Smacking the Yankees

Russ Smith is a great baseball writer who happens to write about politics. He's a Red Sox fan who has seen alot of Bomber/Sox games in the Bronx. Check this out:

Here's a question, a serious one, for longtime Yankees fans: Why has the word "class" become linked to the most victorious, and avaricious, sports franchise in the past 100 years? Apart from Lou Gehrig's stoic appearance at the Stadium on July 4, 1939, probably the most dignified moment in the history of baseball, I'm at a loss for other examples of "class."
General Manager Brian Cashman surely can't be thinking of Babe Ruth's off-field behavior (unless he contributed heavily to Democrats, the Babe would today be on NOW's hit list), Mickey Mantle's pussy scavenger hunts, George Steinbrenner's two suspensions from the game, drunkard Billy Martin's ignominious death in a ditch, Reggie Jackson's pale imitations of Muhammad Ali or Gary Sheffield's recent criticism of teammate and fellow steroid user Jason Giambi.
Sheffield, who called the Red Sox a scummy bunch of "characters" before the Yanks choked in the ALCS last fall, recently complained anew that the Angels' Vladimir Guerrero bested him for the American League's MVP in 2004. "At the start of the year I had two homers and he had 15," Mr. Wiggles told the Post's George King. "Look at the park he hits in and that's hogwash." There's a "team" player for you. As for Giambi, who wouldn't be tarred as a pathetic multimillionaire by the media if he'd hit 30 homers and batted .300 last year, Sheffield was a real stand-up guy. He said: "I said I didn't know I took steroids, the bottom line was I thought it was rubbing cream on my legs. I am not like Jason Giambi sitting here crying and say[ing] it's unfair, that the attacks are unfair. I have been attacked my whole career."
Maybe Sheffield's just a "classy" asshole.

Ouch. The Yankees are irritating and their fans are as fraudulent as any in sports with the exception of the Dallas Cowgirls (haven't heard too much from those pathetic bastards lately). I personally was rooting against the Sox last year because they treated Nomar Garciaparra like a piece of garbage and he didn't deserve it. However, when they got into the ALCS against the Yanks I had no choice but to root for them.

I was ecstatic they whooped the Yanks in four straight and nailed a signed to their collective foreheads that read: BASEBALL BIGGEST EVER CHOKERS!

Read Russ every Thursday, he's worth the time and you can link to him through my blogroll.