Greg Schain When Schain grows up, he
wants to be equipment manager for the Celtics, or at least learn to
write his own taglines. E-mail him at [email protected].
Who do the voodoo?
The Yankees do.
It’s true.
And that voodoo has turned a blue New York City into the happy,
red-faced Big Apple that it once was.
After Black Tuesday, the outlook for our nation’s largest
city looked bleak. The area had lost 5,000 of its citizens, its
tallest structure and, worst of all, its infallibility.
But the Yankees are once again giving Gotham something to cheer
about.
This October, the Yankee magic has arguably performed its
greatest swindle, coming back from a seemingly insurmountable 2-0
deficit against the Oakland A’s to capture the Divisional
Series 3-2.
And in the ALCS, they clobbered the Mariners, proving them to be
a giant fluke. The Yankees threw their 116 wins out the window and
showed them exactly who’s the boss in the American
League.
That ALCS victory has brought them to being just two wins away
from bringing a much-needed celebratory parade to a devastated
city.
A ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes will be great for
the spirit of the city of New York. It will help return the feeling
of normalcy to New Yorkers. After all, the Yanks have won four of
the last five championships, so New Yorkers are used to downtown
closing down on parade day.
Every year, the mayor tells children to skip school and go watch
the parade.
And every year, the school’s chancellor tells the public
not to listen to the mayor.
Every year, on parade day, business people from all across the
city take an extended lunch hour to go watch the best baseball team
in the world exalt in the glory that comes along with winning a
championship. And every year, once a year, disgruntled Mets fans
finally shut up for a day.
New Yorkers need that special day now more than ever. With every
sunrise comes the dreary reality that their city still could be
under fire, with anthrax or sarin or whatever else these extremists
can get their hands on.
We’ve heard it before: an escape. It may sound redundant,
but it’s true. A parade would be a much-welcomed escape from
everyday life, and would bring back thoughts of happier days for
New Yorkers.
Sports is cocaine for a lot of people across the country,
especially Yankee fans. New Yorker’s spirits rise and fall
with every victory from teams like the Yankees and the Knicks.
They get pissy when their team loses.
I don’t want New Yorkers to get pissy. They have enough to
get pissy about. Let them have this victory. Let them have their
parade.
They deserve it. Even Yankee haters have to admit that.
But don’t be naive enough to think that the spirit of the
city is the only thing that is being lifted by the Yankees playing
in the World Series. One other really important aspect of life is
being given a much-needed boost by the Yankees.
Guess what it is.
Give up?
It’s the economy, stupid.
Next to the U.S. Open and the Super Bowl, the World Series
generates more money for the host city than any other
championship.
And New York could use the injection. 29 million square feet of
office space was lost, the size of all of downtown L.A., along with
myriad jobs. Every influx of new capital and every single job that
replaces the ones lost goes a long way.
We can’t revive the New York economy overnight. But we
have to start somewhere. The money brought in from the World Series
is a great place to start.
In turn, I really hope the Yankees win. Who ever thought the
Yankees would be the emotional favorite? It took a dramatic,
shameful circumstance.
But it happened.
So, as the Bleacher Creatures would say: Let’s Go
Yankees!