Let me get this straight: some Yankee fans boo Javier Vazquez, their own team’s starting pitcher, after just 14 pitches in Wednesday’s start. Then some very vocal Yankee fans cheer Hideki Matsui for hitting a home run to (briefly) put the Angels ahead over the Yankees in Thursday’s game. And Yankee radio broadcaster John Sterling was so inspired by Matsui’s homer that he unleashed his old “Thrilla by Godzilla” call. What’s wrong with this picture?
Look, I thought it was very cool for Yankee fans to give Matsui such a warm welcome back in Tuesday’s home opener. And I can understand even cheering for him in other at-bats, although I would have personally stopped after the first one of the game. (When Squawker Jon and I saw Jason Giambi against the Yankees last year, I cheered him for the first at-bat, and treated him like any other player on the A’s after that.)
But to me, cheering wildly – or at all, for that matter – when Matsui hits a home run against the Yankees, especially when it gave the Angels a 1-0 lead, is a completely different deal. And it’s quite the contrast, of course, to the boos Javy received from some of his own fanbase.
And what’s the deal with Sterling’s call? Was he so in love with his “A Thrilla by Godzilla” phrase that he thought it was okay to unleash it when it was against the Bombers? I don’t get it.
As for Javier Vazquez, the designated Yankee scapegoat, I didn’t want Vazquez as a Yankee. But I also know that booing him is counterproductive. It’s not that he’s showing lack of effort – he just hasn’t gotten it together in his two starts. And fans have to ask themselves this question: Is booing him going to make him pitch better, or worse?
New York Post columnist Joel Sherman wrote about the situation in his Hardball blog, noting that Javy should get inspiration from his third baseman:
Vazquez really can use Rodriguez as a symbol. A-Rod struck out three times yesterday and maybe there were some boos here and there, but not anything like he would have received without the powerhouse 2009 postseason in conjunction with a Yankee championship.
I draw a different lesson than this anecdote than Sherman does. What I get from this is that there is a small portion of the Yankees fanbase that is so spoiled and ungrateful, they would boo Alex Rodriguez in the second home game after the Yankees won the World Series. Think about that breathtaking lack of gratitude for a second there.
After the way A-Rod carried the Yankees on his back in the postseason, A-Rod shouldn’t get any boos at all. It really makes me sick that these knuckleheads root for the same team I do.
For all these years, some Yankee fans griped about how, despite two MVPs, Alex “wasn’t clutch.” Then, he proves himself with one of the greatest postseasons of all time, leading the Yankees to their first title since 2000. And what does he get in return? Boos in the second home game of the year.
You see, for these fans, it never really was about A-Rod being clutch, or not having a ring. It was that they just don’t like the guy.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
