As a young kid growing up in the Bronx, a lot of people find it strange that I am a New York Mets fan. I even joke with people that I moved to Queens because the Bronx didn’t want me anymore, as a result of my traitorous ways. And even as the Mets continue to struggle and don’t win one ring after another, Yankee fans are even more perplexed on why I haven’t followed them to the dark side. But with each Mets struggle, I continue to stand behind my team, while smiling at every recent mention of a Yankee player going down to injury. Sounds kind of heartless, but I think the Yankees and their fans deserve every bit of my hatred. Here’s why:
1. The Yankees don’t even care about New York and many Yankee fans don’t care about the Bronx. Yankee fans tout their New York pride whenever their team wins a World Series, but the Yankees could never care less about where they played, as long as they won those precious rings. Whenever George Steinbrenner felt he wasn’t getting what he wanted, he would threaten to take his team elsewhere – whether it was Florida or New Jersey – and he only stuck around when he was promised a new stadium, a great deal of which was paid with our taxpayer money. Do the Yankees then go out and spend money in the Bronx? Do they swing by the local stores and give back to the borough that calls them home? Nope. An idea to build a hotel in the Bronx was shot down when it was realized that none of the Yankees would even think of sticking around in the borough that welcomes them with open arms. Yankee fans are just as guilty. Many of them would never step foot into the Bronx, unless it was to watch their beloved team win. They mock the borough and the stigma attached to it and then go wild for the Bronx Bombers. Those people don’t deserve their season tickets.
2. The Yankees buy championships. Fans hate when you bring this up and it’s because there is a slight truth to it. Just like the Miami Heat went out and bought an NBA Championship, when it comes to winning games, the Yankees are not about strategy at all. They would rather throw money out there and sign the biggest names in baseball and hope that is enough to win a title. In baseball, it usually is, because chemistry is not always a factor on the diamond. LeBron James and Dwayne Wade have to work together on the court, but whether or not the center fielder and third baseman like one another has little impact on a game that awards individual achievements more than team play. Whenever there is a free agent, Yankee fans are shocked if their team doesn’t snatch them up. They have been conditioned that way. The Yankees literally saw a bad economy as an opportunity to go shopping. When the Mets won in 1986, they put together a real team of scrappy players who went out and got the job done. The Yankees wouldn’t really know anything about that. My real question is – Would they have won so many World Series rings in recent years if there was a salary cap?
3. The Yankees spend money at our expense. How many Bronx residents get to see the Yankees play at the stadium each year? How many had good seats to the game? How many will be able to afford good seats to next year’s games? The Yankees are located in the Bronx, but they do nothing to meet the demands of Bronx residents who may want to catch the action and enjoy the game with their family. Tickets are overpriced. They pass the cost of signing the next big star on to the fans. It’s kind of disgusting, but for a team that would rather play in Florida, I guess it doesn’t matter if a Bronxite gets to come to Yankee Stadium and watch the game.
4. The Yankees forgot money doesn’t always win championships. Before A-Rod, I really enjoyed the Yankees. In 1996, when they had three ex-Mets help them win a championship, I cheered the Yankees. You had such an amazing team – Joe Girardi, Paul O’Neil, Tino Martinez, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jay Leyritz, Scott Brosius, Darryl Strawberry, Doc Gooden, David Cone, Charlie Hayes, Mariano Rivera and others like them. These were scrappy players who fit together so well, they were fun to watch and literally reminded me of the 1986 Mets. They weren’t overpaid. It was definitely not the team of All-Stars that the Yankees are now. These were guys who gutted it out and made the 1996 World Series one of the most exciting championships I have seen since the 1986 World Series. That’s the Yankee team I enjoyed rooting for. What the Yankees have become is a slap in the face to the notion that you can’t buy happiness; that money isn’t everything; that hard work pays off.
5. The Yankees are cheaters. What do Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens and Jose Canseco have in common? They are three of the highest profile users of performance enhancement drugs and they all played for the New York Yankees. The Bronx Bombers don’t care how you win, just as long as you do win. In the case of Alex Rodriguez, he didn’t even need performance enhancing drugs to be a cheater. From shouting out “Boo!” to get a player to drop a pop up or trying to knock a ball out of a player’s hand as the Yankees self destructed many years ago against the Boston Red Sox, A-Rod is a cheater and a poster boy for what it means to be a New York Yankee. Throw bats at players, inject needles into your body – if that’s how you want to play the game, so be it, but I don’t have to cheer for you.
