WHAT IS A YANKEE GROUPIE? PART 2

THE MALE FAN



Groupie: enthusiastic fan: an enthusiastic fan or supporter of something.

A lot of positive response from BYB fans and Yankee fans alike who got a kick out of Christy Lee’s piece titled WHAT IS A YANKEE GROUPIE? THE FEMALE FAN from last week. Many asked though, why is it only targeting the women? Let’s be honest, everything Christy laid out is true, many women fall into these 3 categories… The Diva, the Cougar, the SuperFan, but the reality is, men have their own titles and categories. Us Yankee fans are a large community with all different personalities and that’s what makes us great. We’re like the Smurfs, except there are a ton of Smurfettes that want Derek Jeter to themselves. So while there are a ton of Yankee women who fall into say the "Cougar" category at the stadium, men have titles too:

"The Frat Boy": This guy usually stays until the last inning but doesn’t watch a moment of the game. He’s usually starts off wearing his Giambi or Munson jersey, not buttoned, and by the end of the night, it's off. He usually has his hat on backwards and that's usually missing or in his back pocket late in the game too. He walks around the stadium all game razzing non-Yankee fans and getting true Yankee fans pumped. He’s the guy that shouts down attractive rival female fans, but the reality is, he wants to bang them and in his intoxicated mind, he thinks his shouting is flirting with those ladies. Fans with kids at the game usually want to hide their kids from this guy, but they end up letting them watch the comedy unfold. Cops will approach these characters at least once if not more, but because they're Yankee fans, they are usually just told to tone it down. The frat boy usually has a seat but never sits in it, he’s just constantly drinking his $10 beer, walking around and yelling “Let’s go Yankees!” They’re alittle embarrassing, yet a staple in the Stadium and it wouldn’t be the same if they weren’t there.

"The Possum": This is the fan that wants to be "The Frat Boy" so badly, but will instead wear his perfect Yankee cap and talk trash about the crappy opposing teams fans to his friends, but won't razz the same fans he's bitching about because he doesn't want any trouble. Quite simply, he's really there to enjoy the game, but is a wanna be tough guy. He also will have a collared shirt under his nicely pressed pinstriped jersey, usually wearing Mussina or Pettitte.

"The Sign Guy": This fan is always at the stadium and comes equipped with a sharpie and poster paper and always has the American Flag for the 7^th inning that he drapes over 15 fans and shares holding it with a Yankee fan he never met before in his life. It doesn’t matter, they’re both there for the same thing, they’re looking for a Yankee win. He’s the guy that comes up with creative ways to get on camera, making signs that say “I play the Michael Kay drinking game” or uses the Captain from Capt. Crunch cereal as the “K” for when CC pitches. He's the guy that would quickly make a sign that reads "Pedroia, say hello to your mother for me" if his original sign with Ortiz's name didn't apply because of a last minute scratch from the lineup. Bottom line, it's all about topical signage at the stadium for this guy, and he's great at it.

"The Nerd": Yeah, every game has one, the guy who has the radio earplug in his ear, his faded Yankee cap from the 70’s and a stat book keeping track of the game and listening to the radio play by play at a live sporting event. You really have to respect it because there have been times where if the crowd get’s too loud, he will literally turn to the crowd and "shhhhhh" them like they're in a library. It’s always a bizarre scene, but without these guys at the game, it isn’t really a game now, is it?

Let’s Go Yankees!



NOTE: The photos used in this post were not the actual Groupies described... just die hard Yankee fans.



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WHY THE PEN IS WHERE HUGHES BELONGS

(Photo: Getty)
Mark Feinsand has the story first HERE, and I suggested it a few weeks ago in WHY I'D MOVE HUGHES TO THE PEN. It makes sense to put Phil Hughes in the bullpen. No, this isn't a long term decision according to the Yankees, but it is for this Yankees / Red Sox series at least. Then, they'll re-evaluate. To be quite honest, this is a good test, especially if Hughes gets work out of the pen this weekend.

