By Mike Vaccaro

Sports Columnist

New York Post

Most of the time, if you are a fan of a sports team, you root for that team. You cheer for that team. Maybe you wear a sweatshirt with their logo on the front, or a hat with team colors splashed prominently on it. If you wander a little close to the frenzied fringe, perhaps you paint your face in the appropriate hues.

Sports fans, they care about their teams. They care deeply.

And then there are Yankees fans.

"Yankees fans," Derek Jeter told me once, with a look of wonder swimming in his eyes, "belong in a separate category all their own."

OK: we know what you're doing now, if you happen to reside in a distinctly non-Yankee precinct of this country, in which there are many. You are rolling your eyes. You are shrugging your shoulders. The Yankees take themselves so seriously, and their fans take themselves even more seriously, and this is all supposed to only be about baseball games, right?

See, that's where you're wrong. And that's what you miss out on if you don't fall under the umbrella of Yankee fandom. There is responsibility attached to being a Yankee fan. There is a sense of history, and a sense of belonging. What others see as entitlement, Yankee fans interpret as an almost sacred kind of duty, one that reaches across generations and stretches all the way back to Harding Administration.

"When you manage the Yankees," says Joe Torre, who managed them with great distinction for 12 seasons from 1996 through 2007, "you aren't only managing this year's team, you're managing for 1996 and 1977 and 1956 and 1941. You aren't only managing players, you're managing ghosts. And I suspect that's what it means to root for the team as well. It's a fascinating thing."

That fascination has likely brought you to this book. If you are a Yankees fan, that makes perfect sense, because what you're going to find in the coming pages is an absorbing collection of facts, of figures, of trivia and of history. Some of it you'll already know, because Yankees fans are nothing if not ardent students of history. Much of it will add to your knowledge. Some of it will surprise you. All of it will delight you.

And if you aren't a Yankees fan?

Then you are proving the very point that all Yankees fans make whenever they present their valedictories for why the Yankees are the most important team in American sport. Because even if you swear to loathe the pinstripes, even if the thought of a 27^th championship banner flying high above the Bronx someday makes you somewhat queasy, you certainly understand the Yankees. You certainly appreciate them, even if you may be slow to use that word.

For it is impossible to tell a tale of baseball across the last century and not include the Yankees. Similarly, it is impossible to be a fan of the game and not be, even silently, even cryptically, a fan of who the Yankees are, what they've done, the excellence they've maintained, fairly regularly, for 87 years.

The Yankees matter.

But you already knew that. You've already started perusing this wonderful book. And soon, you'll dive into this wonderful yield by the good folks at Sports by the Numbers and you will lose yourself in baseball, in history, in numbers, and in the New York Yankees. I envy you. I can't think of a better way to pass the next couple of hours.

Enjoy.

New York Yankees: An Interactive Guide to the World of Sports

902 The number of batters (902) Tiny Bonham faced in 1943. He was 15-8, and he made his second consecutive All-Star team. Bonham was remarkably consistent from 1942-43, as he made 28 starts and pitched 226 innings both seasons. He gave up 199 hits in 1942, and he gave up 197 hits in 1943. Bonham gave up 57 earned runs and posted an identical 2.27 ERA both seasons. He also struck out 71 batters and hit one batter in both seasons. The big difference for Bonham though was the way both seasons ended. The Yankees lost the 1942 World Series in five games to the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Yankees beat the Cardinals in five games during the 1943 World Series.

2 The most familiar position (2) in the standings for the Boston Red Sox. New York won 39 pennants and 26 World Series titles from 1920-2003, while Boston managed just four pennants and came up empty in the World Series each time. Best of all for New York, the rival Red Sox have finished second in the standings during a season the Yankees came in first a mind-boggling 15 times, including eight consecutive seasons from 1998-2005.

731 The World Series slugging percentage (.731) for Lou Gehrig. He batted 119 times during seven trips to the World Series and picked up 21 extra-base hits. Gehrig batted .361 overall with ten homeruns, and he ranks among the top five leaders in post-season history for homeruns, triples, slugging percentage, total bases, walks, and RBI.

More NYY Numbers.

Joe Blanton became the first pitcher in 34 years to homer in the World Series and Ryan Howard hit a pair of shots - giving him three in two games since the series shifted from Tampa to Philly - leading the Phillies to a 10-2 victory and putting the club on the verge of what Howard described as "absolute bedlam."

Things are going so well for Philly at home that Blanton's blast was actually the first extra-base hit of his career - making him the first player in baseball history to notch a World Series homer for his first career extra-base hit.

And more importantly he was the winning pitcher in Game 4, giving his team three chances now to close out the series.

One of those chances comes at home tonight. With Cole Hamels taking the mound (4-0 this postseason) and the way Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena are swinging the stick for Tampa (combined 0 for 29 in the series) you have to think the odds are in favor of Philly.

If the Phillies do win this series it would be nice to see them go ahead and clinch it at home - not that I'm pulling for that, being a Florida resident and longtime Rays' fan and all - but Philadelphia fans deserve it.

Plus, after so much was made of home field advantage in the build-up to the postseason (e.g. Tampa posting the best home record in baseball and the A.L. winning the All-Star Game) the Phillies are 6-0 at home.

Home records for postseason teams that made early exits: Angels (0-2), White Sox (1-1), Cubs (0-2), and Brewers (1-1).

The Red Sox were 2-3 and the Dodgers were 2-2 at home in two playoff rounds.

Tampa split two games at home vs. Boston and two so far against Philly - but those diehard Philly fans have yet to see their team lose a game at home this postseason, which explains why their team is just one win away from "absolute bedlam."