Sunday, Mar. 29, 2009

Jane Heller writes of divorcing the New York Yankees in 'She-Fan'

Jane Heller’s divorce came with typical emotions: rage, self-analysis, a buried urge to reconcile.

The not-so-typical element? Heller divorced a baseball team.

Or at least tried to.

Two months into the 2007 season, the Yankees — a lifetime addiction of Heller’s — were playing poorly enough to make the die-hard fan question her allegiance.

So she wrote a column about her intent to divorce the team. When the piece appeared in the New York Times, it generated an overwhelming response from readers.

Some people supported Heller. But she was most affected by the readers who challenged her Yankee loyalty.

It inspired a mission to find out what constitutes a “true fan.”

The result: “Confessions of a She-Fan,” a memoir of Heller’s experiences following the Yankees across the country for the rest of the season.

At the root of the memoir is Heller’s obsession with winning, and whether that obsession makes her a “bandwagon fan.”

“I am used to winning,” Heller writes at the memoir’s onset. “If there were a 12-step program for Yankee fans whose innocent passions became hardcore addictions in ’96 when we began our run under Torre, I would be chairing the meetings.”

“Confessions” includes interviews with fans, members of the sports media and other sources.

Baseball addicts will love the book’s Yankee trivia, but “Confessions” is just as much about the way fandom builds and enhances relationships.

When Heller was 6, her father died of a brain tumor. She grew up seizing a Sunday afternoon ritual of watching televised Yankee games with her grandpas.

“Who cared that I had absolutely no idea what the words meant? Baseball made me happy. The Yankees made me happy. They were something hang on to, to believe in,” Heller writes.

Despite his autoimmune disease, Heller’s husband comes along on the cross-country exploration of fandom. The author dubs the journey their second honeymoon.

Soon, it’s clear she’s right. Nothing tests the limits of love like having your wife ask you to follow A-Rod into the bathroom.

From the get-go, it’s clear Heller’s Yankee obsession is so strong that her divorce is more a result of impulse than real anger.

But that’s part of what makes “Confessions” so appealing: A suggestion that the proverbial “true fan” often wins more loyalty tests than games.

“Baseball is just a game. But like religion, it has rituals. I need rituals. I need traditions. I need something to believe in, whether I worship in a church or a stadium,” Heller writes.