Fans Aren’t Impressed Easily With Baseball’s Best Team

Even during this magnificent season, things haven’t been easy for Yankees fans.

They worry about their beloved, historic ballpark. They get embarrassed by the Bleacher Creatures. They can’t even seem to enjoy all the winning, for fear it will stop before the World Series.

“If it was the Braves we were bashing out there, the Astros, then you’d hear me yelling,” said Emil Santor, a 33-year-old house painter from Newark who sat quietly in the nosebleed seats as the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays for their 103rd win of the season.

“Don’t misunderstand, I’m here, ain’t I? I love this team. But with the Yanks, you can’t say it’s a real good year if they don’t win the Series.”

It’s a tough standard, but it’s the burden of history. The Yankees have 23 world championships, and if you’re a fan in the Bob Costas-Billy Crystal age group you remember when it was a strange year indeed if the Bronx Bombers weren’t playing in October.

“Forget it,” said Bronx resident Jamesy Moran, 48, who was standing in line for beer and cheese fries under the stands. “When I was a kid, if it was October, you brought a transistor into school and the nun let you listen to the game. It was always the Yankees.”

That feeling is almost back. The Yankees, Series champs in ‘96, are in the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Despite a late-season slump, they still have a shot at the team and league records for wins in a season.

There isn’t a superstar on the roster; no one is likely to hit even half as many home runs as Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa, and some Yankees fans lament the loss of Roger Maris’ record just as they bemoaned Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games mark when it was broken by Cal Ripken.

“Oh, McGwire can have the record for a while, I suppose,” said Janice Bello, 22, of Manhattan. “But things won’t feel right until it’s back in Yankee pinstripes.”

The home-run derby has somewhat overshadowed the Yanks in what has been a big year for baseball, but they have endeared themselves to their followers with team-first play and unselfish comments.

Bernie Williams, who might win the batting championship; Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill, the left-handed sluggers; and Derek Jeter, the heartthrob and shortstop, all seem to be self-effacing straight arrows.

“If we lose the Series, I’m not just going to feel bad for myself, I’m going to feel bad for them,” said Agosto Colon, 29, of Manhattan.

The fans have set a new Yankees attendance record, which would seem to contradict the oft-stated belief of owner George Steinbrenner that they’re afraid to visit the Bronx.

Steinbrenner wants a new stadium and has talked about moving the Bronx Bombers to Manhattan, a notion that amounts to sacrilege to many fans.

“Look around,” said 44-year-old Steve Horowitz of Ridgewood, N.J., gesturing at the deep blue stands, the emerald field and a fiery sky signaling sunset. “There is nothing more beautiful. Nothing in the world. Why would you want to move?”

In truth, the 75-year-old stadium has seen better days. A renovation in the 1970s robbed it of much of its historic majesty, and earlier this season a 500-pound chunk of steel fell onto empty seats, raising questions about the stadium’s stability.

Steinbrenner has said it would take 3 million in attendance to get him to even talk about staying in the Bronx, and it looks like the final figure--not counting sold-out playoff games--might come up just short.

In the right-field bleachers, a core of about 100 people, mostly young men, arrives early, spreads out along the backless benches, begins drinking beer and hurls abuse almost randomly. Chants can be obscene or sometimes just funny.

Five Canadians, all students at Columbia University, settled into the bleachers “because $7 is the cheapest ticket” and vowed to support their Blue Jays.

“Is that advisable?” asked Ross Finley of Toronto.

No, it wasn’t. The Canadians were heckled when they dared to sing their national anthem (“U-S-A! U-S-A!” chanted the Bleacher Creatures) and when they cheered a Blue Jay home run, the real insults began.

Canada, Canadians, Molson Beer and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were berated in language bad enough that it brought security personnel to the scene, which quieted the taunts.

Sitting apart from the loudmouths, but still in the bleachers, was a man who said his name was Frank Frank Frank. He said he understood why fellow fans worried so much about the Stadium and the Yankees, but advised them to chill out.

“Just assume the Yanks will win the Series. Assume they’re not moving anywhere. Relax and enjoy the season, man. And don’t worry about those guys,” he said, nodding toward the Creatures. “You have your way of being a fan, and they have their way.”