To the Editor:
I read Avni Shah's Oct. 20 article "Yawn, Snore: Yankees' quest for 27 has little intrigue," and I am outraged. The story is insulting, as it marginalizes anyone still watching baseball as not a "pure sports fan," in contrast to the numerous Cubs and Sox fans that popped up everywhere last week. It also presupposes that the Yankees will win, disappointedly sighing "Whatever happened to the hopes and dreams of the underdog?" Avni seems to ignore the fact that, Boston's and Chicago's histories notwithstanding, the Marlins are actually the best stereotypical underdog story in the playoffs. They were 10 games under .500 in May; the only team to ever win a World Series after being 10 games below .500 were the 1935 Braves. Oh by the way, those Braves are known in history as the Miracle Braves. But sure, it's no great feat of Florida to even make it to the Series against the 100-win Giants, or against Chicago's two best pitchers, in Wrigley. Or the fact that the Marlins payroll is $51 million, less than half that of the Yankees. Whatever happened to the underdogs, you ask? They won game one of the series (with their worst pitcher, no less) is what happened. Their ace Josh Beckett, who happens to be the best pitcher in this series (Yankee protests in favor of Mussina aside) gets the start in South Florida in front of a sellout crowd of 65,000 "impure" fans tonight. As much as it may seem that "the World Series has already been played," it actually hasn't. And don't even get me started on previous underdog stories in recent years (Oakland A's anyone?)
Meanwhile, the series is tied 1-1, Game One was incredibly exciting, and fans are still tuning in, legitimate ones at that. If all those fans watching last week were so pure, why didn't they know the names of their starting pitchers? Where were they all season, during Boston's push to grab the wildcard? How can they make any claims of legitimacy as fans if they fail to watch the World Series? Any fan of football who didn't watch the Superbowl would be mocked, no matter how unfortunate her team's fate. Faux BoSox and Cubs fans, tuning in to the CS because all their friends do or because they're "supposed to" are no more legitimate than Marlins fans just beginning to trust a franchise that alienated its fan base by dismantling its first-ever great team. Not to say that all Cubs or Sox fans are fraudulent; on the contrary, the two teams have a wide national fan base. That does not logically mean everyone rooting for them last week was a pure fan though, and my experience watching tells me the opposite is true, and actually the hype created by the numerous true fans roped in numerous quasi-fans who didn't even know their teams were supposedly cursed, or why.
Shah's story reeks of the arrogance and self-satisfaction characteristic of most New Yorkers, with the presumptuous lament "Woe is me. I actually wish that Boston had won just so someone else would have a shot for once. To be nice. It'd be good for the league." Newsflash: the Yankees haven't won yet.
