Now I Can Die in Peace...

It's been about ten days since the Yankees won the World Series. The sun shines brighter, food tastes better and the world is a better place to be since they won. It's the first title any baseball team I cheered for has won. It happened just shy of my 30th birthday.

I'll be honest it was a long 29 years and 363 days. My teams have only won 8 championships while I've been alive. The Bulls have 6 of those, the Bears won in '85 (I don't even cheer for them anymore so it shouldn't count) and Michigan won a share of the football National Championship in '97.

I was a Cubs fan until 2005. I was watching 'Baseball Tonight' one evening and they flashed the Wild Card standing on the screen and the Cubs were behind the Brewers. It was at that precise moment I stopped being a fan. I didn't enter the decision lightly. I stopped being a fan because I was convinced that they would never ever win it all.

The only team that made sense for me to cheer for was the Yankees. Even when I was a Cubs fan I always wanted the Yankees to win if the Cubs didn't. The reason was because they did everything the Cubs wouldn't, mainly doing everything they can to win every year. People wanted me to cheer for the White Sox or Cardinals (too much hate built up over the years) or the Brewers or Astros. If I wanted to keep on cheering for losing teams I would have stayed with the Cubs. Mr. Prunty even tried to brainwash me into becoming a Red Sox fan, but the Yankees were the only choice.

2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 all ended in disappointment. I still felt good about my decision though. The Yankees made the playoffs as many times in those 4 years as the Cubs had in my 25 years of fandom.

This 2009 Yankee squad was a fun team. It was a very likable team too. They were never out of game and they beat people down. They had everything you would want in a championship team. They also had a plethora of celebrity wives and girlfriends, which isn't important in real life, but is fun to have in your baseball team.

It sounds crazy but the Yankees winning is going to change my life. I have a sense of peace that I didn't have before. I no longer have to worry about that slight chance the Cubs could win it before the Yankees that was a constant source of stress. I shouldn't feel the need to lash out against other peoples' teams out of bitterness. I've spent more time rooting against other peoples' teams rather than rooting for my own. I haven't had much to cheer for.

Best Day -

Alright, what is the best day of your life?

You mean ever?

Yeah, the best day ever in your whole life. You can’t do when your kids were born. That’s too easy.

I got one. I’m seven years old and my dad takes me to Yankee Stadium, my first game. We’re going along this long dark tunnel underneath the stands, I’m holding his hand and we come out of the tunnel into the light. It was huge, how green the grass was, brown dirt and that great green copper roof. You remember that? We had a black and white TV so this was the first time I saw it in color. Sat there the whole game next to my dad, taught me how to keep score, Mickey hit one out. I still have the program.

Good day!

-City Slickers-