THEEE Yankees Win (And Their Fans Do, Too)

OK, so maybe I'm a little bit jaded when it comes to the Yankees. They've got a huge payroll, a boatload of World Series wins already and, as the wife of a Red Sox fan, I can appreciate how annoying it is when John Sterling, their longtime radio announcer, blares THHEEE Yankees Win! into the microphone after every victory, which inevitably prompts my husband to yell THEEE Yankees Suck! right back at him.

But still, my heart is not made of ice, and I can't help but smile when I watch how excited Yankees fans (and players) the world over get after a World Series win. Last night, the boys in blue beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 to garner their 27^th World Series win, their first in nine years, prompting joyous pandemonium in the Bronx and beyond.

In Times Square, the near impossible happened just before Yankees closer Mariano Rivera threw out the final pitch: the immense crowd fell silent. But the quiet transformed into a deafening roar seconds later when he forced Phillies player Shane Victorino to ground out.

"I have never had a greater feeling," Nick Kakaribes, who traveled two hours to watch the game on big Times Square screen, told the New York Daily News. "This is the best moment in the whole world."

Lifelong Yankees fan Cheryl Rodriguez almost agreed. "I'm feeling like this is the most special moment in life - except giving birth," she said.

Half a world away, practically all of Japan came to a standstill yesterday afternoon as they watched their native son, Hideki Matsui, hit a home run, single and double in Game 6 yesterday, and eventually get crowned World Series MVP, the first Japanese-born player to earn the honor.

In Toyko, scores of workers took an extended lunch break and crowded around TVs in electronics stores to watch the man they dubbed Godzilla accept his trophy. "Matsui's presence is huge. He overcame injuries and came through with the performance of a lifetime. As a Japanese, I'm very proud today," office worker Hiroyuki Takeuchi, who took the morning off to watch the game, told The Associated Press.

Inside the new Yankee Stadium, which christened their first year with a win, fans lucky enough to view history basked in the victory. Diehard Yankee fan Curtis Jones, who just so happens to be commander of the USS New York (which we told you about earlier in the week) watched the game next to newly reelected NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

"Bringing the ship here felt like bringing hope back to New York. It was more fulfillment than a triumph. This, on the other hand, is a triumph!" Jones told the NY Post.

On the field, new and veteran players celebrated with tears, champagne and a little goofiness. Alex Rodriguez finished out a tough year (steroids, anyone?) with the sweetest ending possible — and he clearly knew it as he could not stop himself from crying as he held the World Series trophy high atop his head last night. Pitcher A.J. Burnett's exuberance came in the form of a shaving cream pie, which he planted squarely in the face of manager Joe Girardi.

And speaking of Girardi, it turns out the guy's not only an expert coach, he's kind of a hero too. While driving home early this morning — presumably on Cloud 9 — he stopped to help a female driver who had crashed into a highway wall. "He was jumping up and down, trying to flag me down," Westchester County Police Officer Kathleen Cristiano, a first responder and Yankees fan, told The Journal News. "You don't expect him standing by a car accident trying to help."

"The guy wins the World Series, what does he do? He stops to help. It was totally surreal," she added. And totally admirable, too.

Perhaps these are some of the reasons why the Yanks have such dedicated fans like Gordon Gutierrez, who might live in Bethlehem, Penn., but is no Phillies fan. He was determined to watch the game in New York, and when he and his daughter failed to find scalped tickets to the stadium, they joined this immense crowd in the ESPN Zone in Midtown, where some fans waited five hours to get inside.

"I said that no matter what, we were going to watch the Yankees win in New York," he said. "This is an amazing moment."

So perhaps I am a cynical ex-Yankee fan, but if a win brings so many people this much joy, who am I to criticize?

Photo courtesy of BuickCenturyDriver via Wikimedia Commons