Yankees, go home

Texas Rangers fans don't need an entire book offering them reasons to hate the New York Yankees. The results of last year's American League Division Series still burn deep in the memory -- the way the Yanks kept Texas to only one run during the entirety of the all-too-brief three-game series, the ease with which George Steinbrenner's pinstriped machine mowed down Texas' toothpick bats. Final score, combined: New York 9, Texas 1. Or you could always go back to the first round of 1996's playoffs: Texas wins the first game in New York, leads the next three, but loses the series three games to one.

Greenville, South Carolina, author Art McDonald hates the Yankees like no man should. Why else would a grown man write a book titled This Date in New York Yankee Hating? Only, McDonald seems to hate the Yankees for one reason alone: They're just too gosh-danged good. I suppose that's as good a reason as any -- me, I think winners come in handy in sports -- and deep down, McDonald's just putting you on (his small publisher recommends this book be filed under Sports or Humor or Recreation). Still, it's not a good sign when a book about Yankee-hating opens with: "January 1, 1969: Hank Greenberg." Don't quite make the connection -- Greenberg was a Detroit Tiger. McDonald explains: "An intelligent man, Greenberg declined an offer of 10 thousand dollars to sign with the Yankees." What that has to do with hating New York, I have no idea. Same goes for these randomly selected entries: "August 27, 1977: Texas hit five home runs and beat the Yankees." Or: "September 29, 1944: St. Louis eliminated the Yankees from the pennant race by beating them in the first game of a doubleheader." Or: "The American League announced the Washington Senators would move to Minnesota and become the Twins."

Maybe I'm missing something here, but seems to me, McDonald's book could have used a little fine-tuning. McDonald's tome is no more, no less, than an assortment of facts vaguely related to the New York Yankees -- and I mean vaguely. (There's one item about Boston Bruin Derek Sanderson, who has the same name as Yankee Derek Sanderson Jeter -- hunh?)