Their Biggest Fan

Yankee Stadium will be the site of this year’s Major League All-Star game, and I want to go.

It be my first and last chance to visit Yankee Stadium, since the Yankees will open new Yankee Stadium next season, and I deserve to go because I’m such a Yankees fan. Really, I’m not just saying that. Ask Cynthia.

Ask anyone that knows me. Even in my high school yearbooks, my classmates signed them with “Good luck with your Yankees” or something in reference to the Yankees.

Last season I did not miss a Yankees game after the all-star break, thanks to MLB.TV on my computer. I haven’t watched them so much this year, due to our new 50-inch TV, and also because I’m not real happy about the treatment Joe Torre was given by the Yankees brass, namely the Steinbrenners – George, Hank and Hal.

Torre has moved on and has the Dodgers doing quite well, at last glance, thank you.

But I was a Joe Torre fan and the Steinbrenners should have realized that. I mean I wrote an open letter to Brian Cashman, the GM, on HOL (the old Heavener On Line), telling him what he needed to do with the Yankees fate, and that included not getting rid of Joe Torre. I’m sure he saw it.

Still, I haven’t missed a televised game, whether it’s been on ESPN, WGN or Fox. And when they play the Rangers later this summer, it’ll be televised. I’ll get to see one game in Arlington, because Jim Patterson already has tickets for it.

And I have so much Yankees memorabilia, it’s not even funny. I have a Yankees wall right here in the office, with pictures of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Yankee banners, and a Yankee Stadium picture frame (with a photo of a future major leaguer, my grandson Brandon). And in the bedroom, I have a Yankees valet box.

Did I mention the pictures of Mantle are autographed. He even has his arm around me in one. We were very close.

The antenna ball on my truck is, what else, a Yankee ball player. And on the right side of the tailgate is a classy silver Yankee logo. OU is on the left! Cynthia wanted to get me Yankee floor mats but the madness has to stop somewhere!

I always make at least one Yankees game every time they come to Arlington to play the Rangers. I won a lottery for the opportunity to buy tickets to the Yankees game in Houston. The Astros surely chose my name because I’m such a fan. And yes, I did exercise my option! We'll be there in June.

I’ve voted for the all-star game on MLB and at every position on the American League team. I voted for a Yankee – Jason Giambi at first base, Robinson Cano at second, Derek “The Captian” Jeter at short, Alex Rodriguez at third, Jorge Posoda at catcher, and in the outfield Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera and Bobby Abreu. Even Hedeki Matsui at designated hitter. The National League all-stars? Well, whoever makes it is fine with me. And I’ve voted more than once.

MLB says I can vote up to 25 times. You can help me by logging on to mlb.com and voting for them, too!

I mean, what else can I do to prove I’m a true Yankees fan?

After my baseball-playing days were over, and I turned to softball, I always wore a Yankees batting helmet. And every time I go to the doctor’s office, I wear a Yankees jersey. In fact the nurses hardly recognize me without my Yankees jersey.

I get comments about my Yankees jersey. One woman at the doctor's office finally got brave enough to ask if I had several of these shirts or did I just wear the same one every day.

Come on, people, I’m a Yankees fan-atic, through and through.

Like I said, I deserve a chance to go to Yankee Stadium. If anyone does, it’s me.