Posted by TheYank at 9/4/2009 7:36 AM EDT

If you've been dropping by here for a while now you know I'm a baseball fan. I'm a Met fan and of course by extension that also means I'm a Yankee hater. All of which means that this has been an awful summer baseball-wise.

Living in Ireland can be a comfort at times like these because, for the most part, I can put the Mets' woes and the damn Yankees' current good play out of my mind. Other than the not-quite-occasional-enough e-mails from friends and family I don't have to endure the Yankees at all. In fact, often I can go a whole day or more without the Yankees entering my consciousness, although that's been getting harder the past year or so.

You see, Yankee caps and shirts and other stuff have - God knows why - become fashionable here. I can be walking down the street, minding my own business when I'll see some unthinking 18-year-old girl wearing a Yankee cap. As we walk by one another I'm sure she wonders why that middle-aged guy is sneering at her, but it's no more than she deserves for causing me pain when I think I'm a safe 3,000 miles away from the Yankees.


And now my local supermarket is getting in on the act. On a recent trip to get groceries what should I be confronted with? Only a shelf selling Yankee bags. 'Back to school' - lecch. I hope whatever kid carries that bag around gets double homework everyday!