Being a Yankees Fan from Afar

Recently I was approached on Twitter by one of our followers to answer a few questions about the New York Yankees and their brand. He is in the middle of doing a research paper on the Yankees, their brand, sports brandings, etc. so that was going to be the general gist of the line of questioning. Of course I immediately agreed and we swapped contact information while I waited for the questions to be emailed to me. To make a long story short I answered the questions and he and I got to talking afterwards and I learned he was from England. In one of the questions I mentioned that I had moved from the Bronx to Atlanta, GA and we got talking about how hard it is to be a fan from afar.

He mentioned having to stay up all hours of the night to watch the Yankees game live and naturally when I say live I mean on the television or the internet. He does not get to watch the Yankees Hot Stove, the Yes Network, the recaps of the games he missed on Sportscenter or the games live. Living in England and being a fan from afar has taken away probably the greatest part about being a Yankees fan, interacting with other fans on a day to day person and rooting for your team while watching live in the stadium.

So here I am complaining in the email, before I knew his location of course, about only getting to see the Yankees once every three or four years and having to pay top dollar for seats when he has never been to Yankee Stadium and never seen the Yankees live. Talk about feeling about three inches tall! It did warm my heart to hear that he has a savings fund going and his plan is to come over and see Yankee Stadium within a decade. I’m complaining about seeing my team once every three or four years and he has to save for the better part of a decade just to see them once.

I tend to ramble on and I don’t want to get too long winded with this so I will simply end it here. Don’t take for granted your ability to turn your TV on and watch the YES Network or to jump on the subway and see your favorite team in the Bronx. What you feel is a part of your everyday life is something that some people would save and sacrifice to enjoy just once. We ARE the greatest fans in the world and we ARE a family and that is truly special about being a fan of the New York Yankees, whether domestic or abroad, whether close or whether afar.