Rules for Being a Yankee Fan

Rather than going into detail at each position for the ALCS, I'm going to just go through a quick list of who I think has the advantage where. This is partially because I'm lazy, partially because I don't want to analyze and predict too much of the series, but mostly its to devote this post to something more important than match up. I'll get into that after the quick list.

• Posada over Napoli at Catcher
• Teixeira over Morales at First Base
• Cano over Kendricks at Second Base
• A-Rod over Figgins at Third Base
• Jeter over Ayber at Short Stop
• Damon over Rivera in Left Field
• Hunter over Melky in Center Field
• Abreu over Swisher in Right Field
• Guerrero over Matsui at DH
• Starting Pitching is even
• Yankees have a better bullpen
• Rivera over Fuentes at Closer

Do not underestimate how close all the match ups are, or exactly how good the Angels 3 big hitters are. Should be a good series hopefully ending with joy instead of another year of misery.

Now for the titled part of the post. If there is one thing I hate more than real Red Sock fans its fake Yankee fans. You know who are you. And if you don't, I'll provide a checklist of things you should know if you are a Yankees fan.

1. You know the number of World Series the Yankees have won
2. You know which players of Yankee fame went by these nicknames: The Babe, The Iron Horse, The Yankee Clipper, and Scooter
3. You know why #8 is retired twice by the Yankees
4. You have heard of the following players who all were on the teams of recent success: Tim Raines, Graeme Lloyd, Chili Davis, Clay Bellinger, Jeff Nelson, Ramiro Mendoza, Nick Johnson, Raul Mondesi, Tony Clark, Bubba Crosby, Shawn Chacon, Miguel Cairo, Wilson Betemit, and of course...Cody Ransom
5. You can name at least 4 of the broadcasters of the YES network
6. You know who Bob Sheppard is
7. You can name at least 2 starters that the Yankees will face in the ALCS
8. You know what ALCS stands for
9. You know why anyone who has a jersey with a name on it wasted their money
10. You know the answer to "was Ken Griffey ever a Yankee?"
11. Same with Ricky Henderson, Ivan Rodriguez, Jose Canseco, and Randy Johnson
12. You twitch at the mention of Ivan Rodriguez and Kyle Farnsworth
13. You don't brag about how many games you've gone to and where your seats were.
14. You can name the last 4 Yankees to throw a no-hitter (all since 1993)
15. You know who Bucky Dent is and what he did.

Now it's really ok if you don't know all those. Some of them are pretty specific, and some even not too common of knowledge. I'm not saying if those don't all (or at least 12/15) apply to you, you cannot root for or like the Yankees. I'm saying that if that is the case, I don't want to see you posting a facebook status about them or talking to me about "what we need to do better next game".

Feel free to add your own rules that you feel apply as well.