Tom Scocca at Slate takes this opportunity to gloat, deliciously:
Some people wait for that warm spring day when summer dresses and tank tops come out on the streets of New York at once. Me, I cherish a particular day in the fall, a day that some years sadly never comes. But when it does come, it’s a beautiful and unmistakable thing: the day the Yankees caps all disappear at once.
__
Before I first moved to New York, I hadn’t fully understood what sad, wretched, front-runners the legions of Yankees fans really are. I always knew they were awful people, the most obnoxious fans in sports, but I hadn’t grasped how weak-hearted they were. When the Yankees lose, there is no defiance, no residual pride, no we-want-a-rematch resolve. (The closest the Yankees come to that is their annual scheming to hire anyone who beats them.) People root for the Yankees because they want to identify with a winner—not just a winner, but the winner—and when the Yankees are losers, it blows a hole in their identity. They didn’t sign up for this to root for a loser.
__
And so the caps vanish, overnight…
.
Woodrowfan
A-Rod watching strike three go past him. heh heh heh
The Dangerman
I was just happy A-Fraud watched the 3rd strike; I wonder how much he needs to be paid to protect the plate on a game, set, match pitch.
Martin
Yeah, and that’s the main reason why I hate the fucking Yankees – fair weather fans and sore losers.
Jamey
Related note: Tough break for the ‘Eers today, John Cole. I’m an SU alum, yet I actually paused for a second to think how today’s stultifying contest would wreck the buzz of my fave blogger.
There are many things I liked about my alma mater, but when it comes to football, we’re just not that invested in the results…
robertdsc-PowerBook & 27 titles
I’ll wear my Yanks hat with pride on Monday.
lucslawyer
How fitting…a rod watches strike three……
J sub D
My two favorite MLB teams are the Detroit Tigers and anyone who beats the Yankees. Congratulations to the Texas Rangers.
Roger Moore
I actually know a Yankees fan or two who are genuine, life-long fans. Of course, they grew up in the Bronx, so they came by their Fandom honestly, so it may not count.
Mnemosyne
The Cubs haven’t gone to the World Series (much less won it) since 1945 and we still wear our caps year-round. So FTFY.
I should probably change out of my bathrobe at some point today, given that it’s already 2:30 pm. But it’s nice to have a do-nothing Saturday once in a while. Right now, I’m converting a bunch of ePub books to Mobi so I can load them onto my Kindle. Calibre rocks.
Rekster
It was fantastic to be sitting at home in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex last night watching the Rangers win the ALCS. It was quite a scene watching more than 51K fans behave like adults, no rushing the field, no throwing beer bottles and trash in the Yankee bullpen. Standing there cheering their Rangers. No “Bronx” cheers, just the elation of watching this team with a payroll 4 times less than the Yankees thoroughly pound the World Champs.
Now the management of the Yankees will go out and try to purchase another multimillion dollar pitcher to add to their already bloated payroll to try and purchase another World Series Title.
Like Ron Washington says “That’s the way baseball go”
Steve
I hate the Yankees as much as anyone, but after living in New York for over a decade, I can’t sign onto the generalization about their fans. Sure, there are plenty of obnoxious front-runners, the kind of people who expect sympathy because after winning four titles in five years from 1996 to 2000, the poor dears went eight years before they won again. Considering my own team has four titles in 116 years, these people can suck it.
The Yankees are, however, beloved by an awful lot of working-class people throughout New York, the sort of red-blooded sports fans who would stick with their team even if the laws of economics were repealed and they somehow managed to suck. The sort of person who works hard all day and derives their only relaxation by collapsing into an easy chair and watching the Yankees when they get home isn’t really someone I’m interested in taunting. The Yankees still suck, and I hope they lose every game even when George W. Bush is rooting for the other team, but they do have a real fan base notwithstanding the front-runners.
tbogg
A-Rod didn’t just watch strike 3, he leaned backwards in the batters box away from a pitch that broke outside.
Tom Q
Go fuck yourselves, all of you.
We live in NY. Some of us saw Mantle and Maris play. We’re loyal to our team.
If people said the shit about some other group that they routinely say about Yankee fans, they’d be labelled bigots.
Glad to agree with many here on many other issues. But on this, I repeat, go fuck yourselves.
Oh, and, yeah — 27 championships.
Xanthippas
Going to the World Series for the first time ever is pure joy. Doing it while whipping the Yankees is pure joy with a little bit of pixie dust and fairy magic sprinkled on top. Watching that win last night was delicious. Go Rangers!
stuckinred
@Tom Q: I’m a yankee bigot, fuck you, steinbrenner and the sorry-assed bunch of overpaid asshole on earth!
The Grand Panjandrum
This guy knows nothing of obnoxious sports fans … Dallas Cowboy fans … need I say more?
Mike Furlan
But how does he feel when people dressed in traditional Yankee attire get on his plane?
stuckinred
@The Grand Panjandrum: Ever been to Knoxville?
valdivia
@Mike Furlan:
lol.
Xanthippas
@Tom Q:
Hey Tom, fans who show up late to playoff games, and leave 2 – 3 innings before the game is over, don’t exactly give the rest of us the impression of being diehards.
But hey, to each their own. I reserve my special and absolute loathing for those local Yankees fans, those native Texans or imports from elsewhere who long ago swore allegiance to the Yankees because they couldn’t stand being associated with a loser, the ones who crawled out from under their rocks to give the Yankees homefield advantage in Rangers Ballpark in the regular season, the ones who loved taunting and mockery when their team was winning, and who somehow disappeared into the ether when the Rangers whipped the Yankees in Game 2 of the series. Their quiet humiliation last night was the most enjoyable part of the series.
TCG
@tbogg: Yes I noticed A-rod freeze on that one, too.
stuckinred
This Auburn QB is insanely good!
General Stuck
I hate the Yankees in a shallow way. I hate Dick Cheney worse than the plague, which is after all caused by dumb as dirt bacteria. Like cats hunting, or dogs wagging tails. I don’t hate much else, except maybe OBL. The wingnuts are insane, so what’s a body to think of that. They need defeating, in whatever way is appropriate at the time. But hating is for special actions, imo.
I don’t hate liberals, trolls, and all around general assholes, which would of course includes moi”. So in that spirit I offer a blanket apology for any over the line bad stuff I have called folks on this blog. Especially, the other day with wile quixote, that I did certainly go over the line with. For anyone requesting a personal apology, they will be received and evaluated as to merit. And for those who don’t give a shit about my personal housecleaning, which no doubt is likely about all juicers, just scroll on by please.
mellowjohn
@J sub D:
“when it comes to baseball/i’ve got two favorite clubs/my chicago white sox/and whoever plays the cubs.”
but that aside, there’s a special place in my heart for hatehatehating the yankees.
valdivia
@General Stuck:
did the day of atonement come a little late this year for you?
:-p
just kidding. I enjoy your posts a lot.
Mnemosyne
@mellowjohn:
My husband and I have a mixed marriage: I’m a Cubs fan and he’s a Sox fan. We manage to make it work somehow, probably because we live in California and it rarely comes up.
