A way of thinking

The fact that many Google searches for "Yankee haters" bring people here should tell you how I feel about the pinstripes. I hate them. I hate them so... much... it... the.. f... flames... flames... on the side of my face... I love to see them lose like they did against the Tigers. I like the A-Rod bashing, the Giambi post-roid weight loss, and the slow decomposition of Randy Johnson. But today, the morning after Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle was killed when his plane flew into the side of a New York City building, the hate disappears.

Sports bring out a lot of emotion in me and us. When our teams play, we're exalted in their success and crestfallen in their failures. We taunt the opposition through the television, radio, or when we're at the stadium in person, but when the opposition steps off the field - and they no longer are our opposition - it's different.

Today I'm not a Yankee hater. Today I don't feel gleeful because they're out of the playoffs (though I do think it's a good thing they're out already because nobody should have to play after losing a teammate as they have). Today my heart goes out to the Yankees organization, and especially to the family of Cory Lidle. Sometimes we forget that, despite the fact that we root hard for our own teams, we're fans of sports as a whole. It's a shame it sometimes takes something like this to remind me of that.