PLEASE FORWARD AND PRINT
To: George Steinbrenner,
owner, NY Yankees
September 16, 2004
Dear George,
Imagine my surprise when I whirled around at the peaceful anti-war rally outside the Republican National Convention near Madison Square Garden last week, to find a motorcycle gang in New York Yankee uniforms spurring their motorbikes into the peaceful crowd.
In particular, one thug, wearing Babe Ruth’s #3 and a German helmet, knocked over a pregnant woman as he kicked the sides of his bike and slammed it further into the crowd, which had gathered in the legal “free speech zone.”
Only later was I informed that those “bozos on bikes” were New York City police officers. Gasp.
During the protests, I witnessed many New York Police Department personnel acting in ways that disgraced their uniforms. And by that, I don’t mean the NYPD blues but the famed pinstripes of the NY Yankees.
I am going to say something here that may frighten or appall many of my friends: “I am a Yankee fan.” I’ve been a Yankee fan since Horace Stoneham stole the NY Giants and my beloved Willie Mays out to San Francisco some 47 years ago. And I have never before seen a group of individuals besmirch that uniform (well, if we don’t count a few late-night incidents in bars around town). Imagine what Babe Ruth or even David Wells (dare I mention his name to you?), who loved the Babe so much that he wore his old hat and kissed his monument behind the centerfield wall every time he came in to pitch would say if he saw someone wearing the Babe’s uniform intentionally smash into a crowd of lawful antiwar protesters on his motorbike, seriously injuring some of them.
Gives new meaning to “the Sultan of Swat,” doesn’t it?
Writing to the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, is a hopeless cause. But I am hoping that the NY Yankees might better hear my protest of this abuse of their uniforms and history, and that you rebuke those cops who in the future should be made to wear Boston Red Sox uniforms.
At the very least, for the next large demonstration perhaps the Yankees could supply the protesters with NY Yankee uniforms as well. Then we could have everyone wearing the Yankee logo, with Babe Ruth coming at Derek Jeter, Mickey Mantle swinging at Bernie Williams - the New York Yankees antiwar affinity groups choreographed by Fellini. Maybe then the cries will go out to stop this “Yankee on Yankee” violence once and for all.
More than one thousand protesters were held for 48 hours and longer at Pier 57 on the West Side, the toxic site of a former bus barn. Protesters have re-named it “Guantanamo on the Hudson,” and many were made seriously ill by the chemicals, asbestos and benzene. I know that former Mayor Giuliani had offered to build the Yankees a new stadium with public funds somewhere on the West Side; with all the Yankee uniforms around Pier 57 last week you’d think that they were scouting out that toxic dump for the Yankees. Say it ain’t so, George!
For many of us Greens and other environmental and antiwar activists, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to remain a NY Yankee fan when surrounded by thugs in NY Yankee uniforms who are beating on us, while the Yankee management says nothing about this. My girlfriend, who had been tolerant to a fault in allowing my late night TV fare, now insists that I turn off the YES network’s replays of the ballgames. “How can you root for those fascists after what they did to us?” she screams at me. She has a point.
(One of the saving graces for the Yankees among activists is that the City Councilman in the Mets’ area of Queens is the odious Peter Vallone, Jr., a huge hurdle to overcome if one is thinking of switching to the Mets.)
So I have one more suggestion as a means of rewarding the faithful, who have stuck with the Yankees through thick and thin: Hold an “anti-war demonstrators” night at the Stadium, where all those 1,821 who were arrested last week and their antiwar supporters could come for free to a game at Yankee Stadium and enjoy the team again. (Hint: Playoff tickets would be ideal . )
Oh, it would also be helpful, in that case, if we could substitute organic tofu dogs for the Ballpark franks.
Thanks . And GO YANKEES (I think) !
Mitchel Cohen Brooklyn Greens, Green Party of NY State
Mitchel Cohen 2652 Cropsey Avenue, #7H Brooklyn, NY 11214 (718) 449-0037 mitchelcohen at mindspring.com