So, basically, I’m doing this because someone challenged me to, so we’ll see how far it goes.

I’m a Yankee fan.

I’ve been a Yankee fan since I was ten, in ’96, and my fourth grade class decided to dupe our witch-of-a-Yankee-hating-teacher by wearing Yankee shirts to class on the last day of the school year. I’ve been a die-hard Yankee fan since ’98, when I first started following the team in earnest.

I’m a Yankee fan not because the team is historically the best (though I am a history major and love anything and everything old, the older and deader the better!), I’m not a Yankee fan because the team won the World Series in ’96 or ’98.

I’m a Yankee fan because I grew up in Northern New Jersey, in the shadow of New York City, and New Jersey doesn’t have a baseball team. I’m a Yankee fan because my older brother was a Yankee fan, and not a Mets fan. I’m a Yankee fan because that was the first baseball team I ever knew existed.

Likewise, I am a Devils and Nets fan purely for reasons of geography–though watching the Devils win the Stanley Cup and the Nets go from worst to first has been quite an enjoyable experience. I’m also a Jets fan, but this one’s a bit different. I was brought up a Giants fan, but in one year both teams made the playoffs, and I saw both games, and I was instantly drawn to the atmosphere of the Jets game.

However, for all the sports I like, there’s none more than baseball.

It’s surprisingly hard to be both a baseball purist AND a Yankee fan, because true purists wanted a Cubs-Red Sox series in 2003 and cheered the Sox in 2004, and the Yankees really are Goliath, but I try.

I love watching pitchers bid for no hitters, walk-off wins, strange-as-hell (like Toronto batting out of order the other day), NL pennant races (since I can watch them and enjoy it, knowing it won’t affect the Yankees), crazy plays…all of the things that make baseball the greatest sport known to mankind.

Yes, I said it.

So I’m a Yankee fan, and a baseball purist. I bleed pinstripes.

My favorite current Yankee is Mariano Rivera. Has been since 1999. It was Paul O’Neill for a long time, and then I decided I wanted a favorite who wasn’t much heard of. And then Rivera pitched something like 33 scoreless innings, rendering it a moot point.

My favorite all time Yankee is Yogi Berra–he’s funny, he wore #8, he lives in NJ. Not much more to it.

The first Yankees game I ever went to was in May 1999. El Duque pitched and the Yankees lost 7-1. Manny Ramirez had at least one home run.

I don’t get to go to many games a season, but I’ve seen the Yankees play Cleveland, Chi Sox, Kansas City, Texas, Pittsburgh, the Angels and the Marlins. I think I’ve seen them play Chicago twice, but I can’t quite remember. There may be other teams I’m forgetting, but I’m pretty sure that’s it.

I’ve sat in nearly every area of the lower level at the Stadium, and I’ve toured Monument Park.

About the non-Yankee me:

I’m a 21 year-old history major at Syracuse University. My area of interest is medieval and Renaissance English history, and true to form, I own Renaisance costumes and four swords (three of which are real). I’m an English minor, and I write fiction.

I grew up in northern New Jersey, and except for Syracuse, last spring in Europe and family vacations, it’s where I’ve spent my life.

I’m terrified, absolutely terrified of thunderstorms and tornadoes.

I have a LiveJournal where I detail my personal life for my friends, but that is the previous extent of my blogging experience.

Let’s see what happens here.