I haven’t been a big baseball fan for years. I used to love the game as a kid, but then way too many super-inflated egos, batters’ timeouts, exorbitant salaries, etc. made me lose interest. Does it really take 162 games a year to figure out who should be in the playoffs? But the last few years have offered some exciting championship games and, most importantly, the Yankees not winning the World Series.
I’m from Philly, and I love my home town. I’m an enthusiastic fan of its teams, and they will always be mine no matter where I live. But having been in the New York area for years now the passion for my own teams has almost been eclipsed by my hatred for New York teams. Every franchise has lousy fans, but there are none quite so arrogant and irritating as the “we deserve to win” mentality of the typical fan up here. And it is exhibited most heavily by the Yankees fans. These are people who think every good player should be on their team and that only they should be allowed to win the World Series. This is a city whose former mayor ignored a major deficit in an attempt to push a new stadium through for his favorite team.
I’m just rambling, but my point is that I detest the teams up here (well, I tolerate the Mets and the Jets, since they are the forgotten) and love to see their fans suffer through defeats. And these feelings are compounded by the media constantly attempting to spin stories to make these guys look like saints who are up against the dregs of society. Sure the Red Sox may be rough around the edges, but what can you say in defense of a team who felt that anyone who refused to abandon their families in the middle of a hurricane to play a game should be forced to forfeit? They may pretend to be classy, but the Yanks are anything but.
From wence did this tirade come? Watching a bit of the game tonight I saw one of the most deplorable play in baseball. After smacking a short grounder down the first base line, Alex Rodriguez tried to beat out the ball. The pitcher picked up the dribbler and, quickly realizinf that he was in the best position to make the play, moved to tag him out. At that point, Rodriguez, showing the finest of sportsmanship, smacked the pitcher’s arm in order to knock the ball out and allow Jeter to run home. The officials convened and ruled Rodriguez out and sent Jeter back to first – a decision that was met with litter from the stands. Now place this in any other city (especially Philly or Boston) and the media would berate the fans. But in New York, that’s suddenly passion.
It will largely be ignored, or spun to make it seem like the Yanks were cheated. But in the end it doesn’t matter – the great Alex Rodriguez is the one who cheated, and now the Yankees are one out away from dropping three games in a row and going from a possible sweep to a deadly game seven in Boston.
Hehehe…. baseball is funny. Especially the fans :-P.
I loosely consider myself a Yankee fan. Why? Because as a kid my town’s summer recreation program used to go to Yankee games. So for the first 10 or so years of my life, they were the only baseball team besides my brother’s little league team that I even knew I could support.
Flash forward to grad school, where I run across diehard baseball fans. I have noticed that there are two types that I have run across – Those who support the Yankees and those who are completely against them. Nobody who cares about baseball is indifferent to them. NObody. I find that SO funny. It’s such a weird social phenomenon.
Being the pain in the butt that I am, I do tease those who hate the Yankees. Not that I really care, mind you. It is just funny to make them squirm. And there is nothing you can say to defend yourself to me, because I honestly don’t care. That makes them squirm even more. Good times.
I have decided, though, that I think that it is pathetic to go out of one’s way to cheer against a particular team. I understand that it is because I am not a true sports fan. Whatever. This also makes people squirm.
I’m such a bitch!
That same mindset could be stated of the political arena.
You’ll never get me to squirm over this for one simple reason – I would never call myself a baseball fan at this time. And one of the main reasons behind that? The Yankees. The organization has done just about everything they can to destroy the game, and so I like to see them fail. If Steinbrenner were kicked out of baseball like he was supposed to be years ago, you’d suddenly find a lot of people not caring that much. If the game would finally accept some sort of salary cap, only Red Sox fans would hate them.
It happened with the Lakers in basketball. I hated them because Shaq gets away with everything, and they became the popular team to go to. Now that all of that has been dismantled, I don’t care. I used to be an anybody but Duke kinda guy, but that was only because they kept beating Michigan in the 90s – now I don’t care. In football it all comes down to rivalries. I hate the Giants and the Redskins because they are in the NFC East, and the one truth in this world is DALLAS SUCKS!
Of course now the problem is that MLB loves the fact that so many people hate the Yankees, because suddenly people are tuning in hoping to see them lose. So now they’re less likely to do anything. But I’m in the perfect position myself. If the Yankess win, oh well, we all know it’s because they buy up all the good players and spend more money than anyone else (50% more than the #2 team, 80% more than #3, and more than double everybody else) and I can go back to enjoying my Eagles and watching a real sport. But if they lose… then I get to enjoy Yankee fans sulking and bitching about how “they should have won”.
The only baseball games I’ve tuned in to watch all year have been in this series. And only to root against the Yankees 🙂
It’s always nice to see riot police stationed at a good ol’ game of “America’s pasttime.” Nothing gains respect for the NYC area like fans throwing debris at an official for making a good call.
The same thing happened in Calgary during the NHL playoffs… there were at least 2 games against San Jose where, upon losing at home, Calgary fans threw all manner of junk on the ice.
If fans just stayed home and threw playstation controllers from the comfort of their own couches, think of how much safer sports would be 🙂