pleasedIt's an excellent discourse on how the information age has made baseball fans far more aware of the ins and outs of the organizations they root for, and how Boston and New York fans are more excited about rooting for homegrown talent like Jacoby Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz and Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain.
From the article:
Baseball watchers have also gotten smarter about the importance of a solid farm system. When Derek Jeter began 1996 as the Yankees' shortstop, I wondered who the hell he was; when Phil Hughes made his big-league debut last summer, I'd been reading about him for years and shelled out $25 more than I usually spend on a ticket to ensure a decent view. This is where the emotion comes in: Given how closely Yankees fans have already been following Hughes and Ian Kennedy and the way Sox fans have been mooning over Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, it's no wonder they're reluctant to see them go. In November, the popular Yankees site River Ave. Blues started a campaign, complete with T-shirts, to avoid a Santana trade and "Save the Big Three"--referring to highly touted pitching prospects Kennedy, Hughes, and Joba Chamberlain.
Span's a fantastic sportswriter, and her blog is always worth reading. (She's even-handed, covering the Yankees and Mets with equal fervor and intelligence.)
