The real team is the fans in the stands

The Yankee prance through the playoffs had brought baseball back to the people, following the 1994 player strike and a year of American ambivalence toward the game. Unfortunately, the 1996 Fall Classic has perpetrated misguided optimism among fans of baseball and the sports world in general. In this day and age of professional sports, George Steinbrenner and the loyal fans in the stands--those fans who slept outside the Stadium to garner playoff and World Series tickets--may be the only true Yankees.

Only weeks after popping the cork off of champagne bottles in the Yankee clubhouse, World Series MVP reliever John Wetteland and his catcher Joe Girardi have filed for free agency. In addition, speculation is that right fielder Paul O'Neill and third baseman Wade Boggs, who cheered "with" the fans by riding a horse around the Stadium, may not be back for another go-round with the Bombers. In fact, when the Yankees claimed Hayes to shore up their defense and righty hitting, Boggs indicated that if the Yankees don't appreciate him, he might attain his 3,000th hit elsewhere. Of course, when Hayes became one of the Series heroes by starting the Game Four rally that culminated in Jim Leyritz's homer and dropping to his knees to block a ball hit by Javy Lopez in Game Five to help preserve the one-run lead, Boggs stepped back from his initial outburst, but the damage had been done.

Player movement and a general lack of team or city loyalty does not nearly get to the heart of the problem facing baseball today. On Wed., Nov. 6, by a vote of 18-12, the owners rejected the deal their chief labor executive, Randy Levine, had made with the players. The most recent collective bargaining agreement expired in 1993, and Donald Fehr, head of the players' union, seems intent on keeping it that way. They are still at odds over the luxury tax, the tax thresholds, litigation, antitrust exemption, and my personal favorite, service time. The players would like to receive service credit for the time during the 1994-95 season when they decided not to step onto the field. Meanwhile, Bud Selig is making a mockery of the Acting Commissioner position, and the owners would like to hire a personal slave, instead of such former powerful men who consistently saved the beautiful game of baseball as Fay Vincent, Bart Giamatti, and Kennesaw Mountain Landis.

Baseball is by no means the only sport that enjoys playing with the minds of die-hard fans. On Tues., Nov. 5, the Los Angeles Lakers squared off against the New York Knickerbockers at the Garden. On both teams, only five players remained from last season's team. The Knick starting line-up had as many as three returning players--and that only because of an injury to newcomer Chris Childs, and the Lakers started a center who was supposed to be the future for the Orlando Magic, but decided that he always preferred Disneyland over Disney World, leaving many Orlando faithful with a useless #32 blue-and-white jersey. Michael Jordan also played the jersey game by returning to basketball with the number 45, saying that his father had seen him play the last game he would ever play in the number 23. He disregarded this emotional and heartfelt tribute the minute he misplayed the ball late in a playoff game versus Orlando and returned to his former number. Young kids from Chicago, inspired by the return of Jordan to the game he loves, went out to purchase his 45 jersey to pay tribute to their favorite player. These kids are too young and trusting to comprehend that Jordan did not for an instant hesitate to disregard their love and admiration for him.

The fastest game on earth, ice hockey, is just as quick to step on the fingers of their fans. After 44 years of futility, the New York Rangers captured the title in a brilliant Game Seven display versus the Vancouver Canucks on June 14, 1994. New Yorkers were delirious with bliss, but the hockey gods decided that Madison Square Garden would not hang a championship banner, because the owners would lock the players out for the next season.

In addition, last year, the Nordiques ran away from the rabid and raucous fans in Quebec to claim a Stanley Cup victory as the Colorado Avalanche. At least the Minnesota North Stars gave their fans a smell of the Cup by getting to the Finals before succumbing to Mario Lemieux and the Penguins.

In football, Art Modell robbed the Cleveland Dawg Pound of their hard-nosed, gritty, and gutsy grapplers because he did not have a nice hook to hang his coat on in the clubhouse. But don't worry--he was nice enough to leave the team nickname.

But this pervasiveness of disaffection from athletes and management has reaffirmed why I am a New York Jets fan. While my favorite players on my other teams move on or are run out of town--from Donnie Baseball to Mike Gartner to Anthony Mason--I root for my favorite Jets to free themselves from the cesspool of ineptitude that swarm the swamplands of New Jersey.