Note to J-Roll: The Real "Front-Runner" Fans Are in the Bronx!

His batting average this season is .306 , which is 18th in all of Major League Baseball and ahead of every other Yankee except Johnny Damon. His on-base percentage is .398, which slots him at ninth, in a virtual tie with Manny Ramirez, and ahead of every other Yankee. His OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) is sixth in the majors, ahead of every other Yankee. 

I'm, of course, referring to Alex Rodriguez, the player that the "Yankee Faithful" booed repeatedly last night in the Yanks' 7-3 loss to the Red Sox.

Why is it then, that with all his numbers, Rodriguez was the goat in last night's loss? Perhaps it was because of the opponent. No one who likes pinstripes like the Sox. 

It could be the venue. This was the first game of the final series between Boston and New York in old Yankee Stadium. 

Then again, it could be that there had been so much in the press and from team sources, including Manager Joe Girardi, about how this was a "must-win" series because of New York's place in the A.L. standings.

The old stand-by, and a good one at that, would be A-Rod's gigantic salary. All of the previous are possibilities of why the best player on the team was the recipient of all that Bronx bile last night. 

In the end, what the real situation is has to do with the people in the seats and the man in the front office. Yankee fans are the truest form of the front-runner fanbase that one will ever find. 

No, this is not to say that you will see fans abandon the Yankees when they struggle, you simply are exposed to venomous rants, often times wrought with profanity, when they are not in first place. 

The fact that their games always sell out is as much a testament to the large quantity of Yankee fans as it is to the quality of their resolve. Never has there ever been a more appropriate use of that now cliché phrase, "What have you done for me lately?" than in the not-so-friendly confines of "the House that Ruth Built."

More at fault is the man that runs (used to run) this dynasty. George Steinbrenner made a lifestyle out of closeted loyalty. 

There are many stories about how he felt close to many former Yanks and often did them favors when they needed assistance in the years after their lives on the diamond. But that is the stuff of legend. 

The reality that most fans know for sure, that they grew up watching in many cases, is the obnoxious, business man who would scream in the face of the man he called a wonder the week before. Firing, hiring, firing, hiring, and so on and so on until you wanted to scream, "Mercy" for whomever was on his bad side that season. 

This is the George that everyone knew, and this is the George that Yankee fans have used as a model for their behaviors. 

Of course, George Steinbrenner never booed the Yankees that we know of, and at least he went to the games, which is more than we can say to Hank. 

But while George had the payroll as a weapon when he got grumpy, the fans have less options. Their ways of venting are as limited as their collective memory of last season, when A-Rod was the MVP, and everyone was preening and praying that he'd re-sign with the Yankees.

I can't remember a time when I watched a game where a player got the treatment that Alex Rodriguez got last night. Not only did they boo when he hit into a double play, they booed when balls got hit to him, even when he made the play! 

A-Rod, for his part, handled it as well as anyone could be expected to. He was humble and self deprecating in his postgame interviews after having just gone about his business on the field, despite the boo-birds. 

I suspect this will earn him little in the eyes of the Yankees fans, however, and it is this type of thing that cuts to the core of why so many people hate the Yankees; not because of their success, their history, or their trophies, but because of the attitude that you seem to need to be a Yankee fan.

I would offer that the fans should be ashamed, but what point would there be in that? 

How ironic that the very franchise that coined the phrase, "Yankee Pride," seems to have the fanbase with the least of that commodity.