New York celebrates, then gets hungry, makes sandwich

The $200 million Yankees screamed and hugged and waved championship flags on the field of the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, the celebration spilling out to the streets, and this is going to sound weird, but it's the absolute truth:

The whole thing was a little unimpressive.

I don't mean the Yankees, who made their case as one of the very best teams in a generation, or the new stadium, which is amazing, but the celebration, which was, eh.

One of the first things I saw after walking out of the stadium was an emotionless guy with a handmade sign saying "I'll buy used ticket stubs," and it struck me that this man was probably going to sell those stubs, and then 20 feet down, there was another guy asking to buy ticket stubs. And then another.

There were pockets of intense celebration, of course. Five or six guys dressed in some sort of military uniform got in the middle of an impromptu mosh pit, screaming "Yankees-Yankees-Yankees!" while people snapped pictures. There was a guy in a wheelchair popping wheelies.

But mostly, the whole thing was underwhelming.

People here were clearly pleased that their team won, but also very clearly headed to work in the morning.

There were people in Yankees gear yawning. Literally. When I got to the train, it was packed -- packed with Yankees fans -- and it had all the buzz of an 8 a.m. staff meeting.

One young guy, bless his heart, ran up to the train door and tried to get a chant started -- "Let's go Yankees!" People in the train just stared back, silent, until he walked away and one of them mockingly started chanting, "Let's go 4 train..."

Maybe this is what happens when you're rooting for the house. The Yankees have the highest paid third baseman of all time, and also the highest paid shortstop, and first baseman, and starting pitcher, and relief pitcher, and so on. There are people here who don't really pay attention to the team until October.

There is talk about how this is the Yankees' first championship in nine years, which is true, but it's also their fifth since the strike. No other team has more than two.

If you eat filet everyday, does it start to taste like hamburger?

It was impossible to walk through that scene and not think about what it would be like if the Royals ever won a World Series. We may never find out. They're certainly years and years away from that now, at best, with a payroll crippled by $12 million to Jose Guillen while the Yankees will pay their infield, catcher, and opening day pitcher a combined $118.1 million next year.

But fans in places like Kansas City would not have the business sense to buy used ticket stubs, or care how long it took public transportation, or be jaded enough to -- even after nine title-less seasons -- yawn their way through a celebration.

Fans in places like Kansas City would scream until they couldn't even whisper, would stay up until they couldn't keep their eyes open, and would name their kids Zack or Billy or whatever name the Royals' star player will have in 2023.

Fans in places like Kansas City would cherish a celebration like the one here in New York last night, and because of that, it wouldn't be anything like the one here in New York last night.

Then again, maybe we'll never find out.