JETER, BYB & LOYALTY

With us creating and writing, and you reading Bleeding Yankee Blue, there's a thread that runs through it like a family.  Much like a lot of families out there, we like each other. We tolerate each other in some cases... we even fight.  But at the end of the day though, the writers at Bleeding Yankee Blue try to provide daily content that our audience will enjoy.  It's not easy.  Sometimes, let's face it, I just don't want to write.  I love you guys, but there are times I want to wake up, have breakfast and go to the beach and forget about BYB.  Why? Because I'm tired.  That being said, I still love to write and strangely, I know that if we didn't put content up ... you'd be wondering why. Plus, I hate leaving my family hanging.

So we grind it out daily because that's what our Yankees would do.  We create conversation. We add to it as much as we can and we keep things moving in Yankeeland.  Sometimes we do a straight report. Sometimes we give our opinion and many times, we try to engage you, make you laugh or make you cry.  In the end, it comes down to 1 word.  LOYALTY.

We've seen it in our whole lives as Yankee fans.  Yankees come and go but there are so many great Yankees that come and stay and they've become truly great. They are the players we worship and wear on our backs as we enter Yankee stadium or sit on our couch.  I have worn #20 since 1998 during every playoff run the Yankee have had. I consider it lucky and Jorge Posada's message of "Grind it" resonates with me, in baseball, in life.  #2 is constantly worn by my sons, by your sons, or daughters or you.  These numbers are worn because these Yankees were loyal to the fan base... us.  In return, we loved what they did on the field and all they've given to us.  It's a loyalty thing, something only true fans understand.

When I woke up this morning, I showered up and walked down the street.  I went to see my friend Kevin at the coffee shop.  The place is small, it smells like a bacon, egg and cheese and it's the most comfortable place you want be at 6:45 in the morning.  I go there because I like Kevin and he likes me... we've become friends.  But there's a loyalty there that runs deep and has for about 6 years now.  I grabbed a copy of USA Today, cracked it open to the Loyalty and Rewards section to find a full page photo of Derek Jeter, with today's headline "THE JETER EFFECT: Is the future Hall of Famer a case study in loyalty marketing?" I already knew what was coming next.  There on page 10 was Bleeding Yankee Blue's piece about Jeter.  I smirked, I paid my dollar, gave "the knuckles" to Kevin and walked home.

Again... Loyalty runs deep.  I didn't think about it as much as I did on my walk back to my house this morning.  We do things in life because we become comfortable with a person, or place or thing.  Sure, you can call it routine, but when it comes to the Yankees, to Jeter, even to Kevin... It's also about Loyalty.  Think about you guys... the readers of BYB.  You can go anywhere you want, but you always come here. Why?  Are we giving you what you need? Do you like us? Love us? Or are you loyal? I can tell you one thing, we are loyal to you,  because I started Bleeding Yankee Blue in September 2010 as a joke and suddenly that joke became something important, something relevant.  Sure, I could have put up every OPS stat of every player on BYB and sure I could have broke down every draft ranking and even "Sabermetrics" my ass off, but what would that do? It would make BYB like everyone else.  No, we writers were on a mission, to be different.  We saw what was out there, and while we admired it, it's too much of the same. So we changed it up, we chat with you about what's really important besides Yankee baseball... Family, fans and loyalty.

And here we are, full circle. Don't worry, we're not going anywhere.  I just needed to get everything I thought about this morning on paper because my mind was heavy.  This post isn't about ranting... it's about thanking.  Thank you.  Thanks for being there. Thanks for reading, for talking with us and for liking us. Thank you for being loyal.

Shout out to Media Planet for getting Bleeding Yankee Blue published today in USA Today. I encourage everyone to read the LOYATY & REWARDS section today. It's on newsstands all weekend! Get it!  It's fantastic and the lay out is great as well! Well done. Thanks Ian.

-Robert Casey, CEO & Writer for BleedingYankeeBlue.com
Follow me: @BleednYankeeBlu



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