New York, Old Heartache

The Yankee fan perspective

By Chris Perez

Isn’t it fitting that within a week of the new Star Wars release the Evil Empire strikes back?! Man, oh man! As a New York Yankees fan, the news of Giancarlo Stanton becoming part of the dark side is right up there with the signing of Arod in 2004. For me though, my excitement wasn’t at level 100 from the get-go. I honestly had been worried about a Stanton trade to the Yankees because I was fearful of the Yankees giving up too many key pieces of their farm system for him. When I received the text that the trade went down, I wasn’t excited at all, more like cautious of my excitement. I had to know the details. “Who did we give up?” was all that I cared about. The tweets, memes, photos and all the craziness that was going on meant nothing to me until I was able to find out the details of the trade. When I saw the Yankees didn’t give up Gleyber Torres, Chance Adams or Clint Frazier, oh man, I instantly broke into my Carlton dance.

Them Yankees have a lineup with Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez?! Last year, those three hit more HRs combined than the entire San Francisco Giants team did! A crazy insane lineup with a Murderer’s Row style bullpen too!? Yeah, safe to say the hatred people had for the Yankees skyrocketed even more and I absolutely love it! People are hating so much they have no idea what to do with themselves. Now, I have to admit something too. I am a Miami Marlins fan as well, but Yankees have my heart. As my dad would say, “inside almost every Marlins fan is a Yankees fan” and I can’t lie, it’s a true statement. The amount of fans in Miami that are die-hard Yankees fans is pretty big with so many New Yorkers down here. On the Yankees side, I absolutely love the trade, how could I not? Didn’t give up too much and got back a player who just came off a year where he set career highs in home runs (59), hits (168) and RBI’s (132). Now, on the Marlins side, it’s a tough one to swallow, but as a Sixers fan would say, “trust the process”. The amount of hate for Derek Jeter is expected, but truth is, Jeffrey Loria should take plenty of the blame as well. He signed Stanton for an absolutely ridiculous deal of 300+ million for 13 years! Let’s be real, not one single Marlins fan was excited over that deal. We gave it a pass because Stanton was our guy, our hometown hero, so it was like a “that’s a dumb deal, but whatever, at least we still have Stanton”. The contract was back-loaded of course, which in my opinion, was Loria thinking ahead, being the jerk that he is. Signing Stanton back in 2015 kept fans interested in the Marlins, helped sell tickets and bought him more time to stick around a little longer, collecting money as he was slowly destroying the Marlins even more.

Hey @Giancarlo818….👊 pic.twitter.com/0542MWBIpv

— Aaron Judge (@TheJudge44) December 9, 2017

What happens? Few years after he created a financial debacle of Stanton’s contract and others as well, he bolts out of town, which left the new ownership in a horrible situation. If you want to hate on Jeter, hate on the fact he inherited a team with someone else’s money. Hate the fact that he sent our most beloved player to the team majority of people hate the most. This trade for the Marlins to me stings more than the Miguel Cabrera trade in ’07. Both are trades we’ll never, ever forget as Marlins fans and being honest, we’ll never forgive them for it. As for me and my Yankees side, I couldn’t care less about the hate people will throw at Jeter and at the Yankees because it’s nothing new. All I know is this trade made my damn day, made me excited for 2018 opening day, and made me want to scream out like Cyrus did in the Warriors Movie and say, “Can you dig it?…can you dig it?…CAN YOU DIG ITTTTT!!?!”

The Marlins fan retort

By Gustavo Chacon

Hold up… Enough of your shenanigans, Chris. This is a Miami publication, and we’re pissed.

Can we block the Stanton trade? Is it too late? Are there any lawyers in Miami that would put together a class action lawsuit against the evil empire and their #2 minion, who infiltrated our cafecito culture? I’m just so angry with Jeter; I want to bitch at everyone and everything, so here goes…

Screw Jeter telling me to be patient. I’m pretty pissed. The rich get richer. Just in time for that “wealthy handout” tax plan that Congress is rolling out. Drumpf’s America, I guess. Leave it to Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley to not qualify for the World Cup with the US, but to win an MLS cup for a Canadian City. That has absolutely nothing to do with Jeter, but they’re not escaping my wrath. They couldn’t play overseas, so they decided to play across the Great Lakes. They’re just another pair of athletes that let me down.