The basketball finals caused some major marital tensions for two friends of mine a few years ago when her Detroit Pistons went up against his LA Lakers. Fortunately for all, bloodshed was avoided by watching the games in separate rooms.
PurpleGirl
I can buy the idea that Yankees fans are fans because of the winning thing, but really, all the caps vanishing. Nay, no way, people keep wearing their caps because they wear the cap. That’s it. They want to wear a cap, they have a Yankees cap and they wear it.
JGabriel
@Tom Q: Say it, Brother!
As a New Yorker, I’m with you all the way. Even if I’m not much of a sports watcher…
.
Omnes Omnibus
@General Stuck:Have you entered a 12 step program?
zattarra
I’m a New Yorker and a Mets fan. Have spent my entire life hating the Yankees. And I call bullshit on this assessment of Yankee fans. I hate the Yankees, I hate taking the abuse from Yankee fans but most Yankee fans are not fair weather fans, they are fans through and through. Maybe Mr. Scocca only knows other transplants to the city, but the people I grew up with that are Yankee fans are still fans. And have spent the day reminding me that the Mets season ended sometime around the All Star break.
Kelrian
Missed out on all the Yankees/Rangers action lately. For what it’s worth, my hometeam spanked the Yankees back in ’01 (you can imagine the insanity THAT caused down here in AZ).
Now if you’ll pardon me, I’m gonna go watch the Giants.
morzer
Either way, the Red Sox fans are the biggest bunch of self-pitying jerk-offs in baseball history.
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
entered one a long time ago, it never ends.
BGinCHI
@Mnemosyne: For Cubs fans this is easy. You wear your hat and other stuff all the time, since there is really no high point. The only people who wear it really conspicuously are tourists here for games in the summer: hat plus t-shirt or jersey.
I’m still trying to figure out whether hiring Quade is the coolest or stupidest thing they’ve done in a while. He seems like a solid guy, and he wasn’t at the top of anyone’s “famous” list, so it’s kind of a cool working class move.
But if he doesn’t win we’ll be screaming for Torre.
JasonF
I grew up rooting for the Yankees in the 80s, cheering for Don Mattingly and watching him spend his career without a ring. Don’t tell me I’m a fair-weather fan, grumble grumble.
Martin
@Xanthippas:
Oh, it’s not that for me. Watching the fans in Yankee stadium boo the home team and throw things on the field when they aren’t winning forever turned me off. I grew up in NY as well, and what an ugly sad-sack lot they were when I’d go to games there as a kid.
You can generalize about any other group of fans however you feel like partitioning them, but the ones in the damn stadium were absolute dicks. And it’s not a NY thing because I never saw that at Shea.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: I have my 1984 NLC Old Style Cubbie Plaque right next to my 1986 Old Style Superbowl Champs Bears Plaque right over my desk. They get lonesome here in Georgia!
Martin
@zattarra:
Well, maybe that was the wrong way to characterize them. Too many Yankees fans are Firebaggers – they’re supportive when the team does what they want and they bitch and moan and complain and bad-mouth them about every fucking thing when they don’t.
themann1086
I think this is relevant. And yeah, I am proud to see my team up at #1 :)
stuckinred
@Martin: I think that is a description of “fans” in general.
jw
rofl
jw
rofl
JGabriel
I’m surprised that so many of you are ragging on NYC and the Yankees for winning in a liberal city, while cheering on the Texas Rangers, from the home state of George W. Bush (Edited to add: It was Bush’s team, fer chrissakes!) and John Cornyn.
It’s like wingnuts attacking liberals for being right.
(/trollbait)
.
General Stuck
P.J O’Rourke
Jumps the projection shark and lands on planet wingnut moon.
Jeebus, even the Right Wing satirists have gone insane.
JoePo
If people said the same shit about some other group that they routinely say about the Dark Side, they’d be labeled bigots – Grand Moff Tarkin
Omnes Omnibus
@General Stuck: Okay then.
JoePo
@General Stuck: He was so funny when he said that one thing in the ’80s.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: I lived in Athens at the end of the 80s-early 90s and was a Braves fan in those early years where they were finally good.
Can’t say I’d ever root for them again, though I really like John Smoltz.
Good to know there are Cubs fans down there. My great-grandmother in a tiny town in south Arkansas got WGN and was a huge Cubs fan. She always thought of them as her home town team.
zattarra
@Martin: That’s not Yankee fans, that’s New York sports fans in general. Mets, Jets, Giants, Knicks, Rangers, Yankees, Islanders (I’d say Nets but is anyone a Nets fan?) fans are all like that.
BGinCHI
@General Stuck: O’Rourke is still alive?? I thought he was murdered by his bad ideas in the 80s.
Can’t believe someone would pay him to write for them. Oh, wait. Weekly Standard.
Omnes Omnibus
@JoePo: Bachelor’s Home Companion is good.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: I moved here from Champaign-Urbana in 84. It took a few years but eventually the Braves crept in. I still die for the Illini and the Bears but not so much the Cubbies. Last time I was at Wrigley the Mets hit TWO GRANDSLAMS IN ONE INNING!
JoePo
I’m a Cards fan. They have won 10 championships, to which I contributed nothing. It’s fun to watch them play, though. Except for this year. It was terrible to watch them this year.
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: Oh, you’re a Cubs fan?
I’m sorry.
Culture of Truth
I always knew they were awful people
What an asshole
JoePo
@Omnes Omnibus: For the longest time, I had P.J. O’Rourke confused with Dave Berry, which should be a horrible insult to the both of them.
rob!
@General Stuck: Ever seen PJ O’Rourke on Bill Maher’s show? He’s completely unendurable. He tells a joke, gets no laughs, keeps talking, gets no laughs again.
Then he keeps talking, louder and louder, in what I assume is an attempt to get through the segment as fast as possible so no one notices he’s horribly unfunny, and now that he’s a wingnut, he’s an asshole AND unfunny.
Darkrose
@stuckinred: We didn’t come here looking for trouble–we’re just here to do the Superbowl Shuffle!
I still miss Sweetness, especially when I hear about the constant asshattery from NFL players these days.
stuckinred
@JoePo: Ever hear of Lewis Grizzard?
TheStone333
Yours is not a geographically-limited observation. If the Phightins drop the game this evening, I suspect that southern Delaware County will be distinctively less red tomorrow morn. I can only hope I have a chance to test my hypo- the bandwagoneers have worn my last shred of tolerance to the bone. Go Giants. And Brewers.
JoePo
Apparently the latest uproar is over those America-hating liberals who won’t recite the pledge of allegiance. Which is at least twice as important as knowing the 1st amendment, so fuck you guys.
Mark
@Steve: Right on. I’m no Yankees fan (much as my New York family members tried to make me into one when I was a kid) but they have a passion for their team that is notably absent in San Francisco where I live now. Giants fans are the biggest bandwagon jumpers in the world, and they didn’t give a hoot when the G-men just had five-straight losing seasons. Now people walk down the street chanting “Let’s Go Giants!”
