Yankee Fans Embarrass City
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

In the space of four days, the Yankee have gone from the verge of a triumphant sweep of the ALCS to the edge of an unprecedented collapse.
And yet, this $180 million assemblage of All-Stars at every position other than pitcher has nothing to be ashamed of if it winds up losing Game 7 tonight to the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, something no baseball team that took a 3-0 series lead has ever done.
It’s too bad the same can’t be said of the Yankee fans, who do not deserve the team that has entertained them so well and so admirably for the past eight years.
Perhaps they have been spoiled by too much success too soon. Maybe it is the thought of losing to the hated Red Sox, a prospect so distasteful to some New Yorkers that it is worth rioting over. None of us who have been born and reared in New York and proudly call it home care to admit this, but maybe there is an undue sense of arrogance and entitlement around here that extends even to the vicarious pleasure of watching a baseball game.
Whatever the reason, a good portion of the sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium last night created a scene that should be an embarrassment to every one of us, and all because the Red Sox came in and thoroughly out pitched, outplayed, and out gutted the Yankees in a game that no Yankee fan, it seems, even considered could be lost.
It started in the fourth inning, when the fans howled in protest after a Mark Bellhorn drive that clearly left the ballpark was correctly ruled a home run after having been ruled a double. The ball had, in fact, hit a 12-year-old girl sitting behind the leftfield fence in the midsection.
It intensified in the bottom of the eighth when, with the Yankees trailing, 4-2, and the situation growing desperate, Alex Rodriguez resorted to slapping the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s glove when it was clear he would easily be tagged out.
The fans roared when, at first, umpire Randy Marsh called Rodriguez safe and allowed Derek Jeter to score with what they thought was the third run of the game. But their glee turned ugly when the rest of the crew correctly overturned the call, ruling Rodriguez out and sending Jeter back to first.
First, booing. Then, obscene chanting. Finally, a shower of baseballs flew onto the field from all over the ballpark, aimed at the umpires and Boston players, causing a play stoppage, prompting warnings from PA announcer Bob Sheppard, and nearly resulting in Red Sox manager Terry Francona pulling his team from the field.
What should have been remembered for a great performance by Curt Schilling ended with the shameful spectacle of riot-gear clad police officers having to stand along both foul lines until the inning was over.
Thankfully, the Yankees went quietly in the bottom of the ninth and so did their fans. Both will be back tonight for one more shot at putting away these remarkably resilient Red Sox, but can you imagine what the reaction will be if the mighty Yankees are to lose?
For years, New Yorkers have rightly, if condescendingly, clucked their tongues at the antics of fans in places like Detroit and L.A. and yes, Boston, who overturn cars and set fires when their teams lose, and sometimes even when they win.
That stuff doesn’t happen here, we always say. We’re too sophisticated, too cosmopolitan, too immersed in real life to allow something as frivolous as the accomplishments of athletes to turn us into savages. So how is it that Yankee fans, most of whom jumped aboard the bandwagon around Game 6 of the 1996 World Series but claim to have ridden it all of their lives, can react like churls when their team, which has been to six World Series in the past eight years and won four of them, goes down to defeat?
Probably, it comes from the highest level of Yankee management, The Boss himself, to whom any season that ends without a World Championship is branded a failure. It is that attitude that has made the Yankees such an impressive, even menacing team in the Joe Torre Era. It is also that attitude that has taken much of the joy out of rooting for the Yankees. Winning the division, winning the pennant, reaching the big show are never enough.
Every year, win or lose, the team is dismantled, broken down, re-tooled, and reloaded. Executives who are not fired are threatened or publicly humiliated.
After all, you can’t spend this much on ballplayers and settle for anything less than unconditional victory. This belief not only obsesses the owner, it infects the players and inflames the fans.
Last night, there was the spectacle of Hideki Matsui, who knew quite well that Bellhorn’s shot was a home run, standing by mutely, hoping the umpires would get it wrong. There was Rodriguez, once considered the best player in the American League, trying to cheat his way on base, and there was Joe Torre, the manager many consider one of the most honorable men in professional sports, out there arguing his case.
Who could possibly expect the fans, who pay premium prices and have come to expect premium results, to comport themselves any better?
Instead of celebrating the brilliance of Schilling, who pitched seven innings of three hit ball on a torn-up ankle, or the pluck of the Red Sox, who shook off an 11-run defeat on Saturday to win back-to-back extra inning games, or merely reveling in October baseball as it is supposed to be, we are forced to watch as Yankee fans humiliate themselves and their city with a public tantrum.
Then again, their beloved Yankees still stand a long way from what they consider success, but a mere nine innings from abject failure.
Mr. Matthews is the host of the “Wally and the Keeg” sports talk show heard Monday-Friday from 4-7 p.m. on 1050 ESPN radio.