There is a generation gap brewing in our midst, one that threatens to grow even wider and more divisive than the one that inspired the term in the first place back in the 1960s.
Call it the Yankee Cred Gap.
There is a generation-plus of Yankees fans who have known only one thing about the Yankees: They win. A lot. Every year. Let’s say you were born in 1987, which means you were 7 in 1994 — which probably is right around the time you started caring for baseball, which was the summer the Yankees nearly lapped the AL East before the strike hit, which started an era that, even for the Yankees, has been an unprecedented time of uninterrupted success.
Sometime this year you will turn 29 years old.
And yet, all you know, in terms of failure, is relative failure. Maybe your expectations have become a bit high — but, then, why wouldn’t they be? So maybe this year’s team bores you. Maybe it makes you a little bit disgusted. Fans of the (pick any team here) will rip you for that, but you’re used to that.
What you’re not used to is this: other Yankees fans ripping you for it. What was it that JFK said? Victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan. Well, when it comes to sports, that actually is dead wrong. Because it is when a team emerges from hard times that fans tend to list their credentials of suffering. Losing bonds them. And memories of losing … well, it’s like memories of boot camp. Awful, yes, but you made it through and lived to tell.
So yes, Yankees fans about to hit 30 who have the audacity to complain must now feel the bounce-back from their older brothers and cousins — who could go chapter and verse on just how miserable an experience watching the Yankees was from, say, 1989 or so through 1992.
Then they have to face their parents and their aunts and uncles, who will tell them all about the dog days of 1965-75, about losing the town to an expansion team, about last place, about Horace Clarke, about popping champagne in 1970 when they clinched — gasp — second place, about the great Red Barber getting fired because he insisted on a TV camera panning the Stadium one September night when all of 413 people paid their way in to a make-up game between the Yanks and the White Sox.
Yankees fans who endured these dreadful days? Honestly, they recall them almost as fondly as they do ’77 or ’98 or ’09, or any of the other times that fell within the brackets of prosperity. Which is understandable. Because no matter whom you root for, the good times always are made that much sweeter by the bad.
Mets fans have had their pick of forgettable eras from which to choose, though those old enough to remember 1977-83 seem to have a special, forever bond. Islanders fans know. What they’re watching this spring would be awesome anyway, but it is made moreso by the surplus of horrific years that reach back to the first year of the Clinton Administration.
And you never saw a more satisfied New York sports fan than the Giants fan who lived through the playoff drought of 1964-81, who endured 2-10-2 in 1964 and 1-12-1 in ’66 and 2-11-1 in ’73 and 3-12-1 in ’83 … and who watched with awe and amazement when the ’86 team went 17-2 and rolled in the Super Bowl.
Knicks fans and Nets fans … well, they’re the ones doing the enduring now. They’re the ones putting in their time, dreaming of a payoff. If that comes — when it comes — you can believe they will reference this extended plight. A lot.
Young Yankees fans can learn from that. There’s a bunch of basketball fans a few years older than them, born around 1979 or so, who came of age watching the Knicks make the playoffs every year for 14 straight years, and win at least one round of playoffs in all but three of them — and who didn’t much want to hear old war stories about Ken (the Animal Bannister) and Eddie Lee Wilkins and Pat Cummings from the older members of their family … and alas …
Whack Back at Vac
Alan Swartz: Based upon the sample of their play and the Mets’ rise in popularity, Lonn Trost and the rest of the Yankees’ alleged brain trust sure picked a great time to isolate Yankees fans by not accepting paper tickets.
Vac: If this keeps up, the Yankees might be wise to adopt the old Woodstock ticket plan: If you got ’em, great; if not, come on in anyway!
MJ from Bronxville: If we rented “Draft Day” and had Jerry Reese and Marc Ross over for a few cold ones, you think we might get the Giants draft room to get a little more creative?
Vac: It would help if he had Tom Michaels on the line, ready to do business.
@dougastevens: After years of suffering, it’s good to see fans of the “other” New York teams have their time for a change …
@MikeVacc: Which begs the question: Which basketball team qualifies as the “other” team these days?
Ron Gambardella: My hockey playoffs analysis: The Blackhawks were fatigued from raising the Stanley Cup over their heads three of the past six years, and apparently the Rangers were tired from shaking hands in the post-series lines over the same time period!
Vac: Hockey trash talk is the very best trash talk, no?
Vac’s Whacks
I liked the Mets acquiring Neil Walker. I must confess, I did not realize they were acquiring 1984 Ryne Sandberg.
Bill Belichick really should sign Ryan Fitzpatrick, if for no other reason than it would blast the Internet to smithereens.
I can’t remember the last time I spent an entire hour on pins and needles following a TV character as I did Martha on “The Americans” this week. Maybe Tony in the final episode of “The Sopranos?” Maybe Vic on the finale of “The Shield?”
I’ll put it this way: Judging from my feedback, not everyone is ready to nominate Nick Mangold for the Sports Fan Hall of Fame just yet.