Ash Can
Meh. I don’t care much whether the Yankees win or lose, but the only time I’d actually want to see Kerry Wood or Joe Girardi on the losing end of things is if they were playing the Cubs. And I have no reason to root for the Rangers; I can’t get excited about them beating the Yankees. So, as usual, I’ll be rooting for the National League team in the Series.
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: I’m a South Side Sox girl all the way. Fortunately, my wife bleeds orange and black (though she doesn’t wear a Rally Thong), so aside from some minor sniping from her about the AL in general, we can usually be on the same side. The odds of a White Sox/Giants Series are, I think, pretty damn slim–though hey, it could happen!
This is a marked improvement over her ex-wife, who was a Dodgers fan.
JoePo
@stuckinred: No, but Wikipedia tells me his acting debut was as a member of the Sugarbaker clan in Designing Women. I honestly don’t know how to feel about this.
Yutsano
@themann1086: The numbers are a bit off. Seattle had more than Cincinnati yet they’re ranked higher. It’s on now JenJen!
@stuckinred: I think I just groaned and LOLed at the same time. Well played good sir.
stuckinred
@JoePo: He was a drunken humorist who specialized in the University of Georgia. One of his best jokes was a story of UGA, the mascot Bulldog. Bubba and Earl were in the stadium on a beautiful Saturday when the team, led by UGA, ran out onto the field. The team went to the bench and UGA plopped down on the 50 and began to lick himself “where dogs like to lick”. Bubba looked at Earl and said, “I wish I could do that” to which Earl replied “Why that dog would bite you”!
thank you
thank you very much
JBerardi
@Tom Q:
Oh, and, yeah—thanks for proving Scocca’s point.
stuckinred
Razzle Dazzle from the Bayou Bengals!
Ash Can
@BGinCHI: I dunno about Torre. I’d be screaming for Sandberg, assuming some other ML team hasn’t locked him in for five years by then. (The only thing that would keep me from screaming for Girardi is the fact that winning with the guys the Yankees organization puts on the field every year is a lot less challenging than winning with the assortment of kids and stumblebums the Cubs put on the field every year. Girardi may be a former Cub, but I’m not sure if he’s ready for that kind of managerial primetime.)
Quade’s been in the Cubs organization for quite some time. If he can do next year what he did this fall, next season might not be as painful as we fear.
Winston Smith
Oh, in case anybody runs into Juan Williams this weekend, please direct him to Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things.
He might find it rather alarming how many people around him are, apparently, wearing “Muslim garb.”
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: You gotta have a local team. No reason to apologize for that.
Being a Cubs fan is much harder than it should be. I think it’s more like being a fan of the culture and not the actual team. Going to Wrigley and just loving the sport are the essential elements. And if you win, well, that’s nice too.
Humility 101.
Ps. I miss Athens and really wish I got down there more often.
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred: You know what “AUBURN” stands for, don’t you?
Alabama Usually Beats Us ‘Round November
;-)
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: It’s really changed in the 26 years I’ve been here. Downtown is like a little New Orleans and gets insane on a regular basis. The Georgia Theater burned a while back but it looks good for an upgrade. We are getting a branch of the medical school here and it will replace the Navy School shortly.
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: Half the people I work with are Auburn grads. I have to say that for such a hole in the wall, jerkwater, one stoplight town they sure inspire loyalty.
Their Vet Med School did a wonderful job with the cancer treatment for our little boo-boo.
BGinCHI
@Ash Can: I was hoping for Trammell, actually. Seems to really have a good handle on things and was a great player. Sandberg has paid his dues and I would imagine he’s next.
Unless Lee Elia is available.
trollhattan
@The Grand Panjandrum:
I’ll add the Lakers to complete the triumvirate of sports fan suckitude. For all I know there might be a quadumvirate, but I don’t follow hockey so I’ll leave that call to the experts.
TOP
Thank you, Tom Q, Zattara and JasonF.
Another New Yorker here, and I would like to point out that I, like many, many people I know, have been a Yankee fan all my life–and I was just barely young enough that I missed remembering the Yankees winning in the late Seventies–but I sure did grow up with some terrible teams and some sub .500 teams, and see that same sad Donnie Baseball retirement just before the first ring I remember, in 1996. When I was growing up and learning baseball in the Eighties, it was the easiest thing in the world to be a Mets fan (not true now or in the old days, and no offense intended, Zattara!), so I am sick and tired of the easy comments about Yankee bandwagon fans. Sure, there are plenty of them, but that’s not exactly a NY monopoly (Red Sox, cough, cough).
Oh, and what Morzer said!
Personally, I’ll say go Giants, since they may be in SF now, but they were my dad’s team back in the day…
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
:-p
We Cubs fans had a whole song written just for us:
A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request
Though I have to admit, I did appreciate that some Sox fans at the inauguration brought their song into it.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Are you in Athens? Sorry, was assuming Atlanta.
Heard about the GA Theater and I was devastated. I was there when it first opened. I was also standing right there when the mosaic tiles at the entry of the Globe Pub were laid (by an artist lady friend of mine). Damn I miss drinking and going to shows at the Watt, the Downstairs (earliest Vic Chesnutt shows, may he RIP), GA Theater.
Hope they will rebuild.
I also miss The Taco Stand, even though I live in Mexi food heaven….
eastriver
Go Yankees. Fuck all you losers.
(the same sentiment right back in your faces. assholes)
daveNYC
Wow, thanks for being really gracious winners everyone. DIAF, plzkthks.
Ash Can
@BGinCHI:
Har-dee-har-har.
I like Trammell too, but for some reason or other I had the impression he didn’t really want the job. Maybe it’s because he wasn’t the one subbing for Piniella after the latter resigned, as opposed to subbing for him when he took time off. Of course, maybe after he subbed for Lou it was the players and/or front office who didn’t think he was a fit. I don’t know, and I haven’t heard any good scuttlebutt about it.
Belvoir
@Steve:
This is sort of my background, I’m from the Bronx originally, the Yanks are the home team, the pride of our borough. Atavistic and nostalgic to root for them. I understand why people can’t stand them though, it took me years to realize why, but I do understand. When every guy on the field is a millionaire, it’s sort of overkill. I guess it’s just habit and pride in the city that we still root for them. Growing up, all the money and salaries and deals , that Hollywood bigness that people hate now, just wasn’t talked about. It wasn’t really common knowledge, and no one really cared.
They were our home team, the Bronx Bombers, and as a kid in the late 70’s that’s all that mattered. The city was a pretty battered place then, and the Yankees gave us some hope, pride, spectacle and a diversion from our many problems as a city. As the Bronx burned, famously. It’s a legacy you don’t let go of, even if people from elsewhere hate the Yankees. They were also the hicks who laughed, ridiculed and spat on the Bronx too then, we were a national punchline, the worst place in the country according to the TV. So, no, pride and rooting for the Yankees is not just rooting for the winners. Sorry it sucks so hard to lose to them sometimes, farm boys. Peoples’ feelings about the Yanks often track their feelings about NYC through the decades. Love and hate.