New York has been crapping on Miami for as long as I can remember, it continues in the worst way today. This stinks, I’m tired of it. Te quiero Miami. #Marlins #Stanton

— Maximiliano Bretos (@mbretosESPN) December 9, 2017

People are telling me to blame Loria and not Jeter for this. No amount of logic is going to make me feel better about the trade. Can you even call it a trade? It’s more like a robbery, and they took everything from our wallet, except our Blockbuster card and an expired driver’s license. Fuck Loria, Jeter, the Yankees, and fuck that cursed ballpark built on the burial grounds of the Orange Bowl. I hope Jeter moves the team somewhere else and it becomes an MLS stadium, so I never have to worry about this shitty baseball organization ever again.

How does the Miguel Cabrera trade happen twice in the same lifetime to the same, exact team?! Sometimes lightning strikes in the same place twice… Do we get superpowers now? What’s our ability, to make a fan-base disappear?

Marlins fans are lucky we’re getting C-level prospects, at best! This is a salary dump. Nothing more. Nothing less. Jeter mismanaged this whole trade. If Stanton were a free agent right now, Yankees would have gladly given him the exact same contract. Maybe even more! #Collusion. Or maybe his former overlords just played him. Maybe Jeter doesn’t want players that are too good, so he won’t have to pay them later also! He just wants that salary and the same revenue profit sharing. It’s really quite genius.

Baseball teaming up with Jeter to give him a baseball team – and Jeter turning around and trading the MVP to his old team while screwing South Florida — feels like Wall Street fraud

— Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) December 9, 2017

#WeaselJeets still doing more for the #Yankees than he is for the #Marlins pic.twitter.com/arF0XUpG5Q

— Brendan Tobin (@Brendan_Tobin) December 9, 2017

I really hope Jeter is more Gretzky than Jordan when it comes to being an executive. How the fuck does Jeter give away Stanton, coming off an MVP season in his prime, and we don’t get the Yankees’ best prospects, but we do get a guy named Castro? There’s going to be a Castro playing baseball in Miami. I hope he grows a huge beard and lights up a cigar in the dugout, just to dig the knife a little deeper into our vital organs. He’s literally doing everything he can to fuck Miami. You know he’s going to give away Ozuna and Yelich too. I send my best wishes to the Marlins season ticket sales people, as if that job wasn’t hard enough already. I’d quit if I had that job, or give everyone secret promotional codes, so that tickets are $1 for diamond level, and free everywhere else. I bet it still wouldn’t fill up, deservedly so. Jeter really plans on surviving off of shared revenue streams, huh? What does he care? He invested $20 Million into the team and his salary is $25 Million over the next five years. That’s on par with the highest paid execs in the league, mind you, and all he’s done is piss off an entire city.

Except, most Marlins fans are also Yankees fans? If you’re that person, fuck your happiness right now. Why can’t we have nice things too? We had a cool, shiny Stanton, gone-carlo. We had a limited edition Lebron, factory recall. We built our very own DWade, repossessed by the King. Jeter took away our sports car just as we were starting to accelerate. Stanton will hit his 300^th homerun and his 1000^th hit in a Yankee uniform. We were robbed of witnessing our guy achieving those milestones, and any others that follow. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Well can’t say I’m not use to this by now. #Marlins #Stanton pic.twitter.com/UtgdVpQNWM

— peter fontanez (@FinsFish) December 9, 2017

What else can he possibly do to piss us off more? Well, I heard he’s going to vacate the 2003 World Series so that the Yankees get another one. He has already fired or is in the process of firing everyone we cared about: Jeff Conine, Rich Waltz, Jack Mckeon. Is Billy the Marlin next?! I didn’t even get a chance to get upset about Dee Gordon getting shipped off before the Stanton news came in! As upset as I am with Jeter, he can still win me back. He can start with some Jordan brand Marlins merch. I just hope he does something we can get excited about. Until then, meet me at the Clevelander, so we can drink our sorrows away…

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