Phil Hughes gets mixed reviews by Yankee fans. Many are frustrated and don't believe the hype, others love the Golden Boy and just want him to succeed no matter what. Me? I just feel as though you can't just force the kid to be a starter if he's not. Now, don't misunderstand me; Hughes was huge for us in 2010, winning 18 games, but as many predicted, like Tom Verducci (Read HERE), there would definitely be work load issues for Phil Hughes in 2011. He was right and "dead arm" occurred. Couple that theory with the former Yankee player and manager Bill Masse who thought they babied Phil Hughes when he was down in the minors and we may be onto something. (In Photo: Bill Masse)
Read WAS BILL MASSE RIGHT ABOUT HUGHES? In it, Masse said this about the treatment of Hughes in the minors:

“We get so ridiculous with this dumb pitch count stuff… Somebody came up with a pitch count thing (like) this is going to decide if a kid’s arm is going to be healthy or not. It’s like predicting the weather sometimes. ‘If he throws 66 pitches, he will be fine, but if he throws 81, he is going to get hurt.’ No one can predict that.

The only negative you run into is that he never learns how to pitch when he is tired. He never learns how to pitch when he is a little bit fatigued. I think you run into those problems because he is always fresh. Also, he is never in trouble. He needs to learn how to pitch out of his second or third jam in the seventh inning with two outs and he’s throwing 90 mph instead of 94.”

Look, I don't take myself too seriously, there are plenty of people out there that have their own theories about Phil Hughes, This is mine. Use Phil as you need him, especially this season. Get him back to full strength. Maybe he will be back as a starter. maybe he's a reliever like he's proven for the Yankees in 2009. But what do I know, I'm just a blogger.

Clearly one of the main reasons the Yankees may move Hughes to the pen is because of the 6 man rotation they currently have. CC Sabathia has 16 wins, Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova have 10 wins each, AJ Burnett has 8 wins, Bartolo Colon has 8 as well. Phil Hughes was out half the season nursing a "Dead arm" issue and has a record of 2-3 with a 6.93 ERA. To me, I say, let him work his way back, build his arm strength and see how he does out of the pen. Why take the others out of the rotation for someone who hasn't earned it.

Look, for all I know in 3 days Girardi may decide to move Nova back down to Scranton after the weekend, but to me, Nova earned his spot, he's done everything asked of the Yankees this year and he's proving himself. Hughes hasn't base it on a mystery illness, bad starts or whatever, bottom line, it's August. And think about this... Feinsand points out if after this weekend. Hughes comes out of the bullpen, Nova could then be put IN the bullpen and then there will be question marks on what to do next with AJ Burnett in his next start. To be honest, we don't need this in my opinion, we need stability in our rotation, it helps with confidence in pitchers. We used to laugh at Mike Mussina because he needed a schedule. He needed to pitch when he was supposed to pitch so he could concentrate on his ritual on throwing days. Maybe he was onto something. In my opinion, right now we need consistency and rhythm, not uncertainty. That's all I'm saying.

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WHY THE YANKEE RUNS KEPT ON COMING

It was a long rain delay last night and when that happens, I always think back to Mike Mussina who just couldn't get things started if it was a long delay because he was always on a schedule and needed to pitch when it was his time and when it was his hour or he just wasn't able to deliver all the time after that. Well, I thought about Freddy Garcia in that situation. How would he be? Fine. Nice...who knew?(Photo: Getty)
Garcia was dominant and it reminds us all of why veterans in rotations can be great. He changed up his pitches and just took over the Bronx last night and the best part was his team got him run support early and I'll take a blow out every night as long as we keep on clicking like that. Freddy went 7 2/3 innings and got his 9th win of the season. Pitching and hitting was terrific last night.
The offense started with Mark Teixeira getting his 27th home run, a nice shot too. At that point it was 2-0 Yankees. Derek Jeter cranked one out last night and also had a beautiful triple late in the game. Jeter had 3 RBI's last night.

The fourth inning the Yankees were able to score 5 runs and bat around. Once again, Eduardo Nunez and Brett Gardner had RBI singles last night. It seems like these guys are always in the game.(Photo: Getty)
Steve Garrison pitched the last inning in his debut. Nice performance, no pressure. It was a good idea by Joe Girardi. He was able to get 2 outs to close out the game.

Final Score: Yankees 10 - Mariners 3. The Yankees are now 20 games over .500. Not too shabby.

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