CONFESSIONS of a Yankee hater: I hate to say it:
Yanks deserve
to be in SeriesWhen you've been a Boston Red Sox fan since your teens as I've been -- from when Walt Dropo played first base for them in 1950, to be exact -- it's easy to be a Yankee hater.
Obviously, I'm not the only one. They even had a Broadway musical, "The Damn Yankees," that ingratiated all the Yankee haters in the world.
Yet, when the New York Yankees fell back, two games to one, to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series on Friday, I felt this strange sensation. I was actually pulling for the Yankees to beat the Indians and go on to win the World Series.
I had to shake my head and wonder what the hell's wrong with me.
I don't like the arrogance of the Yankees. I bristle at the sight of pinstripes. I especially don't care for their owner, George Steinbrenner, who must be the most impossible boss to work for.
So I began thinking why I wanted the Yankees to win.
IT had nothing to do with former manager Bob Lemon giving me a Yankee baseball cap one night in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse after chatting about old times when he managed the Hawaii Islanders.
It had nothing to do with playing a round of golf with Yankee Hall of Famer Yogi Berra or "Mr. October," Reggie Jackson. Or talking to Joe DiMaggio about the time he played in Hawaii with the 7th Air Force during World War II, when he hit the most famous home run locally.
Come to think of it, I've personally met more Yankees than Red Sox over the years.
But it had nothing to do with all that.
It's just that when a team wins an American League-record 114 games -- and the most (120) counting playoff games in major-league history -- it shouldn't be deprived of being in the World Series.
Especially in a year called the "Greatest Season Ever" by Sports Illustrated.
Sure, the Chicago Cubs won a major league-record 116 games in 1906 and didn't win the World Series, losing in six to the cross-town White Sox. And the 1954 Cleveland Indians, winners of 111 games, got swept in four by the New York Giants. And the Baltimore Orioles, winners of 109 in 1969, lost to the New York Mets.
But at least they got there.
It would be a shame if the Yankees, after all they've accomplished this season, don't get there.
The team that had the best season in baseball's greatest season deserves to be in the World Series. Even the most diehard Red Sox fan has to agree with that.
OTHERWISE, what good is winning 114 games?
There's no "I" in team. So let Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa enjoy the fun they had in chasing and surpassing Roger Maris' home run record during the regular season. Let McGwire's mind-boggling 70 and Cal Ripken's 2,632 be the magic numbers to remember. And let Toronto's Roger Clemens and Atlanta's Greg Maddux win their fifth Cy Young Awards.
Those are individual accomplishments. But the Yankees, as much as I hate to admit it, are the team in 1998, and truly deserving of playing in the World Series.
I don't care who they play -- the San Diego Padres, who are in the catbird seat, or the Braves. But having the Yankees in the World Series would be a fitting closure to the "Greatest Baseball Season Ever."
No knock on the Cleveland Indians, but only the Yankees will do. Anything else would be anticlimactic, unmagical.
I'm sure the Fox Network, which will televise the World Series starting Saturday at the home of the American League champion, will agree.