"Yankees suck!" There was always something vulgar and cloddish about the phrase. Moreover, there was always something inherently untruthful about it. The Yankees have won four consecutive World Series. The team holds more championships than any other in baseball history. The truth is, Yankees do not suck at all. Yankees rule. Which is, of course, why Sox fans loathe them, and why we have felt the need to create, and chant ad nauseam, that guttural mantra.

The image is grimly resonant: a mob, mostly male, erupting into a chorus of hostility, each shouter feeding off the rancor of his neighbor. Perhaps such bitterness is only to be expected, a natural reaction to decades of ignominious defeat. It is a seething hatred borne of frustration, a sense of impotence in the face of a massive and seemingly invincible rival. But enough about radical Islam. The point is, right now, "Yankees suck!" does not seem a million miles away from "Death to America!"

As if to hammer home the analogy, anti-American demonstrators in Pakistan are given to burning effigies of President Bush clad in Yankees regalia. On October 29, Bush attempted to demonstrate America’s mettle by throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium for Game Three of the World Series. Indeed, there has been much talk lately about the Yanks’ being "America’s team" — which is, not to put too fine a point on it, balls. The Yankees do not belong to Boston or Baltimore or San Francisco. They belong to New York, as they never tire of reminding us ("Start sp-a-redding the nyoooze ...").

Then there’s the notion that New York’s winning its fifth straight World Series would be a fitting symbol for the resilience of the city — and, by association, the entire nation. A Yankees victory, we are told, would send a clear message to those bastards who did this to us. Poppycock. Another Yankees championship would be further evidence that the franchise is becoming the Microsoft of baseball. New York City might be hurting, but the New York Yankees most certainly are not.

"We are all Americans," blared an editorial in Le Monde after the September 11 attacks. Apparently, sporting loyalties are more intractable than national identity, because few people — at least in this town — will subscribe to the idea that we are all Yankees. The fact that many Bostonians have refused to jump on the Yankees bandwagon is nothing to be ashamed of, however. Hell, just the prospect of another Joe Torre–Rudy Giuliani post-game hug-fest should be enough to send a frisson of dread through anyone with a working gag reflex. Then there’s the potential spectacle of Derek Jeter jumping all over the field like a little bouncy toy, of Roger Clemens’s humongous cheeks spreading into a self-satisfied grin.

Actually, come to think of it, the Yankees — for all their magnificent achievements, including their victory in Game Three — really do suck.

Issue Date: November 1 - 8, 2001