Campaigning for Obama & Yanks
WASHINGTON — When the Yankees open a three-game series in Chicago Monday, rabid White Sox fan Barack Obama will be represented at U.S. Cellular Field by his campaign manager — sporting a Derek Jeter jersey. Jim Messina, point man for Obama’s reelection effort, has been a Yankees fanatic since he was 6 years old. Even an election as tight and tense as this one won’t keep Messina away from the South Side ballpark to cheer on his beloved Bronx Bombers.
“Oh, God, yes, absolutely,” Messina exclaimed when the Daily News asked if he’d be there for the Sox opener. “I’m obsessive about the Yankees.”
Like many a pinstriped aficionado, Messina seems to have a man-crush on the Yankee captain. When Obama attended the 2009 All-Star Game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, deputy White House chief of staff Messina asked his boss for advice about arranging an audience with Jeter.
With the help of commissioner Bud Selig, the meet-and-greet was consummated in the American League clubhouse before the game — and Messina recalls the meeting with unabashed, starstruck awe.
“I don't remember anything he said except he was incredibly nice,” Messina told The News, adding that to his chagrin, “I chickened out” and didn’t ask Jeter for his autograph.
“He is my favorite professional athlete and one of the great examples of leadership,” Messina added. “He’s the kind of leader anyone would want i n your organization.”
What really got the young Messina hooked, however, was Mr. October.
“Like many kids in the Seventies, I fell in love with Reggie Jackson,” Messina said. “I remember those towering home runs in the World Series. I became obsessed with the Yankees.”
Messina’s aberration is viewed with eye-rolling bemusement around Chicago campaign headquarters. Chief strategist David Axelrod calls it “Messina’s strange Yankee fetish:
“I arranged safe passage for him (Monday) so the folks in my section don’t pummel his Yankee-loving butt! How a barefoot boy from Montana wound up rooting for those guys is beyond me.”
Born in Colorado and raised in Idaho, the 42-year-old Messina seems an unlikely candidate for Gotham Fever. As he explains it, he watched televised games with his Denver grandfather, a Yanks fan who encouraged his grandson to follow suit.
Messina catches as many TV games as he can and checks a Yankees blog ever y night before light s out. He’s stuck with the Yankees “through the lean years” and the Joe Tor re rebound era, and remains a fervent booster.
He revels in Jeter’s comeback year, thinks Robinson Cano will be an All-Star for another decade and predicts the Yankees will make a strong postseason run.
But he’s worried about the Los Angeles Angels: “In a playoff series against three strong pitchers — that makes me nervous.”
Just like his day job running Obama’s reelection bid.
“I’m paid to worr y,” he said, although he is counting on both Obama and the Yankees to go the distance.