Remember, remember the fourth of November. The 27th title New York brought. I know of no reason why the 27th victorious season should ever be forgot.
I will forever remember tonight. And I don't care how many times you tell me the Yankees had won 26 times already, four times in my lifetime. This one is different, for me.
For you see, you can fall in love 20 times, but you'll never care about anyone in quite the same way you cared about your first girlfriend, the undoubtedly nauseating PDA and all. And for sports fans, true sports fans, winning a title after a prolonged wait is like falling for that first girlfriend.
I know, nine years hardly counts as a prolonged wait, but you have to realize, I turned 11 the day of the third game in 2000, a game the Yankees lost. I was a Yankees fan, have been since early 1996, but hadn't yet allowed myself to be gripped by sports. I was 11, I didn't take anything in life seriously.
In 2003 I was beginning to realize the place sports held in my life, and I watched the Yankees fall to Josh Beckett and the Marlins. Honestly, it didn't bother me all that much.
In 2004, a postseason I don't talk about much, I was almost 15. And sports, the Yankees, had started to grip me in a unique way. The impossible happened, the Yankees blew a 3-0 series lead to, the, ugh, Red Sox. I was crushed.
And since then, I have never had a chance to fall for my first girlfriend, but I have waited, somewhat patiently. I always took solace knowing that when the peak came, the valleys would be more meaningful to me.
As much as I cringe at the remembrance of the 2004 World Series, I vividly remember how my Red Sox fan of a father treated the closing moments. They hadn't won in 86 years. He refused to accept the possibility of a title until Doug Mientkiewicz had closed his glove around the ball, the third out of the ninth inning. At which point tears dropped down his cheeks as he called my Red Sox fan of a brother in joy. Had the, ugh, Red Sox won the Series his whole life, my father would never had that moment of euphoria, instead simply many moments of happiness.
This Word Series title, the 27th in Yankees history, on the fourth of November, to me, will always be my first real title after a prolonged wait. I have waited for the Yankees to win this Series nearly half my life, and throughout all of my time as an avid sports fan.
This is the team that I fell for like I fell for my first girlfriend sophomore year of high school. I don't care if they were supposedly bought or cheated. I can rationalize any of it. They got me my title, on the fourth of November.