6. The Yankees don’t have any loyalty. When they got rid of one of the greatest managers to ever don a Yankee uniform, it signified that the Bronx Bombers didn’t care about their players or their managers. They want to win at all costs. Torre led them to something like 11 straight playoffs and 4 World Series rings. He didn’t win a World Series since 2000 and so they got rid of him. They went on to win a World Series with Joe Girardi as manager, but not before buying every major contract up to ensure their new manager would win and the Joe Torre situation would go away. The fact that the Yankees wanted to diminish the legacy of Joe Torre in the manner they did, just shows the character of the team. And if that isn’t enough, look at what they wanted to do to Derek Jeter. They didn’t want to sign him for too much money, because they wanted to use that money on new players they could pilfer from other teams. Jeter, the one Yankee I respect, deserved a bigger contract. He had been a loyal player and had led his team to victory for so many years and the Yankees acted like he was an aging horse they were considering putting to sleep. The worst thing is, it played out in the media, and the Yankees had little choice, but to sign the beloved shortstop. He went on to get his 3,000th career hit and the Yankees celebrated as if the whole contract issue never happened. Typical.
7. The Yankees are cheaters – Part II. And audit by the New York City Comptroller, a few years ago, found that The Yankees owed New York more than $11 Million. They buy players, but need to be reminded to pay their taxes. they even tried to negotiate that fee. A team that makes that much money doesn’t need to negotiate their debt away. Just pay what you owe. Consider New York, itself, a star player you covet and drop millions on them.
8. Yankee fans are so obnoxious Part I – Got Rings?! This is the cry of the Yankees – what they use to mock others who do not agree with their belief that the Yankees are the best team in baseball. The Yankees are the only team I know that would put out a Got Rings shirt. The Montreal Canadians don’t have a Got Cups shirt, as far as I know. But what really boggles my mind is how these Yankee fans feel they have won 27 World Championships. Half these people are younger than me and I am only 36. How can a 25 year old tout 27 World Championships when they were around for only 5 of them? Yankee fans live in a past that they weren’t even alive to see.
9. Yankee fans are so obnoxious Part II – Bandwagon jumpers. They joined the bandwagon the day they were born. They chose the Yankees because they had 22 World Championships. If the Mets had 22 World Championships in 1976, those same Yankee fans would have been Mets fans. Funny enough, Yankee fans push this 27 World Championships on Met fans when the Mets were not even around until 1962 and had no chance to win that many titles. Yankees live off their legacy, which allows them to be a better team than the Mets. Had they been created at the same time, you could make a comparison, but there are too many factors involved to even do so. The Yankees were created first and had players like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and so many others. Players want to play for the team with the legends. The Yankees also had time to build up the war chest they use to pay for the talent they have. The Mets do not have that luxury. It’s ridiculous to compare, but Yankee fans are smug, obnoxious, self-absorbed people…and so that’s what they do.
10. The Yankees’ roots are not even in New York. Yankee fans do not even know their own history. They cheer the Yankees and remember to say “Got Rings” whenever they are confronted with a legitimate argument that the Yankees don’t deserve our applause, but did you know the New York Yankees were once known as the New York Highlanders and prior to that, they were known as The Baltimore Orioles. Yep, the Yankees were originally a team from Baltimore. I’d rather root for the a team whose roots are true to New York. You can keep shouting #27. I’m happy with the 2 World Titles the Mets won. A good underdog, blue-collar team worth cheering. And they were born in New York. Go Mets!!!
As a boy in the Bronx I used to play a game where there was a pitcher and sometimes one fielder. There was a balls and strikes box drawn on the wall in chalk. My reason for hating the Yankees stems from that game. Simple … no heavy opinions, no considerations, hardly any thought at all.
My fathers friend used to love to come down when we were playing and challenge us. Now we were good but none of us had the power to throw a ball like an adult. He always insisted that his team was the Yankees and he was either Whitey Ford or some other Yankee Pitcher.
I hated his attitude, his snottiness and the fact that he showed no mercy at all. He was a Yankee and so I grew to hate the Yankees along with him!!! Still do to this day though my anger has abated somewhat. I would rather follow the Mets through their worst losing season, and have, then watch the Yankees in their best. Let’s go Mets!!!!
1) The Yankees are never leaving New York. That this is ever suggested is absurd. They would have to have walked over Bud’s dead body.
“Do the Yankees then go out and spend money in the Bronx? Do they swing by the local stores and give back to the borough that calls them home?”
Ok, and am I to assume David Wright and Johan Santana go out for Korean BBQ in Flushing every night? Also take a look at Yankee Hope Week. Maybe theses aren’t the heartless, soulless athletes you want them to be. Also, the part about Yankees fans not caring about the Bronx is absurd. Please give me any evidence of this outside of anecdotes. I’ve been to the Bronx Botanical Gardens, The Bronx Zoo and Arthur Avenue many times and all seemed well attended by what I assume wasn’t exclusively residents of the Bronx.
