You Yankee fan, you're either amped up or dead

You wait all season for this: October baseball. It is the promised land.

Today, as one tweeter put so well, is like Christmas except you don't have to buy anyone presents or go to Church (unless you count Yankee Stadium as Church, in which case you want to go).

This is where the Yankees belong on game one of the 2009 postseason: In front of a raucous crowd of 45,000(+) fans, on a cool October night, with CC Sabathia on the mound and every single person living and breathing baseball.

Some will call us spoiled, we only had to wait one year, but even one year without baseball in the Bronx in October is one year too many. So tonight, we celebrate the return, however shortly-awaited it may have been.

You might be cheering from the stands, from the bleachers, from a bar or from your living room, but you will be cheering, because this is what it means to be a Yankee fan.

You'll be cheering every Sabathia strike, yelling epithets after every first pitch swing by a Yankee batter and still confused that Jose Molina will be starting playoff games in a five game series.

You've actually looked at plane tickets from JFK to Minnesota, even if they cost more than all you currently have in your bank account.

You're ducking out of work or class early because you just can't fathom missing the first pitch.

You can't think about anything but baseball.

You're a Yankee fan, and you're either amped up, or you're dead.


****

Some deity out there has smiled unnaturally on me, and I'll be at games one and two. If you're going and would like to say hi, send me a tweet or an email and I'll do my best. I can't provide live coverage of the games, but I will come back bearing photos, I promise!