In 13 years, Mark Teixeira has come half circle — 180 degrees, mind you; not the full 360.
Thirteen years ago Teixeira was a 16 year-old Orioles fan attending Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore. Thirteen years ago he would have probably had the time of his life reveling in an Orioles 10-5 thumping of the New York Yankees on Opening Day. He probably would have loved it that the Orioles even ended up on the winning side of a Jeffrey Maier moment, and he likely would have joined right in to lustily boo every move made on the day by the free-agent first baseman who turned his back on his hometown of Baltimore to play for the hated Yankees.
But 13 years later it was Tex’s teammate and fellow free-agent gazillionaire CC Sabathia who took the late-afternoon and early-evening shelling on Monday. Thirteen years later, it was Tex’s team that was on the losing side of Monday’s Jeffrey Maier moment, just as his team was during the 1996 ALCS when his team was the Orioles. And 13 years later, it was none other than Mark Teixeira, of Mount St. Joseph High School and nearby Severna Park, who was the target of the lusty booing from Baltimore (and Severna Park according to one sign in the stands) with every move he made.
It was a good day for Baltimore; it was a tough day for the Mount St. Joe’s grad, who went 0-for-4 and left six baserunners stranded on the day. And both sides took it in stride. Baltimore raised its collective Natty Boh; Teixeira said he understands how it all works. Oddly enough, it seems to be the outside world that doesn’t understand how it works, including Hall of Fame baseball writer Peter Gammons, who has been poo-pooing the city of Baltimore and its baseball fans for treating Mark Teixeira, one of its own, no less, so horribly.
Oh, boo-hoo. Grimy little Baltimore was way out of line for roughing up the New York Yankees’ brand-new $180 million man? Please. What did you expect, a front-row seat in the mayor’s box like the one the little ratfink Maier got in New York the day after he drastically altered the outcome of an American League Championship Series game? So Baltimore’s the heavy now, because it booed a hometown boy who said no to his hometown and yes to the Yankees?
Come on. Baltimore booed Reggie Jackson for the rest of his career for turning his back on the Orioles to sign with the Yankees. But Teixeira never played for the Orioles the way Reggie did (for less than a season, we might add), the anti-Baltimores say. No, Teixeira’s from Baltimore. He grew up an Orioles fan, which makes snubbing Baltimore for the Yankees a clear booable offense in Baltimore.
Baltimore also booed Dave Winfield after his agent sent the Orioles a letter saying they were not “a desired organization” for Winfield to sign with when he was a free agent after the 1980 season, even though the Orioles were recognized at the time to be the best organization in baseball.
Heck New York booed Winfield unmercifully during and after his “Mr. May” career with the Yankees.
Booing is at the core of baseball. Enjoy it. Then get over it.
Wasn’t Babe Ruth heckled to no end by Chicago fans and Cubs players just before he allegedly called his shot in 1932? Isn’t Alex Rodriguez booed fairly often by Yankee fans in New York? Well, Teixeira, playing for New York, was booed by Orioles fans in his hometown of Baltimore, and as we said, he took it very well. But then what did you expect? He’s from Baltimore.
In 1992 when Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened, when Mark Teixeira was a 12 year-old fan of the Baltimore Orioles, the season-long theme of the new ballpark in downtown Baltimore was “Welcome Home.” Thanks in part to the equally-as-close-to-Severna Park Washington Nationals helping to drive up the free-agent bounty the Yankees are now paying Teixeira, and in larger part to Teixeira’s lack of genuine interest in playing for the Orioles at this stage of his career, the Welcome Home for Teixeira has been missing in Baltimore since last winter when he signed with a hated rival.
Again, having grown up there, Tex knows all about how this Yankee stuff works in Baltimore, and he understands it. Besides, as he can ask his new teammate A-Rod, it’s not the fans in Baltimore he should worry about being booed by.
There’s an even newer stadium a few hours north of Camden Yards — a brand new stadium, in fact. It’s the brand new Yankee Stadium, and now it’s the only stadium Mark Teixeira needs to keep himself welcome in.
Booing is as much a part of baseball as the hit-and-run, and a guy who is being paid $180 million in the midst of this country’s harshest economic times since the Great Depression is going to hear his share of it.
Even at home. Both of them.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
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