true in a pre-2004 world only. Since 2004, “Yankees suck” has taken on a new meaning, but in it’s original usage, it was a sign of frustration with the ways of the baseball world. Some of it may even stem from a Boston inferiority complex with New York City. The baseball gods had not treated the Red Sox well for decades and fans took out their displeasure on their most hated and superior rival. “The Yankees win all of the time, we haven’t won a World Series since 1918, therefore the Yankees suck.”
Of course, many Red Sox fans don’t buy into the mantra of “Yankees suck”. For them, they are embarrassed by what “Yankees suck” says about the fan base rather than what it says about the Yankees. For those that like the chant, it seems as if the best thing they can say about the Red Sox is “Yankees suck”. It confirms their obsession with the opponent; an opponent that the fans hate so much because of its continued success which has left their team in a wake of failures. Imagine if American spectators at the Olympics or other international sporting events decided to forego “U-S-A, U-S-A” in favor of “Iran sucks, Iran sucks”. Don’t you think that would be embarrassing? What would that say about our pride for our country? Of course, those who believe in the mantra of “Yankees suck” might think it’s cool. Is the “Yankees suck” crowd too embarrassed to vocally cheer for their team rather than against its detested rival?
Since 2004, “Yankees suck” has taken on a new meaning or purpose because of Boston’s World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. The inferiority complex of the fans has been smashed and now it’s time to stick it to Yankees fans just as they did with their famous chant of “19-18”. Red Sox fans realize that the shoe is on the other foot now and that Yankee fans are the ones questioning their team’s ability to beat Boston. “Yankees suck” is now a put down to New York fans; a reminder that their team is the one who hasn’t won a World Series in a few years.
Other thoughts
· Olympic speed skater Chad Hedrick said after his 10,000 meter race that he probably skated too many events in Torino and that’s why he didn’t have his legs for the 10,000 meters. Do you think he understands why Shani Davis didn’t want to skate in the Team Pursuit now?
· There must be a curse on athletes who star in television advertisements for products. How else to explain the fortunes of competitors like Bode Miller, Lindsey Jacobellis, and Lindsey Kildow? Andy Roddick’s Mojo campaign with American Express was a similar disaster.
· I read recently that Randy Johnson and Jorge Posada have pledged to work together this year. What a relief! These guys are teammates, right? The combination didn’t fare well last year and Johnson ended up pitching many of his games with John Flaherty behind the plate, but Flaherty’s gone now. Posada has his issues with calling pitches and his pride gets injured at times when he is shaken off, but he needs to get over that for the sake of the team. Johnson has to be on top form for this team to have a chance of winning the AL East this season.
· Irony: I recently started reading Buster Olney’s “The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty”. Getting to this book was long overdue and I first opened it while waiting for a physical therapy appointment. The Foreword starts with a look at the 2003 World Series against the Marlins. When I was called for my appointment and began changing into my workout clothes, I looked in the mirror and noticed that I was wearing my Florida Marlins 2003 World Series Champions T-Shirt that I had received for Christmas that year.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Sunday Olympic Edition
Fans of North American hockey have to be a little worried by the events transpiring in Torino in the Olympic Hockey tournament. Both the US and Canada are struggling mightily to score goals and both teams could finish fourth in their pools. Of course, the goal of pool play is to get to the second round and it appears that the Americans and Canadians have done that, but each club could have a tough quarterfinal match-up.
Can these two clubs get it going in the next round? In order for them to do that, they’ll need to start playing with more confidence, especially the Canadians. In their game with Finland today, they were on their heels from the outset as the Finns took control of the contest early and established a 2-0 lead. Canada looked better in the second as they put a lot of shots on net, but very few of them were top quality scoring chances. In the third, the Finns regained control and Canada never really threatened in the last ten minutes of the game.
Is it possible that the Canadians miss the presence of Mario Lemieux in Torino? In 2002, Mario wasn’t a huge factor in the tournament, but his presence seemed to settle the team down. He gave them a natural leader. The 2006 version of Team Canada seems a little lost and they haven’t found their go-to guy yet. In a tournament of this format, it’s not surprising that a team takes a few games to jell together. In 2002, the Canadians lost their first tournament game to Sweden badly by a score of 5-2, yet they still managed to recover from that and win the tournament. Watching this year, one doesn’t get the sense that they can recover in the same fashion.
