A Yankees Fan Deep in the Heart of Texas

By Robert H. Kelly
Copyright 2009 TexSport Publications

DEER PARK, TEXAS (April 11, 2009) Being a New York Yankees fan deep in the heart of Texas is not a popular thing. Being a New York Yankees fan deep in the heart of Texas, some may say, is not a smart thing. Being a New York Yankees fan deep in the heart of Texas is not something that is a birthright. Being a New York Yankees fan is an acquired taste, like a fine wine. An acquired taste that comes so quickly and with such force that makes one asked, "What just happened?"

So here I am. Deep in the heart of Texas, and I must admit, I have followed in love with the Yankees. Growing up an Army brat and traveling all over the world in my youth, I followed the national past time the best a young lad could. My baseball world was with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

See, I was born in Pittsburgh. My grandparents lives just a scant few blocks from Three Rivers Stadium. Forbes Field was a way down the road and I never was fortunate enough to attend a game there. Needless to say, I was a Pirates fan, first and foremost.

Then came the day in my life which My Lovely Wife and I had planed for months. We planned to attend a game at Yankees Stadium before its demolition. New Yankee Stadium was scheduled to open in April, 2009 and we wanted to add a trip to Yankee Stadium to see the Bronx Bombers play in their historic stadium.

The date was July 6, 2008. The Yankees were playing their hated rivals; the Boston Red Sox. It was a night game. We sat in the upper deck above the third base line. The game was being shone nationally on ESPN, so it was

To make a long story short, I will jump forward. The Yankees won the game 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Yankees' left fielder Brett Gardner singles on a ground ball to center fielder Coco Crisp, which was deflected by shortstop Alex Cora, which allowed second baseman Robinson Cano to score from second base.

The game was over. The Yankees won. 54,922 people were int he stand in the Bronx with millions other watching around the world.

The time of the game was 3 hours 25 minutes. 3 hours and 25 minutes of pure delightful heaven.

I have attended hundreds, perhaps thousands of games and sporting events over the years, and never have I had so much fun.

My wife Darla, who serves as a photographer for TexSport Publications and other media outlets, and I did not want to attend to this game as journalists. We did not want to have any official capacity at the game. We wanted to enjoy the experience as fan. We wanted to feel the excitement and energy that come from a first time attendance at a particular sporting event.

The experience made us both die-hard Yankees fans. Yes, I am still a Pirates fan and do support my home town Houston Astros. But this experience made both of us Yankees fans.

I could be corny and say it was the thrill of the game and the roar of the fans that pushed us over the edge. I could sound nostalgic and claim it was being in the "House That Ruth Build" that injected Yankees blue into our bodies. I could probably come up with a dozen sappy reasons for taking the plunge into the waters that is Yankeedom.

In reality, I do not know the real reason for our conversion. Perhaps it was a number of reasons. Perhaps is was no reason at all. In any case, we now are a member of a tradition that goes back over a century. A tradition that started on January 9, 1903 when Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the defunct Baltimore franchise of the American League for $18,000 and then moved the team to Manhattan.

Ten years later the name of the teams was changed to the Yankees and the rest is history.

This web page will be an attempt to show how a couple of Texans from the Houston area are proud to put on our pin stripes and show our support of the New York Yankees.

We know we will take some flack from those Boston Red Sox fans who cannot seem to understand how great it is to be a fan of the most famous team in the history of sports. After all, they have only won seven World Series. The Yankees have won 26.