Why We Watch

It's official: The 2009 New York Yankees are the least likeable team in the history of professional sports.

This off-season, the Yankees signed C.C Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Texiera, three players who are probably more concerned with which kind of private jet to invest in rather than winning. With these shining additions, the team now has the personality of a ceiling fan and the heart and charisma of a shoe rack.Then of course, there is Alex Rodriguez.

The Yankees statement in light of Rodriguez's admittance to the use of steroids was classic. "Alex - like all of us - is not immune to fault," the Yankees statement said.

Hmm. OK, nobody is perfect, true. But when I think immune to fault, I think, oops I locked my keys in the car, darn. Oops, spilled coffee on white carpet, geez. Not, I spent thousands of dollars to purchase illegal steroids so I could hit a zillion home runs, betray millions of fans and make myself 27.5 million dollars a year.

Now players and coaches are, "rallying around him." My stomach just turned.Something about his mushy interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons must have made Yankees players forget that Alex is an ultra-arrogant, October-choking, cheating-numb-skull, who has always cared more about his own batting average more than where the Yankees fall in the standings.

I'd rally around Michael Phelps before Alex Rodriguez.

A column per day could be written on why to hate this year's Yankees, but rather than waste our time, it is more fitting that we talk about the most likable team in baseball history: the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.

Coming into 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers had lost four of the last seven World Series', all to the New York Yankees. The mechanical Yankees owned the city, seeming to prove each season that they didn't need a black player or personality to win.

The '55 Dodgers’ had a mixture of stars such as Duke Snider and NL MVP Roy Campanella, with role players like 36-year old infielders Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. Their powerful pitching staff was led by the first black player to ever win 20 games, Don Newcombe and All-Star Johnny Podres. Newcombe also added a .359 batting average and seven home runs.

Brooklyn featured four black players (the most in the league at the time) who added a flare to the game that had never been seen across town.

They finished 13.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Braves and won first place in the National League. In the American League, the New York Yankees held off the Cleveland Indians by three games to win the pennant.

In the World Series, the Dodgers fell behind 2-0. The series went back to Ebbets Field where the Dodgers found their bats, scoring eight runs two games in a row. They then took a pitchers duel 5-3 - won by Roger Craig - to move ahead 3-2.

Legendary Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford took game six. The home team won each of the first six games, for game 7, it would be back to Yankee Stadium. The Dodgers would have to go in front of 62,000 Yankee fans and take down the giant.

Game 7 stood for far more than just a win or loss for a franchise. It was the separation of two time eras. It was no mistake that this series fell five years after the 50s and five years before the 60s.

The Dodgers represented a pull toward individualism and progression. The Yankees, with their all-white, close cropped crew, pulled toward conservatism. It wasn't until 1956, nine years after the color barrier had been broken, that the Yankees took a team picture with a black player.

Johnny Podres shut out the Yankees in game 7 and Brooklyn finally celebrated its first World Series. Author Pete Hamill said “In Brooklyn that day, it was the Liberation of Paris, Vee Jay Day, New Years Day all rolled into one.”

The '55 Dodgers encompassed the beauty of baseball. It was, for six summer months, a team with skill, desire and personality who came together to create on-field poetry.

So every time you hear a crowd erupt for an A-Rod home run, keep in mind there was a wonderful time in baseball where the game meant more than steroids and salaries.