If you're not a Yankee fan, you probably know one. Or two or three.

You don't have to be from the Bronx or Manhattan either. My neighbor Jeanne is from Virginia, she's a Yankee fan. Our head golf pro is from Oregon, she's a Yankee fan. I met a guy at Monday Night Football last week who's been a Yankee fan since Charlie Keller's days. (Charlie Keller?) The mailman is probably a Yankee fan. Maybe the grocery store clerk or the server at Applebees. They're everywhere.

I was a Yankee fan for the first 20 years of my life, growing up with Mickey, Maris, Moose and Yogi.

The Yankees, love 'em or hate 'em, are baseball's version of America's Team.

George Vecsey, the esteemed New York Times columnist, put it this way: “The Yankees are either classic champions, envied and admired all over the world or else they are haughty oppressors, resented by the downtrodden masses.”

Years ago, they said rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for US Steel. Well, yeah, it's nice to root for a winner. I'll take the Indians and give you Custer. I like the Allies in WWII.

And the Yankee formula has always been the same. Buy the best players.

Their first dynasty started with Babe Ruth, who they bought from the Boston Red Sox. The next run came with Joe DiMaggio, who they bought from the San Francisco Seals.

In 1959, they bought (it was called a trade) a guy from their “farm club” in Kansas City. Roger Maris won back-to-back MVPs and hit a record 61 home runs in 1961.

Then it was Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter and Goose Gossage who came for the bucks and delivered more championships.

The Yankees have won at least one pennant in every decade since the '20s.

The current edition of the Bronx Bombers has a handful of home-grown mainstays in Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada, but they wouldn't be where they are today if it weren't for the imports they bought — Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira among them.

(Interestingly, the one position that has always been developed in the Yankee farm system is catcher — Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson and now Posada.)

Acquiring players with checkbooks hardly dims the enthusiasm of all those Yankee fans.

Heck, I root for the Lakers. I root for Tiger Woods. I loved watching the John Wooden-coached UCLA basketball teams. Perfection is hard to attain and harder to maintain.

Let's face it, Americans love winners. They either love for them to keep winning or they love for them to fall from their pedestal.

This past season, the Yankees were the only team in baseball to average more than 40,000 fans per game at home and on the road.

There is no legend in the Yankee dugout this year. No Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, Billy Martin or Joe Torre. But Joe Girardi is now one win away from managing the Yankees to their 27th World Championship.

Keep spreading the news.