Over the weekend, Josh Marshall took a break from his usual excellent journalisming about politics and mused about the esoteric topic of baseball team loyalty. He’s trying to pick a team, now that he’s living in New York City.
Basically, he’s asking if he should root for the Yankees. In his words:
“But the Yankees? Becoming a Yankees fan almost seems like apostasy.”
Essentially, Josh is pointing out that a little suffering makes enjoying the victories sweeter. And since the Yankees hardly ever lose, there’s really not enough suffering to make it enjoyable.
Don’t look at me like that. I understand him completely. Maybe only baseball fans can get that.
At any rate, he asked for comments and suggestions from fellow baseball fans.
I sent him the following:
I don’t know if you’re a fan of “Get Fuzzy”, a syndicated comic strip about a guy named Rob, his dog Satchel (named after, of course, Satchel Paige) and his cat, Bucky (named, of course, after Buck O’Neil from the Negro Leagues)…
…but I think, if you are, all you need to know is that Bucky is a Yankees fan. Do you want to be like Bucky?
The comic is set in Boston, though (which coincidentally is the hometown of the artist, Darby Conley), so that might tend to explain things.