BGinCHI
@Ash Can: He’s off to AZ now from what I read. How cool is it to have Kirk Gibson as your manager?
It’s like having Clooney.
JGabriel
Winston Smith: My favorite at at that site was the guy whose shirt read: Frisk Me, I’m Muslim!
Also, this guy, because he’s one of my favorite guitarists.
.
stuckinred
@stuckinred: @BGinCHI: Yup. The Globe remains as it was although they committed heresy by having a tv downstairs for the World Cup. Did you know the staff, Lisa, Patrick, Tim, Randy. . .? The Theater will be much better. My buddy is going to have an eatery on the roof, it will be much cleaner and safer. Downstairs is gone but the Watt lives and that part of downtown has blossomed into hipsterville. The Manhattan and Little Kings sort of round things out in that area. I assume you came her for school?
http://www.georgiatheatre.com/
Ash Can
@Mnemosyne: I adore A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request, but I can’t believe that Steve Goodman, of all people, included a mention of Na-Na-Hey in it. Wrong side of town, Steve!
BGinCHI
@Belvoir: This sounds plagiarized from a Ken Burns movie.
I could hear the background music when I read it.
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
My aunt-in-law bought me a Sox shirt after they won the World Series and I wore it for Halloween that year. Sadly, no one here in So Cal understood the joke.
Steve
@TOP: There is nothing as cool as rooting for a losing team as a kid and sticking with them until they finally come out on top. I had that experience with the Red Wings.
apistat
A clear and concise demonstration of why so many people fucking loathe Yankees fans, in one simple gif.
There’s like 5 different varieties of douchebag pictured there; the level of diversity amongst Yankees fans is off the charts.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Globe is great. I was there for an MA from 89-91, then back for a summer in 93 when I worked at the Athens Coffee House. The two new places you mention I don’t know, but they make me thirsty.
I knew Lawrence Shine at the Globe and also in Buffalo (where I did my PhD). Haven’t seen him in years. A very smart, funny Irishman (yeah, that’s rare). Georgia Bar still there?
U at UGA?
BGinCHI
@apistat: FTW!
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: I meant to add Lawrence, haven’t seen him in years. Lisa was the little blonde French Major. What about Lazlo? The Barmuda Triangle persists with the GA Bar-Globe-Roadhouse. I did my masters and doc here and work for the Board of Regents. Damn, I don’t even remember the Athens Coffee House!
Svensker
@apistat:
It’s all them fuggin’ coastal elites, know what I’m sayin?
Martin
@apistat: Hmm. Maybe I’m off base after all. Maybe it’s just the Yankee fans from Jersey that are the problem.
We kept calling for better border security, but no, they kept coming through the checkpoints.
morzer
@apistat:
Next you’ll be saying you get scared on planes when you see Yankees fans dressed like Yankees fans….
Lysana
I saw a retweet of a Yankees fan who noted that she has had a miscarriage and felt their loss to the Rangers was comparable to that.
I guaran-fucking-tee you a BoSox fan would be hard-pressed to be that fucked up about it. We’re more likely to find our inner bisexuals when our teams win. Tom Brady made a lot of straight men reconsider that label when the Pats won their first Super Bowl.
morzer
@Martin:
Don’t forget the headless bodies found in the deserts of New Jersey…
Steaming Pile
@Ash Can: The Cubs have become the new Red Sox. They’ll threaten to win the Pennant every few years, more often than they used to do in this era of three divisions and two layers of playoffs. They always disappoint, just like the Red Sox used to.
And I always said, it’s too damn easy to be a Yankees fan. It takes absolutely no effort or no patience or no strength of character to root for the Yankees. To be a Cubs fan, however, is hard. I can respect the guy who stays a Cubs fan year in and year out, when they finish fourth, and when they choke in the NLDS.
Most Yankees fans do not have what it takes to root for an underdog. They just don’t. They should have to endure what Giants fans or Dodgers fans did before they went to the West Coast. 1951 was a really big deal for Giants fans, and it almost didn’t happen. 1955 was an even bigger deal, buy only because the Dodgers sucked so badly for decades.
The worst that Yankees fans ever had to put up with was that period from 1961-1976 between the Mantle/Maris era and the Reggie Jackson era. Big deal. Not even a whole generation. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series in my grandparents’ entire lifetimes. But there’s always next year. And the next.
water balloon
It must be odd to hate a team so much. Yankees fans don’t care about your team one way or another. The bizarre things people come up with to justify their hatred of the Yankees is something to behold.
morzer
@Steaming Pile:
But they don’t have to, which is why they smile indulgently at the bitterness and resentment of the fans of other so-called franchises. When you come down to it, Yankees bashers are just the teabaggers of baseball – incoherent, enraged, and easily manipulated.
Jewish Steel
I’m ready for basketball season to start.
Woodrowfan
any team founded after 1869 is just a damn expansion team anyway…
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Really? ACH was a nice renovated place up past Wuxtry on that same street. Hmm. Probably morphed into something else. Owned by a rich asshole from Atlanta.
I miss the old Watt when it was in the cinderblock space. I could write a list here of shows I saw that would not even look real. It’s probably the only place where you could be watching a band like Souled American on a Tuesday night and then Robyn Hitchcock, who had been playing at the Univ, opens for them just cuz he’s there. And then during the SA show he is in the audience and we talk about music between songs. Unreal.
Haven’t seen Lawrence since I left Buffalo in 98. Knew other barkeeps but don’t remember names or faces.
I miss Vic and the Downstairs. Also Flagpole. Ort still alive?
I was also there when The Grit first opened. God, I could tell some tales about some people here but no one would believe me.
Bruuuuce
@Steaming Pile: Funny how that works. Because, you know, some of us Yankees fans grew up rooting for Bobby Murcer and Roy White, who were never the favorites. And some of us Yankees fans are also Mets fans (hey, you choose between your NL family’s loyalty and your friends’ love of the Yanks as a kid!), who know only tsuris, year after frustrating year.
(We won’t even speak about the Knicks. Especially not the disaster that were the Isiah years.)
(Also, too, as a Steve Goodman fan, I gotta root for the Cubs to win, one of these years. Just to lay the man to rest easy, at long last.)
Darkrose
I don’t know why, but I absolutely can’t stand Jason Werth. There’s just something about him that reminds me of T-Bag from Prison Break.
Clutch414
That’s funny, I’m wearing my Yankees cap right now. Matter of fact, it’s my “lucky cap” that I wore everyday when I was in the hospital around 10 years ago when I was getting part of my right kidney remove due to a cancerous tumor.
So, to all the haters from the bottom of my heart, go fuck yourselves.
FlipYrWhig
Just a few tweaks and you’ve got a solid explanation for the last two years in America.
