No one knows what’s going on behind closed doors. It sure seems like the details have been leaked out. To gain leverage? A dose of reality? Those are not games you play with Jeter. You don’t embarrass the captain that has never done one thing to embarrass the organization. In fact, the polar opposite.
And now, if it’s true, the news leaks out that they might not offer Mo 2 years. Two years? Really? That’s not asking much. We fans are not asking much. Seriously. Mariano Rivera. Even if he diminishes a little both of those years, he’d still be better than anyone else out there by far, not to mention his worth as a mentor. He could be Wakefield to the next Rivera.
Maybe it’s all this gloom just before the winter solstice, but I don’t know if I want to go to Yankee Stadium in 2011 without Freddy Sez, Jeter or Mariano. I don’t think I could do it. Give up my seniority as a licensee? Maybe. Sell my tickets, at a loss, no doubt. Maybe.
I became a fan in the 70s. Obviously, those players aren’t around anymore. I’m still a fan. Then there was the Captain, Donnie Baseball, whom I loved and kept us all loving the Yankees when they were in the losing years. Then there were the near recent greats, O’Neill, Bernie, Tino… All gone, although I love that Paul is doing more and more broadcasts. But, I don’t know. This would be too much, all at once. I don’t think I could bear it. I would have to mourn a little. Turn away for a while.
It just wouldn’t sound like Yankee Stadium. I was just getting use to the sounds of the new Yankee Stadium. I miss the roar and the thunder of the 26th player, the Old Yankee Stadium, which I felt I was a part of. Year three in the new stadium… and to not even have the hope of hearing the bang of Freddy’s pan, to not ever hear Sheppard’s voice, forever silenced, and to not feel the exuberant hope of those ominous first notes of Enter Sandman.
It just wouldn’t sound like the Yankees anymore.
Maybe, come Spring, my other senses will beckon me back…the smell of the grass, the crack of the bat, the smack of the glove.
Sure feels like winter, right now.