Finally!! It's Fun To Be A Yankee Fan Again

Full disclosure: I am a Yankee fan, have been forever. But I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I’ve found it very hard to root for this team so far this season.

Beginning with the excessive free agent signings (CC, A.J. and Teixeira, too??!!), the A-Rod steroid fiasco and then all the junk that’s gone on with the new stadium, I was finally starting to understand what made Yankee-haters loathe this team so much.

Dare I say it, I even preferred watching Mets games when both teams were on TV at the same time!

But all that changed this weekend – when the 2009 edition of the Yankees FINALLY put all the garbage behind them and started playing exciting baseball.

And don’t think this is a case of me getting on the bandwagon now that they’ve won five in a row. I’ve never wavered in my support of the team; it’s just that they’ve been severely overshadowed by one soul-sucking controversy after another.

But with their three walk-off wins in their first three games against the Twins, the Yankees seem to have loosened up considerably – playing for themselves rather than trying to appease their critics.

A perfect example of this is the new walk-off tradition of slamming a whipped-cream pie in the face of each particular game’s hero. On Friday it was Melky Cabrera, Saturday Alex Rodriguez got the honor Saturday and Johnny Damon was the lucky recipient on Sunday.

It’s a welcome change from the button-down, all business demeanor the Yankees usually are forced to carry themselves with while on the field.

It’s about time there was some enjoyment injected into this team. Hopefully this recent flood of enthusiasm will help jump start slow starters like Teixeira, Phil Hughes and eventually Chien Ming Wang – guys who have really struggled under the intense Yankee microscope in the early going.

While the good cheer is showing up in the on-field product, word from the Stadium is that the crowd is finally awakening from it’s early-season slumber, too. Who could blame ‘em for being reluctant to embrace this team?

The Yanks are giving both themselves AND their fans a reason to get behind this franchise once again.

And it’s come just in time – I can’t bare to watch another Mets game.

Matt Estreich for The Huddle