Do Yankee Fans Have Souls

An interesting question from my friend Scott. Read below.

Do Yankee fans have souls?

This debate has gone on for centuries, and supporters and defenders of the concept have argued bitterly about it. Defenders of the concept of Yankee fans possessing a soul have come from unexpected quarters. Consider Ralph Waldo Emerson, a dyed-in-the-wool Red Sox fan, who opined in his 1841 essay "The Oversoul," "We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE. And, I suppose, that includes Yankees fans. Though not A-Rod."

Another Sox supporter, William James, followed this line of thinking as well. In THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: A STUDY IN HUMAN NATURE (1902), he concluded that "For human beings, and Yankee fans as well by my reckoning, there are moments of sentimental and mystical experience...that carry an enormous sense of inner authority and illumination with them when they come."

And who could possibly deny the presence of a soul in longtime Yankee supporter Saint Augustine of Hippo, who cried out in anguish in Book I of his CONFESSIONS, "Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter it. After that, Thou, please restock our farm system, since the only potential big leaguer in Columbus is the batboy."

So, I posit that, purely in the interest of healthy debate, that Yankee fans have souls.