NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE PEN

Bleeding Yankee Blue is here to make you think, not hate. Sadly, everyone hates these days, and no one... or at least 80% of people on Facebook… hate. Even Twitter was more civil, and that place is a cesspool.

Anyway, look... rapid reaction from my piece titled I'M NOT INTERESTED IN THE SECOND STRING YANKEES. Opinion was about 50/50. You either hated it or liked it. For the people that liked it, you were too embarrassed to publicly say so, and so you DM'd me and sent me emails and left it at that. I respect that. You want to keep your street cred. All good.

I don't do it that way... I shoot from the hip. I'm a cowboy. I say it like it is. I am built on passion... in fact BYB was created on passion. Fan passion.

But once again, the trolls behind their computers decided that not reading the article, but reading the headline was good enough.

Now some read. Many were offended. I'm sorry, but being a fan is something special. You hold onto your fandom and can voice your thoughts about a team, a player, the uniform any way you want. And you know what's great about that? IT'S YOUR OWN FANDOM. IT'S YOUR OWN OPINION. No one can take that away from you!

People actually told me that they were "offended" by my post. OFFENDED! I swear to God.  They actually said that my words about not wanting to root hard for this B-Team group of Yankees was offensive. No, I wasn't mocking religion. I wasn't being racist. I didn't call anyone a negative name. I said I didn't want to root as hard for this team because this wasn't the starter team... the team that we thought we were getting when the season started. And you know what's nuts? I was responsible. I cited injury. I cited how injury ruins a team and it's unfortunate that it happened to this team, and even with that being a big part of it... I was disappointed. THAT'S IT, FOLKS. That's all I did.  But dammit it was provocative! I guess people aren't ready for that or they're too dumb to understand it.

Yankee fans can be babies.  Hey... me included. But what I will never do here is hate. The response I got from the losers? All hate.  Many negative. Many even tried to tell me that what I was saying was offensive to them, but meanwhile their Facebook group members were going to town on me... personally. The moment I made a response back... never mean, always intelligent, the response was the same "Why do you keep going, please stop or we will ask you to leave."  Double standard? Hell yeah.

I want you to see some of these comments.  Now, it's true... I got sarcastic with many. It's fun. There comes a time and place where hate isn't nice. Name calling? Nah... that's not me. But I will make points to get people going and so I did. But read some of these. You won't believe what we're dealing with as a society.

That last one was rich. He liked to dish it, but then blocked me so I couldn't respond. spineless. But that's how it goes sometimes. My response was epic. Too bad he'll never see it on Facebook. That's ok, he can read it here on BYB. We don't sensor.

Now let me state for the record... AGAIN. I love my Yankees.  But there is such a thing as a time out. It doesn't mean I don't bleed blue. What it means is I miss my starters and will watch while doing work from the office or helping my kids with their homework. Not my full attention, because, let's be honest, I'm a father, I'm a husband and I have a freaking life.  The Yankees win or lose with or without me… OR YOU by the way. But we all root in our own way. It's not wrong... it's what being a fan is.

I love my team. The fans? Certain ones? Ones that have no scope of life or conversation or intelligence? Not so much. That's bad. Our society is doomed if we can't have a solid conversation about a game that's literally insignificant in our direct lives if you really think about it.

The Yankees will always be my team until the day I die. They've been my team since the first time I saw Ron Guidry pitch, and it will never change for me, ever.

Don't take it personally if I get pissed off at my Yankees. Don't be offended. Instead, I'd rather have you smile, and write me a note and just say "Hey, you can be a nut sometimes, but I love ya! Go Yanks!"  

At least then the love of the Yankees would go further rather than show an ignorant and dramatic fan divide... which is what many of you did today. You should be ashamed of yourself. You know who you are.

It's baseball, not brain surgery. There is literally nothing to be mad about. Disappointed? That's a whole other story.

Keep reading BYB... or don't, I really don't care.

But know this... we are here to make you think... not to hate. Open your eyes.