Totally fried after last night’s game. First time I’ve had to pace in front of a baseball game in at least, um, well, a year. I don’t do well with October baseball. Can’t watch it in bars… don’t watch it with other people. Gotta pace. Gotta yell at batters than chase the sinking curve ball that they know is coming. It’s how I deal with Yankees-induced, baseball-related stress and not everyone seems to understand it.

And this also leads to why I don’t think some teams deserve to be at the World Series – it starts with the fans.

There are two polar opposites in the MLB fan base, as I see it. Yankees fans, who demand to win every year, are on one end. Red Sox fans, who expect loss, heartache, and/or disappointment at every turn, are on the other end. Every other team seems to fit between these two groups. Most fans will surge to the “we want to win” pole, if in a pennant race… only the sick flock to the “we expect to lose” pole – Boston fans are a strange group like that, but after 86 years of abuse, it’s almost understandable. In fact, after last years win, I’m pretty sure the baseball culture of Boston is broken: they won once and expected to tiptoe through the ALDS/ALCS this year b/c they did it last year, yet, they’re playing golf in NC now, while the post season continues… it’s the classic Boston heartbreak but it’s got to be magnified by last year’s success – at least they are better equipped to handle the loss than the win.

Who’s in the dead center? Mariner’s fans. I swear, they don’t seem to care if the team wins any more than they care if the team loses. I had a conversation with a few M’s fans over the weekend… one of them tried to tell me that the Yankees had won enough and should give up the chase for the WS this year. This speaks volumes for the M’s fan mentality: people should win championships based off how much they deserve to win, which may or may not have anything to do with performance. Did Boston win last year b/c they hadn’t won in 86 years? I don’t think so. No one in Boston will agree with you either, although that’s probably because they’re trying to figure out how they won last year and how they lost this year. And the M’s owners seem to be OK with the mediocrity attitude, which would drive me nuts as a fan, but again, this explains a lot about the M’s record.

And then last night, the fans were rowdy the entire game. They wouldn’t let themselves be taken out of the game by the tight score. They cheered for what might have been Bernie Williams last home game, much like they did for Paulie-O a few years ago and Donnie Baseball many years ago. They got behind their team, for the entire game. That has to help players. It has to. I’ve seen the Bronx crowd will the team into not giving up throughout the 95-05 years and I don’t remember that same crowd emotion there for the 82-94 stretch… the dark days both for the Yankees and for the rest of the MLB. The fans were quiet and depressed and pissed off with the “strike” problem that darkened these years… and the results of the team show it. The fans matter, in this sport, yet in other markets, mediocrity is expected and worse, accepted.

I can’t get my mind around it and more than I can’t figure out the widespread angst against the Yankees in “neutral” towns. In Boston, sure… Atlanta, too, maybe because, well, the Braves suck in the post season and a good part of that is our fault. But it doesn’t happen in hockey, football, or basketball… and hockey has the best analogy, with the Canadians: they’ve won almost as many championships as the Yankees, and certainly the most in the NHL, yet people don’t hate’m for it. In fact, when the NY Rangers went from 1940 to 1994 between championships, no one thought the Rangers should have won just because they hadn’t won in a long time. Just the opposite: if you haven’t won in that long, you don’t deserve to win, is what probably caused Vancouver residents to riot.

Yet, there are the Yankees… hated by both ESPN and Fox announcers – gotta love how they focus on a “great play” as the Yankees scored last night; couldn’t have been that great if they didn’t get the out! – and probably half the nation… simply for winning too much.

Doesn’t change the fact that I’m unable to focus this morning while wearing Mickey’s jersey at the office… going to be a long, long day, before tonight’s first pitch.

*twitch*