Team USA is having similar confidence problems, but they are also suffering from a lack of offensive creativity. The team seems to be using the same offensive patterns over and over, and that won’t work against disciplined defensive squads like Sweden. And it certainly won’t work against Finland if they become the Americans’ opponents in the quarterfinals. The US coaching staff is going to have to install some new offense soon or there will be no medal for this team in 2006.
Even with the struggles of the US and Canada, the hockey has been thrilling and the tournament is wide open. We’ve always been a fan of the European style of play and this year the creativity of the Europeans seems to be winning out over the physicality of the North Americans. Perhaps that’s because the Europeans have adapted to that style of play through their immersion in the NHL, thus negating a major part of the American and Canadian strategies.
Other Olympic Thoughts
· How about that interview Melissa Stark did with Shani Davis after he won his speed skating gold medal in the 1000m? Could he have been more belligerent? His terse and short replies were uncomfortable to watch and difficult for Stark to field. Kudos to her for asking him if he was angry? His response that he was happy made him look like a fool. Was Davis trying to make some sort of statement because of his tiff with Chad Hedrick over the Team Pursuit event? Who knows, but his interview performance wasn’t in any way a statement, yet it was a poor reflection on the man himself. He would have been better served by refusing the interview request and maintaining his silence.
· We certainly feel for Lindsey Jacobellis as she will most likely regret making a showboat move that cost her the gold medal in Snow Cross (is that what it is called?), at least until Vancouver comes along. Unlike the Half Pipe Snow Boarding women, Jacobellis comes across as articulate and a genuine athlete, and someone you feel like rooting for. While a lot of attention was paid to her last second gaffe, very little attention was paid to the condition of Canadian snow boarder Maelle Ricker who was carted off the course by the ski patrol. Shockingly, Bob Costas never gave us an update on her condition. As it turned out, she was released from a hospital a few hours after the race with a slight concussion. An example of American provincialism?
· The overall quality, or at least depth, of the figure skating in Torino seems down from past Games. While watching, we don’t get the sense that we are in the presence of greatness. Perhaps Sasha Cohen will change our minds, but she’s never skated flawlessly at a big event. Regardless, this feels like her title to lose.
· Watching Curling makes us feel like it’s never too late to be an Olympian.
· In honor of the Olympics being in Italy, we’re reading “Italian Neighbors” by Tim Parks. It’s an insight into small village life in northern Italy from an Englishman who’s lived in Italy for several years. It makes us wonder if we could adjust to a style of life that is so different to our own. You'll have to read the book to figure out the differences. Two of the funniest sports books I have ever read have also been set in Italy. One of them was by Parks entitled “A Season with Verona”. The other is “The Miracle of Castel di Sangro” by Joe McGinniss. Even if you’re not a soccer fan, these books are worth the read.
Can these two clubs get it going in the next round? In order for them to do that, they’ll need to start playing with more confidence, especially the Canadians. In their game with Finland today, they were on their heels from the outset as the Finns took control of the contest early and established a 2-0 lead. Canada looked better in the second as they put a lot of shots on net, but very few of them were top quality scoring chances. In the third, the Finns regained control and Canada never really threatened in the last ten minutes of the game.
Is it possible that the Canadians miss the presence of Mario Lemieux in Torino? In 2002, Mario wasn’t a huge factor in the tournament, but his presence seemed to settle the team down. He gave them a natural leader. The 2006 version of Team Canada seems a little lost and they haven’t found their go-to guy yet. In a tournament of this format, it’s not surprising that a team takes a few games to jell together. In 2002, the Canadians lost their first tournament game to Sweden badly by a score of 5-2, yet they still managed to recover from that and win the tournament. Watching this year, one doesn’t get the sense that they can recover in the same fashion.
Team USA is having similar confidence problems, but they are also suffering from a lack of offensive creativity. The team seems to be using the same offensive patterns over and over, and that won’t work against disciplined defensive squads like Sweden. And it certainly won’t work against Finland if they become the Americans’ opponents in the quarterfinals. The US coaching staff is going to have to install some new offense soon or there will be no medal for this team in 2006.