JoePo
@water balloon: You do realize all you do is park your ass in front of the television whenever the Yankees have a winning record, right? That you’re not a member of a royal family?
bostondreams
@Lysana:
Well, honestly, I thought 2003 was brutal and I had to walk for an hour to calm down, and 1986 was tear inducing (because my Jersey born father mocked me, his 13 year old heartbroken son, ruthlessly all night after that freaking game 6) But otherwise, I generally agree. Yes, I would have that beautiful quarterback’s babies. And my wife knows this.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: Flagpole and Ort are still at it. You mean the “new” Grit on Prince. It started over at the rr station. You know that Ted Hafner jumped off the parking deck to his death a couple of years back?
ort at FP
http://flagpole.com/Weekly/Ort
water balloon
@JoePo the psychic: You’re proving my point. Royal family?
Ari
And right on cue:
nytimes:
Geoduck
You want to see really die-hard stick-with-it fans, come to Seattle. Three championships city-wide in the last fifty years, and then one of those teams was hijacked away to Oklahoma City.
Michael57
You know — most Yankee fans were fans growing up, and are frankly mystified by this self-indulgent and inexplicable hatred for what we just think of as “our team.” I really don’t get it–it’s irrational.
Rod Majors
I pointed out to a wingnut/Yankee fan buddy of mine in NY the fact that it took the Texas Rangers 16 years to recover from George W. Bush’s reign on the team yet Obama only gets >2? Wow, did that one strike a chord. Yikes.
Cacti
Yep, what terrible, front-running fans the Yankees have…
They’ve only led the league in attendance 8 of the last 10 years.
And the two years they didn’t? 2nd and 3rd.
Harley
Rekster, you forgot one thing about all those welll behaved Ranger fans. Every one of them was white. But you knew that already, I’d wager.
As for all the animus, some people need a locus for the inchoate hatreds inside them. You get it in politics. You get it in sports, too. Yes, it is self-indulgent, yes it is inexplicable. Andnit is born of weakness in any case, deserving of pity more than contempt.
Onkel Bob
@Michael57: ayup… I grew up in CT and was lucky, I fell in with a host of Yankee fans instead of Red Sox fans. The Yanks really sucked bad before the Boss came along, CBS was at best, an absent owner. I know many a Tribe fan that despise the fact the Steinbrenner was prevented from buying the Indians; they would have loved for him to bring a winner to Cleveland.
As a geographer, I know damn well you don’t judge the population of a country on the residents of a single city. Americans dislike the “French” but few go anywhere but Paris (if they visit at all). Does anyone think NYCer’s represent America? The stadium is overpriced now, the fans are crowded out by people who want the “prestige” of being able to buy tickets. And as for the yahoo contingent – go to a Philadelphia Eagles game when the Giants are in town. Fenway fans chant Yankees suck when they play Detroit, Every team has fans we prefer not be associated with as supporters. At least flares and bags of urine are not thrown on the field.
Cacti
And if anyone wants to gripe about the franchise that sent player salaries through the stratosphere…
That would be the Rangers when they decided to sink a quarter of a billion dollars into a single player, Alex Rodriguez.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
I may be the only person on the planet who likes watching A-Rod play and hates the Yankees, so you’ll have to pardon my perspective here, but I think MLB would find itself in a lot better shape overall if the Yankees had a decade like the Orioles have had. I don’t mean they need to have a mediocre season or two where they don’t get to the playoffs. I mean they need to suck out loud. They need to start the season with no one giving them a chance at the post-season. It’s been too long since that’s been the case.
That’s the case for every sport. The only people who like dynasties are people whose teams are ruling the league and casual fans of the game who aren’t paying much attention anyway.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
I may be the only person on the planet who likes watching A-Rod play and hates the Yankees, so you’ll have to pardon my perspective here, but I think MLB would find itself in a lot better shape overall if the Yankees had a decade like the Orioles have had. I don’t mean they need to have a mediocre season or two where they don’t get to the playoffs. I mean they need to suck out loud. They need to start the season with no one giving them a chance at the post-season. It’s been too long since that’s been the case.
That’s the case for every sport. The only people who like dynasties are people whose teams are ruling the league and casual fans of the game who aren’t paying much attention anyway.
zzyzx
The reason why people become Yankees haters is because there’s a strong core of Yankees fans who treat the rest of MLB as their farm club.
As a M’s fan, I spent the last season terrified over losing King Felix. Every year the question is which players we can keep and wondering if we’d MAYBE be able to pick someone up.
Meanwhile the Yankees just grab the best players out there and when that doesn’t work, they do it again next year. As a fan of one of the other teams that doesn’t have the same resources and never COULD have them, it’s frustrating.
Cacti
@Brian S (formerly Incertus):
It may be coming sooner than you think.
The boss is dead, and the Yankees have an old nucleus.
I’m curious to see how rebuilding goes under new leadership.
JWL
A few years ago, former NFL defensive lineman Pat Toomay (author of On Any Given Sunday) wrote a great series for ESPN.com about his experience with John Madden’s Raiders. I e-mailed him, to compliment him about it. In passing, I made mention about Yankee fans– just why, I can’t exactly recall. But I do remember his response: “Believe me, there are no fans more arrogant than Yankee fans”. I think he may have been living in NY at the time.
Arrogant fans are OK. Fair weather fans are beyond pathetic…
Mr. Nobody
Normally I lurk, but as a native New Yorker and Yankee fan I felt the need to reply.
I came of age as a Yankee fan in the early 90’s. So I am familiar with some of the bad Yankee teams which sported such superstars and Jesse Barfield, Mel Hall, Kevin Maas, Matt Nokes, etc. I just naturally gravitated toward the Yankees as a young sports fan growing up and I’m quite glad that I did!
I understand why people hate the Yankees. They’re flush with money that allows them to spend a ton on players that no other team can match. It gives them an advantage over everyone. While it doesn’t guarantee them a championship, it gives them a good chance at winning every year. They make a good villain. As a Yankee fan I embrace the hate and it makes winning that much sweeter. Of course, it always makes expectations ridiculously high. For the haters, if the Yankees win they say “well, they spent so much money of course they won!” If they lose people say “Ha! I can’t believe they spent all that money and they lost!”
As an aside, the Yankees have also revolutionized the business of baseball in the last 10 years. Launching their own regional sports network (YES) , which has spawned a whole slew of other baseball teams to do the same (Mets and Boston come to mind). This is a big reason why they can support such a high payroll.
And naturally any time there is a perennial winner in any sport you’re going to have tons of front runner fans. Whether its the Yankees, Cowboys of the 90’s, 49ers of the 80’s, or Jordan’s Bulls. But there are plenty of genuine Yankee fans. To say that an entire fan base is fake in some way just because the team wins too much, is just dumb.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Tom Q wrote: “Go fuck yourselves, all of you.
We live in NY. Some of us saw Mantle and Maris play. We’re loyal to our team.
If people said the shit about some other group that they routinely say about Yankee fans, they’d be labelled bigots.
Glad to agree with many here on many other issues. But on this, I repeat, go fuck yourselves.
Oh, and, yeah—27 championships. ”
Thus adding another dollop to the mountain of evidence showing that Yankee fans are thin-skinned humorless front-running sore loser assholes who deserve every shitty thing anyone has ever said about them and their rat-bastard franchise.
