Allow me to let you in on a little New York City secret: if you want to gauge how your team is going to do or even want to hear the voice of the masses, there is a group of hard-working gentlemen who are more insightful and astute than the average sports nuts you meet while drinking a Bud at a pub. I am, of course, talking about doormen (or, to be a little more PC, doorpeople).

Remember that episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry gets stuck in the lobby waiting for Elaine and attempts to strike up a conversation with a sarcastic doorman about sports? The doorman gets insulted because he believes Jerry assumes that all he knows about is sports. Why was that funny? Because it's true.

I spend about 1% of my day (that's a lot when you think about it) talking to my doormen about the Mets and the Yanks. Most of them, as most of NYC is, are Yankee fans. Obviously, there's a lot of chiding, needling and teasing (being a Mets fan, I get most of it). But imagine my immense pleasure when I heard that one of them, a diehard Pinstriper, was so distraught after the BoSox took the rug out from under the Yanks, he had to take a few days off. Ouch.

Yesterday, I walked out of my elevator holding up four fingers to one of the Bombers' fans, indicating that my Mets would win their fourth in a row (indeed they did, in exciting fashion). This particular doorman, who we'll call Bobby, stopped me for a moment. I started teasing him about the Yanks underachieving thus far and Bobby did a semi-shrug, as if to say, "Eh. We'll make the playoffs anyway." But then he gave me one of the most keen assessments of the Yankees I've heard in a long time.

To paraphrase, Bobby said that he wanted the Bombers to get killed some more this year. How about a few more blowouts? More humiliation at the hands of the Sox? Sure! Because the Yankees, as he put it, "needed to be the underdogs." Just like the Red Sox.

I stop in my tracks for a moment. It's not like I haven't heard it before. But I hadn't figured out what the Yankees really need to take their team over the top and make themselves into actual champions. Bobby was seriously right.

In fact, today, in the aftermath of the Sheffield incident in last night's game, Bobby was pretty excited. "That's what I'm talkin' about! It's that kinda stuff that'll get 'em angry!," he called out to me as I imitated Gary's wild swinging motion at the fan to him upon sight out of the elevator. "It all works into my theory!" Only in New York City do the doormen have the Yankee Theory, the solution to all their problems.

The point of all this is that I haven't heard a better theory. It just reminds me of the 2004 Red Sox, who looked like they were going to struggle again...until that moment. You know which one. It's plastered all over the place in the memories of BoSox fans everywhere and the cover of Stephen King's book. When Jason Varitek planted his glove into Alex Rodriguez's face, there was a palpable change in Boston's demeanor. They weren't going to let the Yankees push them around. Sure enough, that swagger carried them to the championship.

So that's what every team, but particularly the Yankees, need. A boost. Motivation. Something to fight for. They just don't have the desperation (why would they? They're all overpaid All-Stars) that a scrappy, feisty team fighting for their playoff lives should have.

Perhaps Gary Sheffield's wild swing last night was that spark. They're fed up with hearing it and now feeling it from the fans. CELLAR DWELLER SIDE NOTE: I think the fan was a complete moron for swinging his arm at Sheff's head, so I'm happy that Gary actually somewhat retaliated just to show that fans should NEVER touch a player. I originally thought the same thing about the Malice at the Palace of Auburn Hiills, except that Ron Artest never should have reacted the way he did, but once that fan-player wall has been physically breached, the field is equalized. Players and fans become humans against humans. Instinct and reaction can sometimes take over.

Getting back to Bobby's theory, if it takes something to unify the Bronx Bombers, whether it be a fight, a retaliatory hit batsman, or even just a late night together on the town, then that's what will take Yanks from perennial losers in the playoffs to a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes, the best team doesn't win. It's the one that wants it the most.


A few more random thoughts:

--Good to see the Nats get a sellout crowd. Obviously, they'll get waaaay better numbers in attendence than they would have in Montreal, but think about guys like Jose Vidro and Brad Wilkerson who have had to play for years in a place where they could hear themselves if they talked at the level of a whisper.

--Ichiro will make a run at .400. I was going to say that at the beginning of the season, but honestly, he's now at the point where he's learned how to be an effective major league hitter (whoever told him to try to hit more home runs at the beginning of last season should be canned) and he's figured out pitching. Expect a ton more of those slappers to all fields and low line drives where he bends his knees to go down and get it. I don't think he'll get .400, but he'll keep us watching until September.

--And finally, I've been able to actually watch the New York Mets playing some fantastic baseball. Right this minute, Carlos Beltran just caught a ball in center field with Juan Pierre, the speedster to end all speedsters, on third and one out. Of course Pierre's going to tag...except Beltran throws a strike to Mike Piazza. Pierre holds up, and the Mets get out of the inning with a groundout. Just having Beltran even roaming out there is enough to scare one of the best runners in the league. Plus, we're finally seeing a Mets team that wants to run (Reyes, knock wood, stay healthy!!) and seems more motivated. They aren't jogging lazily to first anymore and the stupid mistakes that seemed to plague them in the last few seasons are, at least so far, disappearing. Let's see if they can keep it going.

I love the way you write, you are doing an excellent work.
------------------------------
Backgammon Game