I'm a Yankees fan. If you don't like that, too damn bad.

By virtue of where I've lived for nearly 10 years, I've grown used to people questioning my sanity when it comes to the baseball team I root for.

However within recent days, I've learned that Yankees fans are horrible people...

@king_kaufman "I wish there was a stat for most boos for a team that keeps playing in October." Smoltz nails those horrible Yankee fans.

@LastHonestSport @king_kaufman Why are they horrible? They've seen their homer-only team blow scoring chances all year!

@king_kaufman The Yankees could go 162-0, @LastHonestSport, and the fans would boo every time one of them strikes out with runners on 

@LastHonestSport @king_kaufman No they wouldn't. It's the failing over and over that makes them boo.

 ... that Michael Rosenberg feels are incapable of feeling joy ...

I understand why people cheer for the Yankees. (The usual reasons: They grew up in New York, their parents did, they love the uniforms, etc.) I understand why the Yankees spend so much money. (They have it, and they want to win.)
I just don't understand how anybody gets joy out of it anymore.
And I don't think they are.

... and the Yankees are, apparently, al-Qaeda ...

@Will_Bunch The Yankees (terrorists) are dead, and Detroit (GM) is alive #BaseballCampaignSlogan

 ... whose fans are also into heartless killing ...

@EdgeofSports Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the hunter who killed Bambi's mom.

I'm starting to think I either need to go to therapy or start drinking.

Let me be painfully and abundantly clear on this. I have been a Yankees fan my whole life, and I'll be one until the day I die. I'm from New York, from a family full of Yankees fans. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent at my grandfather's kitchen table talking about the Yankees. (We used to complain that Dave Winfield hit meaningless home runs back when Alex Rodriguez was in junior high school, and he always referred to Jim Leyritz as "Ley-re-witz")

We didn't have cable or satellite for most of the time when I was growing up, so it was exciting when one of the local TV stations picked up the WPIX games when I was younger.When they weren't on TV, I would carefully adjust the dial on my radio to get the games.

I remember the (especially by Yankees standards) lean years of the 1980s and early 1990s, when Don Mattingly was just about the only thing worth watching, and I celebrated when the Kingdome was blown up because of the 1995 playoffs.

When the Yankees won the World Series in 1996, I called my best friend from high school to celebrate, and in 2003, the last time I saw him alive was watching the Yankees against the Red Sox in the playoffs.

Yes, King, I get mad when the Yankees play like crap, and Mike, winning makes me feel somewhere between pleased and delirious. And I get that I'm lucky to root for a wealthy, successful team that is going to make me happy more often that not, but I'm getting sick and tired of people assuming the worst in me because that's the team I root for.

I'm a good person. I love my family, feel incredibly lucky to have Mrs. Last Honest in my life and cherish my friends. I work hard and try to treat people well.

I'm also a New York Yankees fan.

And if that bothers you somehow ... the problem is with you, not me.