Americans Are Behaving Like New Yorkers
By
Leonard Zwelling
Perhaps you watched Game 4 of the World Series a while ago. Perhaps you saw the replay on the national news.
In the bottom of the first inning, Gleyber Torres of the New York Yankees, hit a high fly ball down the right field line that drifted into foul territory. Dodgers’ right fielder Mookie Betts ran to his left and snagged the ball in foul territory by reaching over the low wall between the field and the fans. It was at that point that the New York attitude injected itself into the game.
Season ticket holder Austin Capobianco there with a friend John Peter, grabbed Betts’s glove and ripped the ball from it, tossing it onto the field. The umpire wasn’t fooled. He called it a catch and the two obnoxious Yankee fans were ejected and also told not to return for Game 5 the following evening.
The incident had no effect on the game which the Yankees won and surely no effect on the Dodgers who took the Series in five games on Wednesday night.
I urge you to go on YouTube or ESPN or any site where you can watch the play. It is evident that the Yankee fans who interfered with the play thought they had done nothing wrong and this was fair play since it was in foul territory. Not quite. Fan interference in any capacity, an infraction almost unique to baseball, is never tolerable. Fans come to watch the game and cheer on their team, not to play.
But it is important to watch the faces of the fans as they attack right fielder Betts. They showed a lot of attitude. Being from New York, I’ve seen a lot of this in my life. I embodied prior to a lot of therapy.
I love New York City. I was brought up 35 miles to the east and frequented the Big Apple as a high schooler and even when I returned home from college. But this attitude to do what you want regardless of the consequences, you know, the behavior displayed by famous New Yorker Donald Trump, is a characteristic of New Yorkers.
After Trump, however, it has become a characteristic of Americans. People love Trump because he could say and do outrageous things and get away with them. Trump is so New York. His behavior is so New York. Now that he’s going to be President again, that behavior will spread.
But at that instant, at Yankee Stadium, the problem of the exporting of New York values to the rest of America was encapsulated in the bad behavior of two young men.
Don’t kid yourself. That was a Trump moment at Yankee Stadium. There will be more all over the country.
One of the reasons Trump is so popular is that he appears to be able to say or do anything he wants and not suffer any consequences. This will become the pervasive behavior in America unless leaders go out of their way to declare this unacceptable. The Yankees did that. Who else will step up?
Congress? Doubt it!
4 thoughts on “Americans Are Behaving Like New Yorkers”
AAAyyy, fugedaboudit.
Drink your big black cow and get outa heeere.
Love that song. I saw them live in NYC before Brecker died. Fabulous. They played Aja all the way through.
There is ONLY one way to manage a bully. Hit them harder than they hit you and don’t stop fighting until they cave. Trump’s goal is to make as much money for his family as he can, with dribbling $$ to billionaires who kiss his ring. My concern is that those who break the law may NOT be prosecuted IF the Justice System is nullified. The ability to legally fight the bully may be problematic this time.
Unfortunately, Trump’s people feel the same way about us. They are going to punching hard. Maybe it would be best if we duck.