ANOTHER REASON TO LOVE ANTHONY FAUCI

Source: AP

Here at BYB we are always exploring nuggets, fan favorites, little things, that might get overlooked, if you are not perceptive.  And this Wednesday, we have one of those nuggets to explore and quite frankly have a some fun with in a way only we can.

Earlier this week, one of American's most trusted individuals, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said it is plausible that we have baseball this season. “People who know more about baseball structure than I do have said it, but I think it’s reasonable. You could either have a situation where you get the group of players and you put them in a few cities, you make sure they’re not infected, you test them so that they don’t infect each other, and you have baseball — as much as it’s tough to say — in a spectator-less environment. You have people playing in an environment in which people can watch it on television," said Fauci, reported in the New York Post.  Sure that is a terrific reason to love the good doctor.  But I have another.

Source: The New York Post

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leader for the President's coronavirus task force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is a Yankee fan!  Yes, the Brooklyn native is a lifelong Yankee fan, despite being raised in Dodger territory.

"I think people who don’t come from the New York area – at least are not old like I am and come from the New York area – don’t realize back then that half the people in Brooklyn were Yankee fans. There was a wonderful competitiveness and rivalry between the friends who were Dodgers fans and Yankees fans,” Fauci said. “We had a whole culture. It was Duke Snider vs. Mickey Mantle. Yogi Berra vs. Roy Campanella. Pee Wee Reese vs. Phil Rizzuto. We used to follow their batting averages that I could tell you, on any given day in elementary school, exactly what the point up or down in Yogi Berra’s average was, or Mickey Mantle or anybody.”

Wow! Just wow!  He's a Yankee fan despite being from Bensonhurst.  How exciting is that?  During an interview with Jack Curry on #YESWereHere, Fauci talks about his fandom and his love of the game. He says that there is something special when you walk into a stadium and look out at that manicured field for the first time and how much he enjoys just having a dog and a beer at the ballpark.

Source: YES Network

Last week, we learned that Dr. Fauci graduated from Regis High School, a Jesuit school in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  My guess is young Fauci caught a number of games at the House that Ruth Built as a kid.  I feel like he may have even sat next to my dad, who would have been 78 this May, just a year younger than Fauci who is 79.  My dad knew what Mantle's average was at every given moment too.  Real fans know those things.

His leadership has been clearly visible as he stands toe-to-toe with the President, telling the truth and sharing data-driven evidence with Americans.

Source: Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

"Straight, down-the-middle in style, the authenticity in the gravel of his voice, the Brooklyn twang, his white coat, the cadence of his speech. And, then, that authenticity only deepens as it takes its substance from the one of the most challenging forms of honesty: telling truth to power, in the presence of that power, without, at least overtly, insulting that power. Wow, we say, that guy must only have one, pure motivation: he sees his role as serving us, serving others, serving his country," reported Forbes Magazine about Fauci's education at Regis and the College of the Holy Cross in MA.

No surprise that Dr. Fauci, leader, and one of the top doctors, is a Yankee fan; just another reason to love him.  And if baseball makes its comeback this season, it will be clearly under the scrutiny and guidance from the good doctor.

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof