On being a Yankees fan

It's not hard.

As a Yankees fan, you expect a certain level of play, of player. Yes, we've had four players, five, more, that don't come around all that often, with the right style of play and temperament and so on.

But for all the good/greatness the Yankees have, there's one thing that drives me nuts, and it played out during the Astros series. Yeah, the Astros stink, the team's two best players want out ... but it's still an MLB franchise, worth many millions.

Yet the NY media treats the Houston delegation as if they're a bunch of country bumpkins who never dun seen no skahscrapper befer.

Suzyn (seriously, Suzyn?) Waldman asked the Astros beat writer to describe the pitching matchup of yesterday's game, 8-1 Phil Hughes, 23, rising star, and Brian Moehller, journeyman, a bit of a junkballer ... the implication, of course, being the Astros would see Hughes stride toward the mound and wet themeselves with fear, and the Yankees would laugh mightily at the silly mortal sacrificed to them upon the bloody mound-altar.

Well, in a rain-soaked game with a pretty sketchy strike zone (for both sides) the Yankees did win, they did score nine runs, but Hughes didn't exactly look untouchable, surrendering five runs of his own, including a two-run rocket to Kevin Cash, of all people.

The fact is, the Yankees have significant resources to scout, sign and retain talent. Not everything works, but they can fix their problems a lot easier than most other teams. It just takes brains and savvy and luck to turn that giant pile of money into success, which they've done more recently.

For all the supposed even-handedness of the Yankees broadcasters, the sideline/clubhouse reports are so grating, so pointless, so uninformative and so understandably irritating to outsiders and fans of teams that rise and fall, but mostly fall.