T.J. Nitti won't have to wait as long as his father did to see the New York Yankees win a World Series in person.

The 10-year-old fifth grader at Poinciana Elementary School was with his father, Tom, up behind third base Wednesday night as their beloved New York Yankees won their 27th World Championship at the new Yankee Stadium.

"It was really awesome," exclaimed T.J. "It was an exciting game."

T.J. says he (like his father) has been a Yankee fan "almost since I was born." He is such a Yankee fan that he has his bedroom decorated "with lots of pictures of the players in pinstripes" as well as a seat from the old Yankee Stadium.

Although T.J. is a catcher, having played with the Outdoor Advertising team at the Clayton Sterling Complex, he says his favorite player is New York shortstop Derek Jeter.

His father, a financial planner with Raymond James & Associates, Inc., in Key West, says he's a "psycho Yankee fan," which might explain how he went on a ticket Web site and paid $600 apiece for his and T.J.'s tickets.

"We were in the grandstand, upper level, about behind third base," said the elder Nitti. He also went with a friend to two ALCS games against the Los Angeles Angels a couple weeks ago -- but those tickets cost only $200 each.

"When I was a kid, I became mesmerized watching the Yankees in the 1977 World Series," said Nitti. While working in New York, he had season tickets in the late 1980s and early 1990s -- moving to Key West and giving up his tickets just before the Yanks went on to the 1996 Series. He still managed to get a couple tickets that year and he and his sister went to see Atlanta "crush" (Nitti's word) the Yankees in the first game.

So, until Wednesday night, Nitti had never seen New York win a Series game.

"It was an incredible experience, a 42-year dream in the making," said the 42-year-old of New York's 7-3 victory.

I relate. Not just to the father, but more to the son. When I was 12 years old, in 1948, Grandfather Allison got a pair of tickets and we drove 130 miles to Cleveland to watch the Indians beat the Boston Braves, 2-0, in Game 3 of that Series. It was indeed incredible. I also had pictures of the Indians and other athletes all over my bedroom wall. I never had a stadium seat, though. And I think the tickets were closer to $6 than to $600.

Sports Editor Ralph Morrow's Armchair Comment appears exclusively each Sunday in The Citizen. He can be reached at 305-292-7777, Ext. 264, at Rmorrow@keysnews.com and by Fax at 305-295-8016.