Oh, and fuck you, Tom and that dead GOP criminal George Steinbrenner and his halfwit son Hank.
Oh, and yeah – just one championship in the 21st century. And the worst chokejob in all of sports history in 2004. I hope that one still hurts.
morzer
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
Guess MoeDo dropped the soap twice today, judging from the extreme butt-hurt on display.
Harley
Cacti —
Maybe, maybe not. The Yankees, unlike a lotta teams who pocket the luxury tax cash they get from them, spend every dollar they make, and a lot of that money goes to the minor league system. They may not get much in draft picks, but their player development has given them one of the deepest pitching depth charts in the minors — that means pitchers who will soon be pitching in Yankee stadium, but it also means pitchers who will soon be packaged in trades for needed talent. They are also rich in talent at another tough position — catcher — and that will also help them to restock via trades.
And yes, they will continue to go after free agents. Here’s hoping it’s with some smarts — Sabathia, Texeira — and not with undue haste — Wright, Pavano.
And one more thing generally. Like it or not, the Yankees are good for baseball. They improve the narrative. They make money for the home team on every road trip they take. They inspire other organizations — force? — to try to make some greater effort when it comes to building a ballclub. And despite their supposedly invincible advantages, there is as much parity in baseball as in any sport that features a salary cap. (That, in part, due to the complexity/beauty of the game.)
The limpid and bitter hatred so often aimed at them seems like a paltry hobby, and Scocca’s mewling boast is not only inaccurate, but it sorta gives away the game. As mentioned before, this is an argument that comes from weakness and envy. Arguments like that seldom amount to much of anything.
gene108
Does not look good for my Phillies :-(
Harley
Lincecum on one day’s rest. So it’s not even his throw day. That’s bold.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@morzer:
Hey, morzer, it’s the Yankee fans that are acting all butthurt here. The human beings here are all happy as shit that your evil deathspoor of a franchise shit the bed. You’re now 1 for the 21st century, just another franchise, and you have the pain of having to watch A-Roid for the next several years.
Meanwhile congrats to the Rangers fans, who behaved with a class that Yankees fans have never been able to manage.
Now go run along and throw some trash, Jeter-eater.
Harley
Ahh, another lover of the classy white people in Texas. Say Moe, you got a team in this game? Or are you just exercising (exorcising?) your insecurities as a free agent?
Bruuuuce
@MoeLarryAndJesus: NIce ones. Are you going to pass all your subjects this year, or are you going to repeat third grade for a fifth time?
MoeLarryAndJesus
Harley writes: “The limpid and bitter hatred so often aimed at them seems like a paltry hobby, and Scocca’s mewling boast is not only inaccurate, but it sorta gives away the game.”
It’s not inaccurate. The heartless Yankee crowd abandoned their team by the tens of thousands in Game 5. It was a disgraceful display. Instead of sending their team off to Texas with class and hope they all wandered off to get shitfaced and feel sorry for themselves.
Scocca’s article is getting a lot of attention because it reflects the impression most baseball fans have of Yankee fans. And it’s not because the Yankees have the most championships. Celtics fans don’t behave that way. Canadiens fans don’t. Steelers fans don’t. Just pinstriped reptiles with their constant bleating about 27 and cackling about buying titles.
Also, Steinbrenner was slime and his monument is tacky as hell.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Bruuuuce:
Funny, Bruuuuce. A GED is as close as a Yankee fan gets to a PhD.
That’s a Captain Beefheart reference. He beats Springsteen to a pulp any day of the week.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Harley:
I’m a Red Sox fan, chuckles. You know, the team of the decade.
Harley
I dunno know, Moe. You don’t sound like a baseball fan. You sound like a teabagger stoked on a potent brew comprised of failure, grudge, and self-entitled resentment. Which is different.
Bruuuuce
@MoeLarryAndJesus: Heh. As a Captain Beefheart fan (and someone whose actual given name is Bruce), it’s good to know you have a touch of class. Too bad you can’t seem to express that, rather than irrational spew directed at the Yankees, generalizing about us fans.
I’m done feeding the troll now.
Harley
Oh, Lord. Well that explains it. Sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Harley:
And with your “classy white people in Texas” remark you sound like some sort of weird crypto-racist, Harley. What did you mean by that, exactly? Are you actually dumb enough to think all Texans are white?
Bruuuuce
Giants win the pennant! etc.
Good. Now we’ll see the irresistible force of the Texas offense vs. the immovable objects of the San Francisco rotation. Gonna be fun.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Bruuuuce:
It’s not generalizing to point out that the Yankee fans DID leave the Stadium in droves, Bruuuuce. I notice none of you have actually addressed that two-game display of lack of heart. Or all that trash being thrown into the Rangers bullpen.
But then what could you say?
Harley
As mentioned earlier, every Texan in the stadium was white. It’s one of the whitest fan bases in the game. Ever been to Arlington? I’m guessing not.
JWL
A “limpid and bitter hatred”, Harley? A “paltry hobby”?
Really? That’s how you see it?
I love watching the Yanks play. Always have. Maris, Mantle, Ford & company broke my heart 48 years ago this month, when they knocked off my hometown team.
And I love watching them get beat. Just like I do watching ‘America’s Team’ get beat.
As I type, I’m listening to the Giants-Phils game on KNBR. I had wished the Yanks well this year, because I wanted a rematch of the ’62 Series.
But I differentiate between the Yanks and their snotty, condescending fans. “Good for baseball”? Revenue share this…
GIANTS WIN THE PENNAT! GIANTS WIN THE PENNAT! GIANTS WIN THE PENNAT!!!!…….
Gian
there is supposed to be a rule in Boston, that you can’t shout yankee insults, or wear yankee hater caps (yes there is such a thing)
as a baseball fan, the modern version of the yankees distorts the overall game. the salaries paid for players at a rather massive premium to the rest of the league only go up more when they lose
but then teams like the pirates obviously use yankee salary tax and revenue sharing for lining the pockets of their owners, so it’s hard to begrudge them for paying players when other teams can but won’t.
Still the ’08 off season with the signing of three players with contacts that alone were like double the payroll for about 50% of the teams in the league makes rooting for new york like rooting for Goliath
sure, if everyone knew what a jerk david would be as king…
so in the off season, what 5 years, 200 million for Cliff Lee? and something similar for Crawford?
the sign the most expensive free agent thing will bite them again, not because like AJ – they take a big risk and overpay, but because of the draft pick penalty. cash they can lose, a depleted farm system will eventually bite them hard
(PS with improved testing, Texiera and A-Rod are going to decline those contracts will be an albatross, like AJ’s)
Harley
Bruuuce —
It should be very interesting. But I’m guessing a couple FOX SPORTS executives are drinking heavily tonight.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Harley:
If I did go to Arlington I wouldn’t spend my time walking around the stadium to make sure there were no non-white people there.
Yankee fans have very strange hobbies.
Here’s a Rangers crowd shot that proves your weird obsession is misguided:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/v3/10-17-2010.n1a_17_rangersWIN.G9C2T8E9C.1.jpg
It’s just possible that this is a teachable moment and that a Yankee fan will actually learn something, but I’m not holding my breath.
