The Meaning Of Infidel

Happy 4th all...I haven't been home since Sunday morning so bear with me if my writing's a little jagged today.

I didn't see one frame of Wang's win yesterday vs the Tigers. I was at the gym and then I ended up at a cookout in Harlem and then a housewarming on the Upper West Side that went into the wee small hours of the morning. Great win. Our first win where we scored less than 3 runs. We're now 1-27 in that category. The pitching is way too streaky for me to wax poetic on this is sort of win and whether can we build on it. Whitey Herzog once said that "Momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher." And since we never know what we're getting from one day to the next, I'm going to hold off commenting on what this win does or doesn't mean for us. It's just good to see the boys get a W and I'll leave it that.

A Red Sux fan expressed concern in the use of the word infidel in my blog profile. He said that someone who is new to the site might misundertand my use of the word and think this is a blog for Muslim fundamentalist even though everything written says otherwise. So let me explain to the unintiated, what I mean when I use the word.

A baseball infidel is anyone who spends their more time hating the Yankees than rooting for their team. It's also anyone who roots for a team that is a mortal enemy of the Yankees. To clarify the latter, the Yankees' mortal enemies are obviously the Red Sux and the Mutts, the Indians, the Mariners, the Orioles and anyone else in the AL East. All of those teams are bitter enemies of the empire and anyone who supports these organizations (even if they don't hate the Yanks) is an infidel.

Of course, someone can be an infidel even if their team isn't a mortal enemy. If they are a Yankee hater who spends more time hating the Empire than rooting for their team. Example, I've met a few Cubs and NL fans who hate the Yankees "because they buy all their players to win." Or they hate them just because they win and their clubs don't. Instead of spending their time worrying about their own teams' boxscore, they whine about the Yankees.

Now there are some who feel that the list should include anyone who isn't a Yankee fan. I disagree. There are some who believe that teams like the Dodgers, Braves and Giants should be on the list because of old rivalries. I disagree with that as well. While I personally root against any teams that have Native American names or mascots, I don't think of Braves fans as infidels because even though we've played them in two world series in the last decade...we haven't played them enough for me to call them blood rivals. The same goes for the Dodgers, Giants and Cardinals. All these teams have fan bases that have been loyal to their teams for decades. The Death Star shouldn't blow up baseball fans just because they root for their teams.

I hate the ignorant fans who give Yankee fans a bad name by going in visiting parks and acting like jerks. I also hate when these idiots display their ignorance about the game as if it's something to be proud of. It's ok to love your team, but to follow the game, you should have a working knowledge of what's going around the league.

I love going to different parks even if the Yanks aren't playing. I'm a baseball fan who has enough respect for the game to respect real fans who root for their teams passionately. It's one thing if you have a division or blood rivalry with a team and you hate their guts. It makes no sense to hate a team that doesn't compete directly against you on a regular basis. Why would I hate the Padres or the Pirates?

Hopefully this clarifies on who I feel belongs in baseball hell and who doesn't. You all know how to reach me if you have anything to add.