What It’s Like to be a Yankees Fan

It’s 2:41pm on a Sunday and I’m watching the Yankees play, as our house tends to do on Sunday afternoons… and every other week night. 

I’ve been a Yankees fan for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Maryland, the majority of my family were Orioles fans. Like most boys, I followed in my father’s footsteps when deriving my sports fandom. Dad is a diehard Steelers fan? I’m Black and Gold forever. We watch West Virginia on fall Saturdays? Steve Slaton and Pat White will forever be canon. However, my dad was NOT a diehard fan of anything baseball related. He really wasn’t even a fan of the sport until I started to play. However, my uncle Dwayne is a huge Yankees fan, a proud member in the legion of the Evil Empire. I took my fandom from him and have held on to it ever since. 

When I was young, my fandom waxed and waned because I rarely got to watch the games and the baseball season is quite the odyssey. However, once I was consistently able to access the games, my investment in the organization flourished. I will always look fondly on the days of CC Sabathia, Jeter, Swisher, Teixeira, and A-Rod for helping nurture my fandom. 

These days, the names are different. Judge, Cole, Soto (extend him!),and LeMahieu don the uniform. But the pinstripes don’t change. Baseball fandom, especially of an MLB team, is the heartbeat of the spring & summer, a beautiful transition to the overtones of fall and football. There are games nightly, rocking you to sleep as you go through the dog days. It is persistent, constant. Each night, there is a renewed hope to turn around a skid or another chance to keep putting the pedal down if your team is hot. There is no build up to Sunday or 2-3 days off between games for “travel days.” 6 nights a week, you’re going to clock in to watch the boys play. There is a peace that comes with that. 

My Yankee fandom gives me a chuckle sometimes. I am in the constant pursuit of being rational and level in all other areas of my life (I try and fail, but at least make the effort). My professional sports teams are where I allow myself to simply be like any other fan. That involves questioning the front office as if I have a say, tweeting my frustrations with in-game decisions from the manager, and yelling at the players for their in-game performance in real time. That’s what irrational fans are supposed to do! 

As the days roll on, baseball, the constant, is still here. The Yankees are still here, like the most beautiful metronome to ever grace your ears. 

It is 2:59 on Sunday afternoon. Juan Soto just hit a solo home run to put the Yankees up 3-2 in the 7th inning against the Blue Jays. It is beautiful.