Geoffrey Stevens (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} aquajungle) wrote,@ 2006-02-09 11:29:00 |
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Little League Yanks
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/m
I saw this story in the Boston Globe this morning. Apparently, the local single A farm team for the Red Sox, the Lowell Spinners, suggested that all New England-area little leagues replace any teams with the NY Yankees moniker and uniforms with those of the Spinners.
About time someone did something about this! The Spinners organizations said that for any leagues willing to make the change, the Spinners would pick up the tab for the new uniforms.
What's my personal investment in this developing story? Unfortunately, I was one of the countless young victims who was forced to play as a Yankee in little league baseball. From the ages of 13-15 when I played Babe Ruth Ball, I was a Yankee. And I hated it. At the time I wondered, 'Why couldn't I have lived in the other part of town where they only used National League teams?' We had the full pinstripe uniform and I felt like a slimy traitor every time I had to suit up for a game. Once the game started I tried to forget that I was playing for the Yankees, but it was always somewhere in the back of my mind.
I realize it was only a team name, a hat, and a uniform I had to wear for 15 games every spring, but it really ticked me off at the time. The one team in major league baseball that I loathed and detested, the one organization I vowed never to root for under any circumstance, and here I was not only wearing their iconic cap, but sporting the whole get-up and cheering "Let's go Yankees!" from the bench.
While this whole Spinners/Yankees swap idea is silly and sophomoric, I still think it's brilliant and something all local leagues should, at the very least, discuss. Maybe there are a few little league -playing closet-Yankee fans in the area, but on the whole, Massachusetts is a Yankee-hating state, especially the eastern part.
And if the Spinners are willing to foot the bill for the new uniforms and equipment, why not go for it? You'd be promoting a creative, up-and-coming local organization in the progress instead of the colloquial "evil empire."
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/m
I saw this story in the Boston Globe this morning. Apparently, the local single A farm team for the Red Sox, the Lowell Spinners, suggested that all New England-area little leagues replace any teams with the NY Yankees moniker and uniforms with those of the Spinners.
About time someone did something about this! The Spinners organizations said that for any leagues willing to make the change, the Spinners would pick up the tab for the new uniforms.
What's my personal investment in this developing story? Unfortunately, I was one of the countless young victims who was forced to play as a Yankee in little league baseball. From the ages of 13-15 when I played Babe Ruth Ball, I was a Yankee. And I hated it. At the time I wondered, 'Why couldn't I have lived in the other part of town where they only used National League teams?' We had the full pinstripe uniform and I felt like a slimy traitor every time I had to suit up for a game. Once the game started I tried to forget that I was playing for the Yankees, but it was always somewhere in the back of my mind.
I realize it was only a team name, a hat, and a uniform I had to wear for 15 games every spring, but it really ticked me off at the time. The one team in major league baseball that I loathed and detested, the one organization I vowed never to root for under any circumstance, and here I was not only wearing their iconic cap, but sporting the whole get-up and cheering "Let's go Yankees!" from the bench.
While this whole Spinners/Yankees swap idea is silly and sophomoric, I still think it's brilliant and something all local leagues should, at the very least, discuss. Maybe there are a few little league -playing closet-Yankee fans in the area, but on the whole, Massachusetts is a Yankee-hating state, especially the eastern part.
And if the Spinners are willing to foot the bill for the new uniforms and equipment, why not go for it? You'd be promoting a creative, up-and-coming local organization in the progress instead of the colloquial "evil empire."
