Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Why are Yankee fans cheering when Hideki Matsui hits a home run against their team?

Not exactly the greatest of games last night - the Yankees looked really flat, and Phil Hughes didn't have it. But the thing that ticked me off the most about the loss was hearing Yankee fans cheer the opposition. When Hideki Matsui hit a homer off Chan Ho Park to put the game out of reach for the Bombers, all too many Yankee fans got excited over it. The worst was that female "fan" clad in Yankee gear holding up a sign for Matsui and cheering and bopping around like the Yankees won the World Series or something. Good grief.

This isn't the first time this has happened this year - Yankee fans did the same thing in an April Angels-Yankees game, when Matsui hit a homer to put Anaheim ahead. I don't get that at all. It's one thing to give an ex-Yankee like Matsui a round of cheers the first time his name is called out in the lineup. After all, even though Matsui and the Angels were in the Bronx in April, that doesn't mean everybody in the ballpark was there any of those games.

But it's an entirely different deal to cheer him every time, and to applaud him when he gets a homer, or even a hit, against your team. Matsui isn't a Yankee any more. I have no reason to cheer his home runs now, especially when they're against the Yanks.


Enough with the Matsui worship already. It's like when Billy Crystal wore a Switzerland hat when the Yankees played the Dodgers, because of Joe Torre. Please. To me, it's not a hard decision to root for the Yankees over former Yankees. My team comes first. Johnny Damon was one of my favorite Yankees ever, but if he hits a homer against the Bombers when he returns to the Bronx this summer, I will hold my applause.

Look, I'm not saying to boo Matsui. I'm just saying that the silly applause and cheers for his hitting feats against the Yankees need to end. It's annoying.

One other thing - didn't hear the game on the radio, so I don't know if John Sterling did the Thrilla by Godzilla call, the way he did this April. Does anybody know?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

3 comments:

Andrew Katz said...

I agree. People cheered him his first AB. A few people cheered after he hit the home run. This wasn't exactly Bernie Williams or Derek Jeter. The guy came as a free agent in 2003 and played until 2009. I'm grateful for his World Series performance last season, but it's not like he's going to have his number retired in Monument Park. The post-Pinstripe admiration for him has gotten silly.

Uncle Mike said...

Let's see, who would I rather cheer for, a guy who helped the Yankees consistently make the postseason, and eventually won a World Series MVP... or Chan Ho Park, who pitches as if he's on a mission to sabotage the Yankees?

Yeah, I don't get why people would cheer (or, to use Lisa's word, "worship") Matsui. After all, for all his talk about how he loved the Yankees and the tradition, he only won one World Series in Pinstripes, and that didn't come until 2009. Why should we give our veneration to such a man?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get a towel for this sarcasm that's dripping off me.

Does nobody remember how much another Yankee-turned-Angel, Reggie Jackson, got cheered in 1982 when he homered off Ron Guidry? Not that I want to make one of Jon's points for him, but they stopped chanting "Reggie! Reggie!" in mid-trot to switch to "Steinbrenner sucks!" Oh yes they did, it came through quite clear on Channel 11.

Subway Squawkers said...

I don't care if it's Babe Ruth back from the dead. If he's wearing some other team's uniform, I'm not cheering for him!

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