Monday, March 19, 2012

So long Jorgie!

As Gina, Erica and I gear up for our 4th annual spring training excursion, we need to take a moment to say goodbye to one of our childhood mainstays, Jorge Posada. I know, it’s a little late here, but I think we all needed some time to wrap our heads and hearts around this one, watch a few Yankees Classics, and reflect on the time we got to spend with #20.



First of all, we can add Jorgie’s press conference to the list of Yankees related, live-coverage videos that I cried at while watching at my desk at work. The Yankees organization, once again, knows how to get me and I’m sure a lot of other Yankees fans with their ridiculous displays of pomp and circumstance. I mean, rolling out Thurman Munson’s widow, families affected by craniosynostosis, World Series trophies, and of course, assorted teammates including Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. The Yes Network covers these events with the solemnity and seriousness of a presidential state of the union address, and we all thank them for that, because if we were in charge of the network, that’s how we would do it.

The baseball season takes up almost the whole year for us Yankees fans. We start paying attention in late February and we’re always still in it come October, and sometimes, with a little luck in November too, so our favorite players pretty much become like family members. And Jorge was a crucial part of the latest incarnation of “our” Yankees dynasty that the three of us grew up with. We were always ready for him to step to the plate, no batting gloves, tapping the pine tar and guessing his pitches. Jorge always played the game right, with a fire in his belly and his heart on his sleeve. That’s why it was so hard to watch him be relegated to DH and then bench player last year. But he did an awesome job in the playoffs, even though everyone wrote him off and he proved something to us and to himself with that. So it was a fitting end to his career, and in my opinion, the right time for him to hang it up.



So, as we restart the hall of fame clock on our old friend Andy Pettitte, we also say goodbye to our dear Jorgie Posada. Thanks for the memories Jorge – threatening to punch out the lights of opposing players that throw at our guys, yelling at umpires from the top step, the phrase “painfully slow” coined by Michael Kay for your running skills that still remains in our vernacular to this day, throwing your catcher’s mask at the gut of too many umpires to count on the foul pop, but mostly for being a Yankee your whole career, and one of the greats at that. We’re raising a glass to Jorge Posada, yelling “Geeeorrrrgeee” like Betty Spaghetti in A League of Their Own and saying farewell to a major part of the Yankee family.

Thanks for the memories Jorge! You will be missed and we hope to see you at spring trainings, Old Timers’ Days, and if we can ever afford it someday, the Ladies Fantasy Camp where we will miraculously forget how to play so you and Tino can show us how to hold a bat!

--Dana

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