Harley
JWL —
I’ve spent too much time in the Stadium to not object to invidious generalizations about people you’ve never met. Or stood next to with the game on the line. Yankee fans love their team to an exorbitant degree, like all good fans. Trashing them seems unnecessary to me.
Bruuuuce
@MoeLarryAndJesus: I could say what’s been said before: I wasn’t there, among the leavers. And that current Stadium attendees tend more to the suit and tie crowd, who can afford the prices, than the street fan, who can’t. I don’t speak for them, anymore, since I get to a game or two each year.
The trash was declasse. It reminds me of the fans in various other cities, and I’m ashamed that NY has joined with Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia (that I know of) in that sort of behavior.
@Harley: Too bad for those execs. If they had any brains, they’d have this marketed six ways to Sunday as good for America. (Also, too, San Francisco and Dallas aren’t insignificant media markets.)
Harley
Moe, heh, congratulations. You found a single black face. I know that counts as diversity in Fenway, but in the real world….?
MoeLarryAndJesus
Harley insists: “Yankee fans love their team to an exorbitant degree, like all good fans. ”
You have a very funny notion of “exorbitant.” To me leaving like a bunch of spoiled, gutless punks well before the game is over TWO GAMES IN A ROW in the ALCS is a display of love similar to that displayed by Newt Gingrich when he asked his first wife for a divorce, but then I’m not a Yankee fan.
Maybe all those “fans” had something better to do, like waxing their mustaches. Yes, that must be it.
Bruuuuce
@Gian: I’d bet that the Yankees will seriously pursue (and likely sign) Cliff Lee, but not Carl Crawford. They recognize what their major need is, and it’s not the outfield. As good as he is, Crawford is far more likely to sign with the Angels, or the Sox (either shade), or even the Mets, all of whom need him more.
daveNYC
@MoeLarryAndJesus: So you’re saying that Yankees fans aren’t human beings? Nice. You stay classy too, OK?
Harley
Bruuuce, this is a great matchup and who knows? Maybe the narrative will get the audience it deserves.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Harley:
I thought there were two, Harley, but then I don’t know what sort of quota you have in mind.
Plus I know Spike Lee goes to Yankee games, so youse guys are all covered.
Harley
Bruuce –
Don’t count out the Rangers. They’ll make a big push to sign him, and with no state income tax in Texas, they have a built in head start.
On the other hand, Sabathia and Burnett are old pals, so…
I’m assuming Crawford goes to the Angels. Moreno is determined to get the team back on track.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@daveNYC:
I’ll bring the class once Yankee fans do the same, dave. But I’m not seeing it in this thread.
Just a whole lot of whining about Scocca’s very funny piece.
How about you? Have any opinion on the Stadium emptying like that in those two games?
Bruuuuce
@Harley: Could be. I know they’re recovering from the bankruptcy well (didn’t they just start their own cable channel?), and really want to keep him. If they win the Series, it’s another argument in their favor.
Harley
Bruuuce —
Yep. Texas just pulled in some big cable money. Also Lee is from Arkansas and apparently liked playing in Texas more than he thought he would.
JWL
Harley: Life is so, so beautiful tonight..
..If I offended you– what the hell am I talking about?..IF?… of course I offended you– Sorry Charlie.
The Giants are going to the World Series!!!!
Harley
Moe —
You’re right, leaving the stadium is a bad move. But Yankee fans aren’t handkerchief-waving bots, they’re tough and they have high expectations. And given the Yankees putrid effort thru much or most of the Series? Seems to me they voted with their feet. I can’t get too upset about that.
Harley
JWL —
The Giants are the best story in the playoffs. And speaking as someone who spent some freezing nights pretending it was summer at The Stick? I’m genuinely happy to see them in the Series.
morzer
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
How do you talk so much with the plastic bag over your head and the tinfoil hat on?
MoeLarryAndJesus
@morzer:
Because tinfoil hat jokes are still funny in Yankeeland.
Your sister called, she wants her mustache wax back.
am
I love the Yankees. Deeply, deeply disappointed in you Anne Laurie. It doesn’t take much to kick a bunch of people when they’re down after losing, and it doesn’t say anything good about someone that they take so much joy in the failings of others. Anyway, that’s all I have to say. I feel bad for you.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Harley:
Seems to me the Yankee fans got the effort out of their team that they deserved.
Maybe “exorbitant love” goes both ways.
It’s a “Mommie Dearest” kind of love.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@am:
Aw, cry me a pinstriped river.
morzer
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
Don’t have a thrombo, lad. It’s really not worth it, when one considers how boring your efforts at being offensive are.
Comrade Kevin
Yankees fans: When the team is winning, they’re the most triumphalist, smug assholes on the planet. When the team is losing, they’re the most put-upon victims EVAR. They are, amazingly, even worse than Red Sox fans, who are insufferable pricks themselves.
xian
another born yankees fan here, weaned in the era of Murcer and Munson and loyal through thick and thin. stereotypes are for dimwits.
JWL
Harley: Then you understand. Thanks for the best wishes…
MoeLarryAndJesus
@morzer:
Boring enough to keep a half dozen Hankee fans hopping.
And you more than once.
For all the Hankee whining about meanness, I didn’t see a single one of you complain about Tom Q’s little Fuck You rant. I’m taking that as a sign that you yanksters all agreed with him.
vaux-rien
I’m a Red Sox fan who lives in New York, I can sympathize with the article but I was out today and I saw plenty of Yankee caps, not as many as last week but that seems unremarkable.
Anyway, it’s just sports, it actually doesn’t matter who wins or loses but it’s fun to get all worked up about it. I “hate” the Yankees the way I hated the Iron Sheik or Doctor Smith on Lost in Space.
I do find it funny how much New York sports fans will run down their teams when they’re losing, particularly A-Rod who I personally root for like a heel wrestler, but I do think that’s the same in any town, at least any sports-crazed town. I spent a day listening to Philly sports radio and those people are truly nuts.
Living here I watch the Yankees way more than any other team, and while I root against them they’re a fun team to watch.
Anyway, I’ve been a Red Sox fan since the days of Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk and Louis Tiant and you guys will never know how 2004 felt after 29 years of heartbreak. I respect the Yankee fans who made it all the way through the 80’s without jumping ship to the Mets but my dad was 60 before he saw his team win, I’m not sure any New Yorker really understands what a die-hard fan is.
zzyzx
@am:
Sorry but you’re part of a fanbase that loves, loves, LOVES to gloat. As a friend posted after the Twins series, ” As a lifelong Yankees fan, I can honestly say that I don’t care about seeing them win anymore. I’m only in it to watch other cities lose.”
Maybe you’re one of the fans who doesn’t call their friends who root for other teams right after the game to laugh, but unfortunately you’re tarred by the louder group.
As for the “suffering” of the 80s, whatever. With the exception of one or two years, you rooted for good team who just weren’t good enough to make the playoffs and would have a few times in this current system. Suffering is a decade where a .500 record is something to cheer about.
