Yankees prove Money Talks, and hits the occasional homer.

True story. I’m not much of a Yankees fan. Now, my brother, Gary, is a HUGE Yankees fan. Crazy about them. Not an easy thing to do when you live in Boston, but somehow he has managed. Here’s the deal though. You ever had one of those 4th cousin removed kind of brush with something strange. We had a guy in our newsroom at the Rocky who was related to Tex Watson, one of the members of the Manson family. Not something I’d brag about, but, hey, he was a Braves fan. My family fortunately fared better. We got the distinction of being able to say we were related to Mickey Mantle. Yes. That Mickey Mantle. Not that it meant anything. He was so far down the bloodline from us (of which, I’m sure he was thankful) that our paths never crossed. So, one day I’m having this deep philosophical debate with my brother, Gary, about the whole Mantle thing and why should that mean that Litton’s have to be Yankees fans. “You’ve got to be kidding right?” I said in disbelief. ” Just because he’s in the bloodline (barely) we have to be Yankees fans?” “Yep” he answered. So I played devils advocate. “Gary, name one time we ever got his autograph? Did he ever send us one of his rookie baseball cards? A jersey? A baseball”? No. No. No. and No. “Then I rest my case. No autograph, no Yankees fan.”

And besides. The Yankees have more money than Bill Gates. The don’t earn their world series titles, they buy them. Probably at some baseball memorabilia store. Right next to the Micky Mantle rookie cards.