Posts belonging to Category Julia Meisler

If you haven’t been to a Yankees home game, you probably don’t know who Freddy Schuman is.  But you should.

Freddy was a constant presence at Yankee Stadium for twenty-two years with homemade painted signs, a frying pan, and a wooden spoon. Freddy has visited every seat in Yankee stadium, and probably tens of thousands have had the chance to bang on his frying pan. As described by the New York times in 2006, Freddy was an unexpected life force for the team and its fans: “He is a real-life mascot with one eye, one tooth and a raspy voice, the unpolished and unlikely cheerleader of a baseball empire with a nearly $200 million payroll”.

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I’ve watched in wonder as my boyfriend and his friends (including the Golden Sombrero staff) competed in fantasy baseball year after year. They played baseball together throughout college and I always saw fantasy as a fun extension of that- meaning no girls allowed.

In 2009, Daniel “Dee” Clark’s girlfriend was in the league. As a girlfriend, I was shocked and secretly excited. I quietly held it against Michael Rosenbaum, steaming and waiting for 2010. If she could do it, why couldn’t I? Like the suffragettes before us, she paved the way for another…and I was determined for it to be me.

It took a couple months of convincing (I planted the seed in December 2009) and some self deprecating promises (to do research, to not “embarrass” him). One evening, after a night of being laughed at by a friend whose league would never allow a girl, I asked Mike if it was really that bad. Apparently, it’s up there with having “a girl in the dugout”. Ouch.

He told me to wait it out a few months; he would see if the idea wasn’t quickly rejected by the rest of the league. Apparently, they needed a sixteenth anyway…and due to his friends’ openness (and perhaps pure convenience) I was officially Team T & G, drafting last and without a clue how fantasy baseball worked.

Suddenly, here I am- researching pitching matchups, reading “Pitch or Ditch” daily, stressing out over my Cubs outfielders (Soriano and Byrd) and switching between games while simultaneously refreshing FantasyCast. I am completely obsessed. Still, I feel like such a girl sometimes. I’m having trouble letting go of guys that aren’t doing well- wanting to give them “one more chance” so I wont have to deal with the jealousy of them being picked up by anyone else. Sure…I drafted Joba Chamberlain because I’ve had a crush on him for three years. But I also know what he is capable of in the relief spot- a high nineties fastball and the confidence he never had as a starter. Last week, Chamberlain recorded his first two saves in the past two days (since 2007) and there are more to come.

I’ve always told Mike how jealous I was of the male camaraderie in baseball; the stories, pranks and brotherly love is not often found in female friendships. I am so thankful you all let me in- not all guys are willing to. Girls might never make it into the dugout (except in this really cool dream I have about Joba…) but some of them would make great fantasy players. It’s a place a lot of us have never been and seeing it from this angle makes us understand why so many of you love it so much. I really couldn’t be happier.

PS. Hope your egos won’t hurt too much after getting beat by a girl.

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