As for the Pirates and revenue sharing, whatever. If they spent all of that money they’d what? Have one more mid-tier free agent? So the team would no longer make a profit and they’d go from 62 wins to 64 wins? I can see why people are annoyed but the problem is that the Yankees have revenue streams that literally no other team can match. When you’re in a league with no salary cap and one team can support a payroll 4 times that of others and still pull a profit, it’ll be frustrating for the other teams.
BruceK
I wore my Yankee cap yesterday. Of course, it was in Athens, Greece, so that means nothing.
As a matter of fact, I think it was the same cap they gave out on the 4th of July, 1983, at the Stadium – which was in the middle of some fairly dark times. The Yankees were not contenders in those days.
I still went. I was still a fan.
And when I woke up in the morning and read about the loss (seven hour time difference makes it flat impossible to watch evening games here), I tipped my cap to the Rangers. Then I put the cap on. Because 29 out of 30 teams have to say “wait ’til next year”, after all.
I do take exception to the gloating-at-the-misery-of-others thing. That smacks of bullying, and I don’t approve of it when any fellow pinstripe fans do it, and I hate it when it’s done to something I care about.
(I was badly bullied as a kid, and was later thankful that my folks pulled me out of the school where it was happening.)
To gloat at the misery of others? To continue to kick them when they’re down, and bask in their pain?
Strikes me as the sort of behavior associated with Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, you know what I mean?
Blue Neposnet
A little late to the party, but I have to stick up for the Yankees fans that I know. They bleed pinstripe, and in no way, shape or form resemble the people described in the article.
As a Red Sox fan, I totally hate the Yankees organization and every thing it stands for, but…..there are a lot of life long Yankees fans who don’t deserved to be lumped in with the front runner crowd.
Thlayli
@vaux-rien:
Oh, I can think of about 18,000 who do.
One championship in 70 years, and every game sells out.
Michael Turton
The Yankees lose: A nation unites…
TOP
zzyzx,
I have to differ with you–the Yankees in the Eighties really were pretty bad. If you look at the decade from the early Eighties into the early Nineties, they finished in the .400s five times, and came in last place in the AL East with a record of .414 in 1990. http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/
On another note, I’ll be cheering for the Giants in the Series. My dad was a Giants fan growing up, and when they left, he transferred his allegiance to the Yankees, unlike his sister and brother-in-law, who became Mets fans. When he was in hospice care a couple of years ago, we had some truly great moments together watching Ken Burns’ baseball documentary, particularly the parts on the ’40s and ’50s. It made him cry with happiness seeing all the great players and plays of his youth, and gave me a real soft spot for the Giants. So, for now, I won’t be wearing my Yankee hat–not because the Yankees lost, but because I’ll be wearing my black and orange NY Giants hat.
TheYankeeApologist
I live in the Bronx, I was born in Queens, and I’m a Yankees fan. I am a bit down about our loss, and I assure you that I find people’s opinion about the Yankees as a franchise amusing on a dim level . . . . like overhearing a knock-knock joke from two cubicles down. Nobody likes the rich kid, and that’s just how it is, I can accept that . . . even though if I were, say, a Pirates or Marlins fan, I’d be a little curious to know where all the money that COMES from the Yankees in luxury tax actually goes . . . because it’s not going for marquee players or excellent drafting and scouting.
That said, anyone who feels the need to slam an entire fanbase of a team as somehow having less strength of character and devotion because the team happens to win more than average? It’s ignorant. Really.
I personally know people that couldn’t afford a trip to the zoo when they were kids, but saved up for a Yankees hat. I know I’ll be wearing mine all week long.
That said, you know what I’m excited about? The World Series. The Rangers’ offense is Godzilla to the Mothra of Giants pitching . . .and I’m going to watch every game with interest. I just love baseball. I’d watch the Royals play the Indians in September, in the rain. Am I really a “fair-weather fan” now?
MoeLarryAndJesus
TheYankeeApologist says: “That said, anyone who feels the need to slam an entire fanbase of a team as somehow having less strength of character and devotion because the team happens to win more than average? It’s ignorant. Really.”
What’s truly ignorant is that you think that’s why they’re being slammed. They’re being slammed for being frontrunning and heartless, as amply demonstrated by two home games in this series where they abandoned their team with 2 or 3 innings left. They’re being slammed for dumping all that garbage into the Ranger bullpen. They’re being slammed because their fans actually think it’s because their team wins more than average.
No one slams the Steelers fans that way. No one slams Celtics fans that way. I could go on.
Also, rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Niedermayer and Marmalard.
Let’s just end the thread there before someone gets hurt.
TOP
In general, I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread (despite its origin in an attitude that offends my own personal loyalties!), but I just have to say, I would like to see all here acknowledge that the bad acts (as cited, seemingly ad nauseam, by a previous commenter) of some Yankee fans do not attach to all who cheer for New York’s American League team. Yes, New York fans can be rowdy, and do things that we might not approve of–but please, this is hardly any sort of monopoly adhering to NYC. The one time I have seen a fan assault a police officer (yep, he was that drunk) was when a guy in a Boston hat was being removed from Yankee Stadium for being visibly, vocally drunk in one of the ‘family’ (read: no alcohol allowed) sections they had in the old upper deck. He took a swing at an NYPD officer’s head. And then there’s this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/04/16/2010-04-16_man_charged_with_intentionally_vomiting_on_11yrold_phillies_fan.html
Look, there are jerks amongst sports fans of all stripes. Let’s please stop pretending they’re some exclusive preserve of the NY teams.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@TOP:
Wow, a Red Sox fan took a swing at a cop, huh?
How about a Yankee fan KILLING a Red Sox fan?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3382644
Roland X
Keeping this simple: I was born in the Bronx. I’m a Yankees fan when they win. I’m a Yankees fan when they lose. I bleed pinstripe blue, and that’ll still be true when they bury me.
In short, Scocca is a f&@#ing idiot.
—
(/) Roland X
Hope is a phoenix
Rita67
Born and raised in the Bronx and been a Yankees fan, win or lose, starting when I was a little kid in the ’70s. I know it, and other true fans know it about themselves. The rest of this picking the most obnoxious or fairweather Yankees fan you’ve ever seen and assuming every fan is like that as you really nastily bash them all over freakin’ sports is just bullsh*t, and, as others have said, smacks of teabaggerism.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Rita67:
Then I guess it’s only the most obnoxious or fairweather Yankee fans who go to the games. Maybe some of you true believers should start showing up and the stands won’t be empty in the 8th inning of playoff games.
Tehanu
@Harley:
The Yankees, unlike a lotta teams who pocket the luxury tax cash they get from them, spend every dollar they make, and a lot of that money goes to the minor league system.
Unlike my hometown team, the Dodgers. The team has had the best attendance in baseball for years, but the money got sucked out to buy the McCourts a bunch of houses and pay off their speculation debts. All I can say is, it’s the first celebrity divorce I’ve ever watched where I wanted them both to get screwed — as badly as they’ve screwed the team.