New York Sign Language Yanks' World Series Win Fitting for Close of Century By BOB YAMPOLSKY	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
今世紀はヤンキース優勝で締めくくり 先月、米大リーグ・ワールドシリーズで、アトランタ・ブレーブスに4連勝し、2年連続全米制覇を成し遂げた N.Y. ヤンキース。圧倒的な強さを誇るその姿は、1920〜30年代のチームの黄金期を思い出させます。市民も大喜びで、地元チームの快進撃に胸を張ります。

Here is a television commercial for the sporting goods company Adidas that received much airtime in New York this year.

A man in a suit with a suitcase gets into a taxi and asks to be taken to his hotel. As is standard in New York taxis these days, the recorded voice of a celebrity reminds the passenger to buckle his seat belt. In this case, it is the voice of Joe Torre, the manager of the New York Yankees.

The passenger, in an exaggerated southern drawl, says, "Yankees this, Yankees that. I'm sick of the damn Yankees." He goes on to say that the Yankees are overrated, that last year — when the Yankees had a magnificent season — was a fluke, and that the really great team in baseball is his team, the Atlanta Braves.

Throughout this tirade, the taxi driver is smiling cheerfully. He appears to be an immigrant, from Pakistan, perhaps; a shot of his taxi license shows a picture of him in a Yankee cap.

When the taxi comes to a stop, the passenger pays his fare and says, "I'll see you in October, son." October is when the World Series is played, and the man is saying that, come October, the Braves will play the Yankees.

He gets out of the taxi and finds himself on a dark, deserted and very seedy-looking street — nowhere near his hotel, of course. The taxi races away, and the Yankee fan/driver, who has exacted his revenge, laughs maniacally.

The ad cuts away to white words on a black screen: "Only in N.Y.," with "N.Y." being the interlocking N.Y. of the Yankees' logo.

Then the ad returns to the street, where a squat transvestite in a sequin-studded dress and high heels comes sashaying up to our poor fellow from Atlanta. In a concerned and husky voice, he/she says, "You look lost, honey." The ad ends there, leaving it up to the viewer to imagine how the gentleman's night will unfold.

There was much talk about how the 1999 World Series would determine the "team of the decade." The Braves had been the dominant National League team during the 1990s, and the Yankees had been the dominant team of the American League. In the end, however, the World Series turned out to be not much of a contest.

The Yankees treated the Braves almost as rudely as the cabbie treated that Atlanta gentleman, sweeping the Series in four straight games.

The Yankees' championship this year was their third in the last four years and their 25th overall. Their total is far and away the most of any baseball team.

Still, it has been a long time since the Yankees have been a dominant team. Between 1923, when they won their first, and 1964, the Yankees won 20 World Series. They so dominated Major League baseball that it was said that rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for General Motors.

But starting in the mid-1960s, the Yankees' fortunes began to decline. It was not until 1977 that they won the World Series again. But after 1978, a long drought set in, and did not end until 1996.

That victory in 1996 was unexpected. Their opponent that year was the Braves, who had won the year before and who were heavily favored to repeat. The Braves won the first two games of the Series quite easily and were leading 6-0 in the third game, but the Yankees came back and won that game.

They won the next three in near-miraculous fashion, and the celebration that followed was spontaneous and ecstatic. One player even got up on a policeman's horse and rode around Yankee Stadium after the final game was over. Two days later, the city gave the team a ticker-tape parade.

The Yankees didn't make the World Series in 1997. But last year, they won 114 games in the regular season and won the World Series in four straight games. They were called one of the best teams in baseball history and, of course, they got another parade. There was a celebration and parade this year too. There was much screaming and hollering (and cutting of school, since Mayor Rudolf Giuliani suggested that kids should skip school to attend the parade), but, somehow, the feeling was much more subdued. This current Yankee team has won 12 straight World Series games, tying the record of the Yankees of the 1920s, and it is the first team to sweep back-to-back World Series since the Yankees of the 1930s. In other words, it is rivaling the legendary Yankee teams of the past — a feat most fans even just a few years ago would have considered impossible. The Yankees' revival in many ways mirrors the revival of New York City. Through much of the 20th century New York had a glorious history but in recent years it had fallen into a steep decline that many considered irreversible. But these days, New Yorkers have a lot to feel good about. Crime is down, the economy is booming, and New York once again feels like the center of the universe. There is no doubt now about which team is the team of the decade — or for that matter, the team of the century. Perhaps one reason the celebration this time was relatively subdued was that most New Yorkers simply expected it — we're closing out the century on top of the world, which is just the way that it's supposed to be.

Shukan ST: Nov. 26, 1999

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