Yankee Haters in da House

Yes folks, hating the Yankees in New England goes all the way to the Little League level.

I'm not sure what I would have done had I been put on a baseball team called the Yankees as a kid. Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about that. My first little league team was named after a jewelry store. We were Medford Jewelers Inc., or MJI for short. We had bright orange uniforms. We played teams like Gaffey Funeral Home and Johnny's Foodmaster and West Medford Bank. It sort of gave you your own identity, however lame that identity was.

Then at the next level, I was on a team for two years that was named after the Rotary club. We were, simply, Rotary. We played the other clubs in town - Lions, Kiwanis, and Leahy. At the time, I didn't really know what a Rotary club was. Come to think of it, I still don't. I know they have halls and events and everything. But to what end? Who knows. All I knew then was that I proudly wore that oversized blue jersey and those undersized stretchy baseball pants with pride, because our team was better than the other 3 teams during the two years that I played in the league.