When I was five, I loved baseball. Growing up, my favorite player was Don Mattingly. I've got every one of his baseball cards in a huge album of nothing but Yankee cards. Paul O'Neil's rookie card, Bernie Williams, and Mr. Jeter thank you. I actually remember seeing Jeter play minor league ball for the Greensboro Hornets. Getting a PSA Gem Mint 10 A-Rod soon, since he's gonna be around for a while!

Yankee fans are only hated by Red Sox fans because of jealousy. Yankees fans get to feel the thrill of victory...

The thing i resent about the Yankees is that it's not a level playing field. A $200MM payroll is going to get you a better team than a $60MM payroll.

The Marlins and A's and even the Cubs are anomalies. Year in and year out, the team with the better players is going to win more than the team without the best players.

George's only argument against revenue sharing (and it' a valid one) is how do you garauntee that the team will spend the money they get from revenue sharing on players and not just put it in thier pocket? IOW, why should other teams get into his pocket and take his money if they're not going to put it back into the organization?

My argument is that it works in football, it could work in baseball. Then you wouldn't have the Braves and the Yankees in the post season every single year.

My Yankee fanship started at the tender age of 8 when I visited my grandparents in Binghampton NY. Gramps was a huge Yankees fan and we watched a ton of games whenever I was there through the years. I was hooked. The only regular season games I watch are Yankees games.

Derek Jeter went to high school less than an hour from me and has family on my street. Some of my buddies played him in high school. John VanderWal (from my hometown) played LF and DH for them in '02. In 1995, despite a strike-shortened 144-game schedule he established a Major League record with 28 pinch hits, and led the league with three grand slams in '03.

I am a REAL fan:)

Back to the Bronx! You know, its more fitting that the series gets back to New York. Can the Win 3 in a row? Could have a 7th game coming.

I think we're closing it out tonight...but we'll see, ya' never know...

Pretty soon the SOX are goona have CJ on the mound:) Tonight is it, all done.

Well, I don't doubt that you are a real fan, but actually the reason that we hate most Yankee fans is because most Yankee fans are condescending jerks.

I am friends with a few Yankees fans (this is CT, remember), but they are baseball fans first, so they have a lot of respect for my predicament. They are very respectful, and they give credit where credit is due. I try to do likewise.

Actually, one of my closest friends is a Yankees fan, and we have been watching the games together for the most part (with about 4 other Sox fans). Even though he he loves the Yankees, he would love to see the Sox finally win a WS... "as long as they don't have to go through the Yankees to do it." Now that is a real BASEBALL fan.

I just want to end this post by giving it up for the Sox bullpen: 8 innings last night, no earned runs, 10 strikeouts! Incredible.

Houston/St. Louis game wasn't too bad either ;)

While it is highly out of character for a Yankees fan to say this, I'd like to see Boston win it all...just not against the Yankees. If NY wasn't in the playoffs, I'd be rooting for the Sox. Wade Boggs was my other favorite player growing up...kind of confusing to a lot of Yankees fans, and Sox fans. But I'll always have pinstriped blood first, no matter what.

So I totally understand where your friend is coming from...I just wished they'd get some damn haircuts, they'rte starting to look a little lady-like...

ok, jason, i have a lot more respect for you now. And here's some "tit for tat"

I've said it all along during the playoffs: Hideki Matsui is absolutely amazing. The Yankees best all-round player right now, if you ask me. Every time he came up to bat last night, I was expecting him to put the final nail into the coffin.

My respect also goes out to Rivera, even though it is clear that he is tired and over-worked at this point. He is, with the possible exceptions of Eckersly or Gossage, the best closer of all time. And I don't doubt that Joe Torre is one of the greatest managers in recent history (along with Mike Scoscia).

What makes me hate the Yankees? Guys like Gary Sheffield, who are no more than hired guns and say very stupid things to the press. And *most* Yankees fans are condescending jerks. (admittedly, the drunken college kid Sox fan is pretty obnoxious too)

If I was a Yankees fan, I would find it a bit more difficult to love this team than the 1996-1999 Yankees, to tell the truth. Guys like O'Neill, Brosius, Tino... those are REAL ballplayers, not the hired guns like Giambi and Sheffield.Actually, I have heard old-school Yankees fans say that guys like Nixon, Damon, Millar, and Varitek (the "dirt dogs") remind them of the grit that the guys like O'Neill and Tino brought to those dynasty Yankee teams.

LOL...Hired guns are fine with me as long as they win the World Series, anything less is just a waste of the fans time, and Steinbrenner's considerable investment...

Honestly though, I think whoever comes out of the NL is going to win it though...just have that feeling.

when there were 8 teams left, I predicted the Cards to win it all...

these playoffs have become pretty unpredictable, though...

I just think they the same bats, and better pitching by a long shot...