Ok, I just got done watching some kind of HBO Sports documentary of the 2001 World Series… it was the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. the New York Yankees, with the tragedy of 9/11 serving as a backdrop for the entire 7-game series.
The main theme of the documentary was that the terrorist attacks somehow meant that the World Series was the Yankees series to win, and that the Yankees not winning was a true shame and somehow paralleled with the terrorists somehow winning or prevailing over the spirit of Americans. The entire show disgusted me.
The fans, for one, were completely melodramatic about the sporting event. Granted, I sympathize with them in dealing with their losses… in real life. They lost friends and family members in the attacks and to slight that or malign that fact in any way would be out-of-line and heartless. But, one girl, whom Derek Jeter invited to Yankee Stadium after recieving and reading a touching letter sent from her, said after the Yankees game 7 loss to the D-Backs, “I didn’t wear green or purple for months” (green and purple are the D-Backs team colors.) Now, I can’t believe she said something this ignorant, and if this kind of mentality epitomizes all Yankees fans, then I could say, without remorse, that Yankees fans need to seriously get some perspective.
Again, I have to emphasize that I sympathize with Yankees fans in the fact that most of them were affected by the 9/11 attacks. That said, to this day, I have no idea why Yankees fans would hold that kind of personal grudge with the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team; they are paid to play and win baseball games. Now, just because Arizona is nowhere near New York City or Washington D.C., this does not mean that Arizona was any less deserving of competing in the World Series.
Likewise, all Yankees fans celebrated their back-to-back, come from behind wins at the expense of D-Backs closer Byung-Hyun Kim. And you know what? Those kinds of storied comebacks are the things legends are made of. But, look at the series as a whole: The 2001 World Series (click the boxes on the side to see the box scores.)
Games 1 and 2 were domainted by the D-Backs offense. 15 hits and 13 runs in these games against the Yankees 1 run and 6 hits. Game 3 was more even, with the Yankees winning. The next 2 wins were flat-out miracles. 9th inning, come-from-behind victories in each game. Not 1, but 2 miracles. Then there was the ARI dominated game 6: 15-2. Now, it’s game 7. One come-from-behind rally by the Yankees got matched by a bottom-of-the-9th rally from the Diamondbacks. It’s all tit-for-tat, in my opinion. What’s good for the geese is good for the gander and all those cliches. The only difference this time was that it wasn’t the Yankees who had luck on their side. More to the point: the Diamondbacks had fewer “micacles” than the Yankees, and the Yankees still didn’t win. What’s my point? Simply this: in 2001, The Arizona Diamondbacks were the better team, and those Yankees fans that sulked their World Series loss should really try to realize that even a Yankees win wouldn’t have drowned out all the depression of the attacks. Sure, a Yankees victory would give them all a temporary feeling of ecstasy, but that’s all it would be: temporary. The Yankees winning would not bring back the fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles and friends lost in the attacks, so maybe they shouldn’t hold the Arizona Diamondbacks personally responsible for doing their job by beating “America’s baseball team.”
That said… I end this blog entry with the following quote: “The Yankees HAD TO win those three games in New York – otherwise, it would have been wrong.” — Curt Schilling