It was great to see the Yankees win today–notably on the stength of an Alex Rodriguez grand slam, but something that occured during the game got myself–and some others–a little riled.
Yankee Fans:  Real Yankee fans do not do the wave.

Here’s why.

1) It’s distracting.

Yankee fans (usually) come to Yankee games to, well, watch the game.  The Yankees are, and have been since the mid-1990s, a very good, almost-always-still-playing-in-October baseball team.  With the exception of exhibition games or games played in late September after a playoff-berth clincher, Yankee games mean something in the standings.

While you can never pin the results of a season on one particular game, a division such as the AL East can very often come down to just one game in the standings–so every game counts.

When a section of the Stadium all of a sudden makes a ton of noise, everyone else turns and looks to see what’s going on–it takes work to ignore it.  And when you’re busy watching the wave, you’re busy not watching the game.

By all means, cheer your hearts out at the appropriate moments–like, when A-Rod hits a grand slam or Francisco Cervelli legs out an infield single–things that relate to the actual game.  The fans are there to see the game–not the fans that you’ve never met in the section at the opposite end of the stadium.

2) It’s lame.

Yankee fans can, and have, been creative with their cheers.  Like when Pedro Martinez graces the mound and the fans start chanting “who-se your da-ddy”.

Seriously, creativity rocks.

Last week, when I went to Fenway, when the Red Sox were clearly getting blown out, the Red Sox fans started chanting “Let’s Go Bruins!”

Last season, in the middle of July, being in the right-field bleachers when someone spotted a fan wearing a Mets jersey, jumped up and started serenading, “Lu-is Cas-Till-o”.

In fact, these aren’t even particularly creative per se, they’re just topical.  And you don’t have to deal with people standing and sitting and standing and sitting.

The Wave?

Come on, New York.  You are so, so much better than that.

3.) On a hot, humid day you don’t want 50,000 people all raising their arms… (via Josh)

Baseball reigns in New York in a way no other sport–not football, not basketball, not hockey–can do.  The thing is, there has almost always been a decent New York baseball team, a team still playing for something on September 30, every year.  Even when the Yankees have been down, there has been someone else–the Giants, the Dodgers, the Mets–that did well.

That’s how the great rivalries developed and continue to develop, and that’s why New Yorkers know their baseball.

It’s not a sideshow here; it’s the real deal.

If you want to be a Yankee fan, we’re more than willing to have you come aboard (and enhance our world domination, whoo!), but you need to understand–we take our baseball seriously (most of the time, anyway).

And we most definitely do not do the wave.