FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — New York sports fans have been so starved for something to celebrate that they poured out of Madison Square Garden onto the streets and snarled city traffic in May, all because the Knicks simply got out of the second round of the NBA playoffs.
They’re already resigned to the Giants and Jets being bad, aware the Yankees and Mets might not be good enough. They need a team to pin their hopes on.
The U.S. squad playing in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, a place revered by locals in ways no arena ever could, could be it. The Americans might as well trade their red, white and blue for Yankee pinstripes, because their support comes New York style: loud, loyal and liquored up.
“There’s not going to be a lack of alcohol consumption,” U.S. player Ben Griffin said. “Fans are going to be loud. New York people love their sports.”
New York sports fans keep on waiting for wins
New York teams have iconic championship moments like Joe Namath guaranteeing victory in the Super Bowl in 1969 and Willis Reed limping to the court to play Game 7 of the NBA Finals a year later, but the Jets and Knicks haven’t won since those guys were on the team.
Fans wept in the stands at MSG when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, ending a 54-year drought. Now they’re working on another one of 31 years and counting.
Even the Yankees don’t win like they used to, with only two World Series titles in the 2000s — and one came against the Mets, so a portion of New Yorkers hated the whole thing.
It can make even longtime New York fans wonder if they can keep hanging in there. John McEnroe questioned why he didn’t switch allegiances after watching the Showtime Lakers when he was living in California and befriended team executive Jeanie Buss, but the Hall of Fame tennis player could never quit the Knicks.
So he remains a regular at Madison Square Garden with Spike Lee, Ben Stiller and all the other fans who come to cheer on their Knicks. (Well, usually cheer.)
“Listen, I’ve been in all of these arenas. If things are going bad in Indiana, the Indiana fans are going to try to rally their team back. The Knicks fans are going to boo their team,” said Stan Van Gundy, an NBA coach and broadcaster whose brother, Jeff, coached the Knicks to their most recent NBA Finals appearance in 1999.
True, New Yorkers sometimes struggle to hide their disappointment. Giants fans couldn’t, booing throughout their home opener Sunday, and some Jets fans wore paper bags over their heads at MetLife Stadium last year.
But when things are good, players say no place compares.
“Everything is heightened, everything is better here,” the Knicks’ Josh Hart said. “With all due respect to other places I’ve played, New York, it’s the mecca, and when you have people that really wear their heart on their sleeves and they go out there and they’re really passionate about sporting events of their teams, they come to show love and that energy is what makes you feel that difference.”
Some fans already started, booing loudly Tuesday morning as their shuttle bus passed Team Europe’s blue and yellow coach.
Get an in-depth look at this year’s Ryder Cup host, the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York.
Bethpage Black is hard, just the way New Yorkers like things
Bethpage Black is the public course that New Yorkers arrive a day early to and sleep in their cars overnight for a chance to play. It’s not one of those hotel resort courses people play on vacation where there’s no trouble unless they drive it behind a palm tree. The Black is long and it’s hard. Arms get sore and legs feel weary. It hurts like playing against Lawrence Taylor’s Giants.
But hard is how New Yorkers want things.
“Everything we do, we grind. We grind every day. It’s so New York,” said David Caleca, the president of Bonnie Briar Country Club in nearby Westchester County.
Besides playing Bethpage, Caleca was there when New York fans heckled Sergio Garcia during the 2002 U.S. Open. He’s also been in Shea Stadium when fans would boo their own Mets players, so knows emotions can swing in a New York minute.
He thinks the U.S. team will receive a huge backing not only because it’s Bethpage but because of captain Keegan Bradley, who is a New Englander but played collegiately at St. John’s and displays the passion of someone who must be from Brooklyn or the Bronx.
“He’s the kind of guy that New Yorkers love because he wears his emotions for everyone to see,” Caleca said.
Some fans may be cheering as much for the course as Bradley’s team. He knows how New Yorkers feel about Bethpage, a place they learned the game from their fathers or spent summers caddying.
“It’s much more than a golf course to a lot of these people,” Bradley said. “When you add all these things up, you’re going to get fiery fans.”
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