Tech. Sgt. Michelle Palmer regrets not wearing her lucky Yankees baseball cap Oct. 28 when the New York team played in the opening game of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“Of course, you have to ask me about being a Yankees fan today,” Palmer said, with a laugh, the day following the Yankees 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia team.
Palmer, who works as non-commissioned officer in charge of general law for the base Staff Judge Advocate, keeps a small collection of figurines, hats, and framed pictures in her office at Dover Air Force Base.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of Palmer’s collection. At home, she has a pinstriped mailbox and keeps autographed jerseys and baseballs in an office that is painted blue. Even though Palmer was deployed and couldn’t attend the demolition of Yankee stadium, a family member nabbed her a bag of dirt from the old stadium.
A native of the Jersey shore, Palmer said her love of the New York team started at age 7, when her father took her to a Yankees game. Now, Palmer travels to Baltimore each year to watch her favorite team play the Orioles.
“I don’t really like for my son to see me while I’m watching a game,” Palmer said. “It’s okay when they’re winning, but when they’re losing, it’s not always pretty.”
But not all of Palmer’s co-workers share her love of the New York team. A former deputy and die-hard Red Sox fan used to refuse to go in Palmer’s office amid all the Yankees paraphernalia.
One day, Palmer came to the office and found a picture of herself had been digitally altered to show her wearing a Red Sox jersey.
“We have a healthy rivalry,” said Carmel-Ann Feliciani, who serves as the chief of general law and roots for the Phillies. “But [Palmer] is my right hand, so I tolerate the Yankees stuff.”
Feliciani said it seems her watching the Phillies game causes her favorite team to lose, and Palmer has been trying to get her to tune into the World Series games.
In the future, Palmer would like to go to the new Yankee Stadium and of course, see her favorite team win this year’s World Series. “Everyone’s always talking about how much they pay players, but the last time they were in the series was 2003,” Palmer said. “If they win, it’ll mean a lot to the players that have stuck with them for the past few years.