2) Please don’t compare the 1986 Mets to current day teams. It insults people who actually pay attention to how the game has changed over the years. The 1996 Yankees weren’t some group of mega-stars. It was young solid homegrown players (Jeter, Williams, Andy) and solid veterans that turned out to be valuable (Tino, O’neil, Boggs, Keys, etc).
“Whenever there is a free agent, Yankee fans are shocked if their team doesn’t snatch them up.”
Since signing Burnett/CC/Tex in the 08-09 offseason, our biggest acquisitions in free agency have probably been, in order, Hiroki Kuroda (1 year deal), Russell Martin (written off as finished after being oft injured), Eric Chavez (bench guy), Andruw Jones (platoon bat), Raul Ibanez (old platoon bat), Bartolo Colon (old and fat) and Freddy Garcia (old).
That these veterans have preformed well is a testament to the Yankees management and scouting. This isn’t exactly an current day all-star team.
My real question is – Would they have won so many World Series rings in recent years if there was a salary cap?
Ok, first, the vast majority of Yankees championships were won when the freaking reserve clause was still in effect so don’t insult me with that nonsense. Also, are you going to tell me that guys likes of Chuck Knoblach, Scott Brocius, Tino Martinez, David Wells, etc who were main parts of the dynasty years were anything but simply great finds. None were “superstars” prior to joining the Yankees and then simply excelled in pinstripes.
Secondly, can we give the current Yankees some credit for shrewd trades? Trade anyone else could have potentially pursued? Granderson and Swisher have been phenomenal, both acquired through trades.
3) “How many Bronx residents get to see the Yankees play at the stadium each year? How many had good seats to the game? How many will be able to afford good seats to next year’s games?”
I dunno. You tell me. Rather than asking these questions rhetorically, why not provide some actual proof or numbers convincing me that the good people of the Bronx are somehow summarily excluded from enjoying the Yankees.
4)”Before A-Rod, I really enjoyed the Yankees. In 1996, when they had three ex-Mets help them win a championship, I cheered the Yankees. You had such an amazing team – Joe Girardi, Paul O’Neil…Mariano Rivera and others like them. These were scrappy players who fit together so well, they were fun to watch and literally reminded me of the 1986 Mets.”
Thanks for arguing against your own point in number 1. The composition of the 98-01 teams wasn’t dramatically different than the 96 team and the major differences were home grown guys like Posada and Rivera. You know how many WS we have in the Arod era? 1. How about other high profile signings of recent history? Giambi:0, Mussina: 0, Damon: 1, Matsui: 1 Please stop contradicting yourself any minute now. You can’t say “the yankees buy championships!” and then 1 paragraph later say “They spend so much money and never win!” Sure the Yankees spend money…sure they have the biggest payroll, but lets not hinge all the recent winning simply on that. Thats unfair and dishonest.
Also, no one should know that money doesn’t buy championships more than the Mets. They’ve had a top 5 payroll for much of the last decade and didn’t do anything. Lets start from when the Yankees acquired Arod. They were 1 every year. Lets take a look at the Mets.
2004: 4th 2005: 3rd 2006: 5th 2007: 3rd 2008: 2nd 2009: 2nd 2010: 5th 2011: 7th 2012: 14th
Scrappy underdogs, I think not. Thats in the top half every year and only lower than top 5 when management ran into money troubles and you were crushed under the weight of some bad contracts.
Lemme rattle off some names: Alomar, Vaughn, Beltran, Delgado, Bay, Santana, Perez…oh I’m sorry, are you making an argument that could very well be said about your team as well only without the winning and good management part? Sounds like jealousy to me.
5) And the two stars of your precious 86 Mets had two players on it whose careers were derailed by cocaine use. Lets not call the kettle black. Also…Jose Conseco? Why not choose Giambi here? High Profile…not when he was a Yankee? I’m not going to get into my feelings about steroid use and how prolific is clearly was and how I think the league itself is very much to blame here. I doubt when the Yankees traded for Arod, they did a detailed investigation as to if her ever used a banned substance. Maybe they are at fault for that…OH WAIT NO TEAM EVER DID THAT EVER.
And the Arod stuff…screaming boo and colliding with player…cheating? I think not. Unsportmanlike…sure.
6) This is a load of crap. This is simply a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. We go out and overpay Jeter even more than we already did then we are the Yankees throwing around money on old stars. If we try to pay Jeter something a little close to his actual value as a player like good management should do, all of as sudden we are disloyal. Please pick an argument and stick to it rather than cherrypick conflicting anecdotes.
“The worst thing is, it played out in the media, and the Yankees had little choice, but to sign the beloved shortstop.”
Jeter was never going anywhere else and you know it.
I don’t love how the Torre stuff turned out but sometime you do just need a change. Also the guy we instituted was one of your beloved scrappy yankees from the 1996 team so it isn’t as if we went out and brought in some rando.
