Poor
Joba Chamberlain. There he is, playing baseball with his typically intense body language -- fist-pumping and so on -- and because he's a young guy and not yet considered a True Yankee, he has to hear quasi-hypocritical nonsense from people that haven't played in ages. Case in point:
Goose Gossage, who wants Joba to act like a "Yankee."
Whatever that means (via
BBTF):
"That's just not the Yankee way, what Joba did. Let everyone else do that stuff, but not a Yankee," Gossage said by telephone on Saturday. "What I don't understand is, the kid's got the greatest mentor in the world in Mariano [Rivera]. He's one of the leaders of the team, so you'd think it wouldn't happen on that team.
"But there's no one to pass the torch anymore, no one to teach the young kids how to act. The Mets did a lot of that [celebrating] last year, and look how it came back to haunt them."
What is the "Yankee way," exactly? Is it having a legendarily blustery owner, who gets to scream and shout and generally act like a jerkoff for 30 years? Is it having that owner but simultaneously decrying long hair, facial hair, and any semblance of individual personality among the team's players? Seriously, I don't understand. You're not a f----ing prep school. You're a baseball team. If Joba Chamberlian stops striking people out, then get mad at him. Until then, let the man pump his fist. It seems to have worked out OK for
Derek Jeter.