Even with the struggles of the US and Canada, the hockey has been thrilling and the tournament is wide open. We’ve always been a fan of the European style of play and this year the creativity of the Europeans seems to be winning out over the physicality of the North Americans. Perhaps that’s because the Europeans have adapted to that style of play through their immersion in the NHL, thus negating a major part of the American and Canadian strategies.
Other Olympic Thoughts
· How about that interview Melissa Stark did with Shani Davis after he won his speed skating gold medal in the 1000m? Could he have been more belligerent? His terse and short replies were uncomfortable to watch and difficult for Stark to field. Kudos to her for asking him if he was angry? His response that he was happy made him look like a fool. Was Davis trying to make some sort of statement because of his tiff with Chad Hedrick over the Team Pursuit event? Who knows, but his interview performance wasn’t in any way a statement, yet it was a poor reflection on the man himself. He would have been better served by refusing the interview request and maintaining his silence.
· We certainly feel for Lindsey Jacobellis as she will most likely regret making a showboat move that cost her the gold medal in Snow Cross (is that what it is called?), at least until Vancouver comes along. Unlike the Half Pipe Snow Boarding women, Jacobellis comes across as articulate and a genuine athlete, and someone you feel like rooting for. While a lot of attention was paid to her last second gaffe, very little attention was paid to the condition of Canadian snow boarder Maelle Ricker who was carted off the course by the ski patrol. Shockingly, Bob Costas never gave us an update on her condition. As it turned out, she was released from a hospital a few hours after the race with a slight concussion. An example of American provincialism?
· The overall quality, or at least depth, of the figure skating in Torino seems down from past Games. While watching, we don’t get the sense that we are in the presence of greatness. Perhaps Sasha Cohen will change our minds, but she’s never skated flawlessly at a big event. Regardless, this feels like her title to lose.
· Watching Curling makes us feel like it’s never too late to be an Olympian.
· In honor of the Olympics being in Italy, we’re reading “Italian Neighbors” by Tim Parks. It’s an insight into small village life in northern Italy from an Englishman who’s lived in Italy for several years. It makes us wonder if we could adjust to a style of life that is so different to our own. You'll have to read the book to figure out the differences. Two of the funniest sports books I have ever read have also been set in Italy. One of them was by Parks entitled “A Season with Verona”. The other is “The Miracle of Castel di Sangro” by Joe McGinniss. Even if you’re not a soccer fan, these books are worth the read.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Super Bowl XL - Winning Ugly
The theme of Super Bowl XL can be summed up in one word: UGLY. The game was ugly, the officiating was ugly, the Rolling Stones were ugly and even some of the celebrated commercials were ugly. However, the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t mind being ugly and in fact, they are damn comfortable with that.
We’ve all heard the phrase “Winning Ugly”, but what does it mean? For the Steelers, it means grinding out victories on the ground and not letting the opponents play to their potential. That’s essentially how they got to the Super Bowl with their wins over the Bengals, Colts and Broncos. None of those teams was able to get their “A” game going against Pittsburgh’s physical style of play.
Winning ugly also means winning even when you play poorly. Whether Patriots fans believe it or not, that’s the hallmark of a good team. Haven’t we seen the Patriots pull out some victories when they have played badly? That’s exactly what the Steelers did in Detroit on Sunday and they deserve credit for winning it that way. An ugly, low scoring affair clearly favored Pittsburgh.
One bit of ugliness that the Steelers hadn’t anticipated was the play of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Coming into the game, we thought Roethlisberger was the better of the two quarterbacks and would be more likely to handle the pressure of the moment better. Boy, were we wrong. The Steelers won despite Big Ben’s efforts through the air, overcoming his extremely nervous play. His passes fluttered and he appeared skittish in the pocket. Was this the same Roethlisberger that appeared so clinically efficient versus Indy and Denver, or was Ben doing his best Peyton Manning in the clutch impersonation? Roethlisberger’s most important contributions on the day turned out to be his legs and his blocking. No one would have predicted that before the game.
We’re four paragraphs into this and we haven’t even mentioned the other team, a.k.a., the Seattle Seahawks. One could make the argument that the Seahawks were undone by some marginal calls, but Seattle fans need to face the reality that their team played poorly and they couldn’t afford to do that against this Steeler team. While Matt Hasselbeck was the better quarterback on the day, he wasn’t great and he threw a back-breaking interception with just under 11 minutes remaining in the game. Four plays later, the Steelers were celebrating their third touchdown.
