Some Kind of Mystic

(this appears in my Monday column in Business Mirror)




As a young man observing his rich father’s new acquisition – the New York Yankees – Hank Steinbrenner, then in his teens, bathed himself in the incandescent glow of a second straight World Series triumph in 1978. Even better, he sat beside the Yankee Clipper himself at the Stadium where he helped America’s team win a number of championships.

“Is there a difference winning a World Series with the Yankees and winning it with another team,” asked the heir to one of sports’ proudest and greatest teams.

The great DiMaggio smiled at the young Steinbrenner and exclaimed, “Of course there is. You win one with another team and its okay. But you win one with the Yankees, you’ll be remembered forever.”

It’s a remark that borders arrogance, but coming from the great DiMaggio, he who was celebrated by Simon and Garfunkel in that timeless ditty “Mrs. Robinson,” he who won titles, went off to war, came back and won more even more titles… it was continuing the legacy of the Bambino and the Iron Horse. Of the famed Murderer’s Row and Joe McCarthy who cleared the stain of the Black Sox scandal. It’s a fact, Jack, and you could look it up in the Library of Congress.

Remember one of the first things Curt Schilling said when he joined the Boston Red Sox via the Arizona Diamondbacks: “So this means I gotta hate the Yankees now, huh?”

What pool of mystique is there playing for a great team?

First of all, it requires a bevy of championships that begets a standard of excellence; this affirms their mastery and class over the field. Second, their feats are canonized and immortalized in popular culture living on beyond generations. And third, the team inspires fanatical devotion and an equal opposite to ferment a rivalry.

It makes an Argentinean openly declare fealty to a club he’s not even been with for a year? Javier Mascherano transferred from West Ham to Liverpool in January of this year and less than two months into the new season, he proudly said that if he cannot play for Liverpool for life then he’s leaving England. Dude… this is Liverpool FC. We’re talking about Anfield, You Never Walk Alone, Bill Shankly, Hillsborough, Bruce Grobbelaar’s ‘spaghetti legs,’ Istanbul, and more Trebles than the total number of Red Devils it takes to change a light bulb. The Falklands War has truly been consigned to the dustbins of history.

Chelsea FC has done well over the last couple of years thanks to Roman Abramovich’s billions and the superb managing of former gaffer Jose Mourinho. They’ve won two Premiership titles in the last three years yet when the West London team squares off with Merseyside’s Reds, they still get riled when the Kop chants, “You’ve got no history.” Chelsea executive Peter Kenyon says that there’s a difference between connecting with the fans on a long-term basis and attracting them because you’re the new club that just won the Premiership. It takes time and a more robust grassroots connection.”

In LFC we trust, lads.

What makes Norman Black, head coach of the Ateneo Blue Eagles, feel the pressure of handling a winning program: “A lawyer can lose a case and few people will know. A businessman can make a bad decision and few people will know about it. But if Ateneo loses to La Salle, the whole country knows about you.”

Ah… Ateneo. When Aileen Grajales passed her entrance exam of the Masters Program, with a twinkle in her eyes she proudly wore it all the way from the Jesuit school’s Rockwell campus all the way to Loyola Heights while taking the MRT and LRT. And to think that she would only don the blue and white for one year as opposed to her several playing years in Lyceum. It’s not a knock against her alma mater; Johnny Depp may have made pirates (hence the Lady Pirates) de rigueur but blue and white any day is a lot sexier.

When you talk about Argentine club football you start and end with Boca Juniors. From Diego Maradona to Juan Roman Riquelme to Martin Palermo. Theirs is an unsurpassed legacy in Argentina. In fact, “end” is appropriate. For many a Boca Junior fan, once they’ve shuffled from this mortal coil, it’s in their will and fervent desire to be buried in a Boca coffin or for their ashes to be scattered on La Bombonera.

“Everyone (Argentine) club out there gauges their chances of winning the Clausura depending on how good Boca’s line-up is,” Maradona once said glowingly about his club that he elevated to a world power status (he also gave Naples a Serie A title as well). “But for Boca, no season is successful if it doesn’t end with a championship.”

So when the allure of $275 million and the further riches because of wearing pinstripes is the prime factor in re-signing Alex Rodriguez for another 10 years, I say no.

Sign someone who truly wants to be a Yankee. Someone who wishes to immerse himself and add to the aura and mystique that plays nightly in the Bronx. Some one with the traditions of eye black, cracker jack, of someone who longs to play in one of the most famous bits of real estate… the playing field of the House That Ruth Built.

It’s a tradition. And he’ll be remembered forever.


The author believes in old school loyalty and is proud of the fact that players like Larry Bird, Ervin Johnson, and Joe DiMaggio played out their entire careers with their one team.