IN OUR YOUTH OUR HEARTS WERE TOUCHED BY PIN STRIPES::

The Bronx Zoo, 30 Years Later (STEVEN GOLDMAN, July 5, 2007, NY Sun)

Several years ago, before Ron Guidry had come out of retirement to become the pitching coach of the Yankees, I asked him a question that had been bothering me for years: Given the volatility of George Steinbrenner in those days, manager Billy Martin's mood swings, the constant hiring and firing, and the combustible mix of personalities in the clubhouse, was it possible that the Bronx Zoo years were less fun for the players than they were for the fans?

Guidry winced. He elbowed the nearest player, gestured at me, and then pointed his index finger at his temple and rotated it 360 degrees in the universal "Get a load of the crazy person" gesture. Making no effort to disguise the "are you kidding me?" tone in his voice, he said, "I thought that was the best time we ever had! I would have never changed anything, because believe it or not we had the best soap opera ever. All right? The best soap opera was the team we had here in the 70s. Everybody would pick up the papers […] — they couldn't wait to pick up the papers the next morning to see what was going on in New York. I thought it was the best time I've ever had."

On Saturday, the Yankees will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1977 championship team, gathering many of the members of the club. No doubt all present who lived through those days will look back with nostalgia, as Guidry did, and remember the positives, in the same way that veterans of the Civil War, looking back at the bombs, bullets, and bloodshed from the vantage point of middle- or old age, wrote without embarrassment about how they wished they could go back and do it all over again.