Looking at this match-up for the last two weeks, we weren’t sold on the Seahawks. Prior to the playoffs, we had only seen them play once and that was the farcical “win” versus the Giants in Seattle. How many kicks did the Giants miss in that game? Three? Needless to say, it wasn’t an impressive performance by the Seahawks at home as they were gifted the win. They still might be the best team in the NFC, but being the best of a mediocre bunch of teams isn’t much to brag about.
In the end, the team that was comfortable playing ugly hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the game.
Random
· Kudos to our buddy Sanj for hooking up his Super Bowl Party with HDTV. We still haven’t splurged for the big TV here behind the lines due to various negotiations, but attending this party made an extremely persuasive argument in favor of the big purchase. Sixty inches sounds good.
· The half-time show should have had the following warning for viewers of HDTV: “It is not recommended to view Keith Richards in High Definition. Parental guidance is strongly recommended.”
· Which set of foreign, old, white guys will be next year’s half-time act? Kraftwerk anyone?
· Best play of the game: Antwaan Randle El’s TD pass to Hines Ward. Neither starting quarterback threw a ball in the game that looked that good. Ben Roethlisberger also threw a key block on the play to protect Randle El on the pass.
We’ve all heard the phrase “Winning Ugly”, but what does it mean? For the Steelers, it means grinding out victories on the ground and not letting the opponents play to their potential. That’s essentially how they got to the Super Bowl with their wins over the Bengals, Colts and Broncos. None of those teams was able to get their “A” game going against Pittsburgh’s physical style of play.
Winning ugly also means winning even when you play poorly. Whether Patriots fans believe it or not, that’s the hallmark of a good team. Haven’t we seen the Patriots pull out some victories when they have played badly? That’s exactly what the Steelers did in Detroit on Sunday and they deserve credit for winning it that way. An ugly, low scoring affair clearly favored Pittsburgh.
One bit of ugliness that the Steelers hadn’t anticipated was the play of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Coming into the game, we thought Roethlisberger was the better of the two quarterbacks and would be more likely to handle the pressure of the moment better. Boy, were we wrong. The Steelers won despite Big Ben’s efforts through the air, overcoming his extremely nervous play. His passes fluttered and he appeared skittish in the pocket. Was this the same Roethlisberger that appeared so clinically efficient versus Indy and Denver, or was Ben doing his best Peyton Manning in the clutch impersonation? Roethlisberger’s most important contributions on the day turned out to be his legs and his blocking. No one would have predicted that before the game.
We’re four paragraphs into this and we haven’t even mentioned the other team, a.k.a., the Seattle Seahawks. One could make the argument that the Seahawks were undone by some marginal calls, but Seattle fans need to face the reality that their team played poorly and they couldn’t afford to do that against this Steeler team. While Matt Hasselbeck was the better quarterback on the day, he wasn’t great and he threw a back-breaking interception with just under 11 minutes remaining in the game. Four plays later, the Steelers were celebrating their third touchdown.
Looking at this match-up for the last two weeks, we weren’t sold on the Seahawks. Prior to the playoffs, we had only seen them play once and that was the farcical “win” versus the Giants in Seattle. How many kicks did the Giants miss in that game? Three? Needless to say, it wasn’t an impressive performance by the Seahawks at home as they were gifted the win. They still might be the best team in the NFC, but being the best of a mediocre bunch of teams isn’t much to brag about.
In the end, the team that was comfortable playing ugly hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the game.
Random
· Kudos to our buddy Sanj for hooking up his Super Bowl Party with HDTV. We still haven’t splurged for the big TV here behind the lines due to various negotiations, but attending this party made an extremely persuasive argument in favor of the big purchase. Sixty inches sounds good.
· The half-time show should have had the following warning for viewers of HDTV: “It is not recommended to view Keith Richards in High Definition. Parental guidance is strongly recommended.”
· Which set of foreign, old, white guys will be next year’s half-time act? Kraftwerk anyone?
· Best play of the game: Antwaan Randle El’s TD pass to Hines Ward. Neither starting quarterback threw a ball in the game that looked that good. Ben Roethlisberger also threw a key block on the play to protect Randle El on the pass.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