7) And the Mets Stadium is named after freaking Citi Bank. At least we kept the name of our stadium for the team and not sell it to the highest bidder. You play in a stadium named for a company that accepted Government Bailout Money. Also…your ownership is near broke after investing with Bernie Madoff. See how easy it is to cherrypick things?
8) Sigh…and there has never been an obnoxious Mets fan. Right?
9) The Mets wouldn’t have a fanbase if it wasn’t for badwagon jumpers. The ’69 Mets weren’t called a miracle team for nothing. I choose the Yankees because my Dad is a Yankee fan since he was a kid and most of my friends who are Yankee fans have the same motivation. I didn’t know a team being successful made it so you couldn’t actually be a fan of them. Also the Canadiens haven’t won anything in forever so it would be quite distasteful to brag about all those Cups. The slogan of the 1990 Yankees was not “Got Rings” even though we still had a vast majority of those World Series.
10) This is absolutely absurd. You’re going to go back to the turn of the last century? So I really need to say anything here? I’m not even going to address the roots thing because many many teams have roots elsewhere (go root for the Dodger or Giant then…due to their “NY roots”) and the Mets are a freaking expansion team so..
I will adress this however:
“A good underdog, blue-collar team worth cheering. And they were born in New York. Go Mets!!!”
This hasn’t described the Mets in any year prior to these last 2, when they have stunk because they made terrible signings and their owners lost all their money. The only world in which the Mets are “scrappy underdogs” based on their payroll is the world of a very delusional person who really can only grope at staw men to justify their inferiority complex.
Jon, I applaud the other Nick and here is my own response from my blog:
I have a friend named Jon who is a good, decent man, but his one flaw is his unabashed, obsessive hatred for the New York Yankees. His latest blog entry listed 10 things he hates about the winningest franchise in baseball with no regard for how reading such an essay might ruin the otherwise great vacation I (as a die-hard Yankee fanatic) have been having so far.
The good news is that such anti-Yankee venom does not bother me much (although it does wound me). I have already addressed some of the Yankee-Hating Propaganda that we hear all too often, so I will not repeat it here. I cannot, however, permit my buddy’s rant to go unanswered, if for no other reason than to alleviate some of the unwarranted anger that he obviously feels for his own team’s shortcomings (the New York Mets), projecting them onto the Bronx Bombers. I consider this a public service to help Jon off the ledge, and maybe help other Yankee Haters out there. The unsolicited essay by Jon is a cry for help and we Yankee fans must reach out and save our brother from the pits of despair.
There are a number of ways to counter Jon’s Top 10 List. I can repute them point by point, but I have already done so for some of them in my Letter to Yankee Haters. The other accusations are so baseless that they are laughable (such as the libelous/slanderous lie that the franchise does not care for New York or the Bronx — their charity work, such as HOPE Week, is just one example to prove otherwise). As for Yankee fans not knowing their history, that’s the most absurd insult of all — if anything we dwell too much on the past, moreso than probably any other franchise. I recommend the excellent book Pinstripe Empire by Marty Appel for anyone looking to learn more about the incredible legacy of my favorite team (and you don’t have to like the Yanks or even the sport of baseball to appreciate the marvelous anecdotes in it — it’s a bestseller for a reason).
I can choose to stoop to the “Hater Level” and go toe-to-toe with jabs at Jon’s team, pointing out how the Metropolitans lack originality, taking elements from the Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers when designing their uniforms, for example. Yet, I choose to take the higher ground, because I do not hate the Mets. (My own father, after all, is a loyal follower of the so-called Amazin’ ones who are in another “rebuilding” phase.) If I may paraphrase Clubber Lang who once said about his nemesis Rocky Balboa, I pity the fools.
Instead, I will offer my own ten simple things I love about the Yankees. Maybe this will melt the ice around Jon’s heart and like the Grinch he will see the light and grab the Bleacher Creatures’ hands one day and sing “fahoo fores dahoo dores” or however that Whoville song goes as they’re all circling the Christmas tree.
Ten Things I Love About the Yankees:
1. Babe Ruth
2. Yogi Berra
3. Lou Gehrig
4. Joe DiMaggio
5. Don Mattingly
6. Derek Jeter
7. Mariano Rivera
8. Ron “Louisiana Lighning” Guidry
9. Thurman Munson
10. Paul O’Neill
How can anyone who calls themselves a lover of sports even consider hating a franchise that has names like that associated with it. As Gehrig, “The Iron Horse,” said during the speech that has been immortalized as the Gettysburg Address of Baseball, “Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?”
I also hold dear many other names, such as Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, David Wells, and others who might have human imperfections, but as athletes on the field gave us some unforgettable memories for the ages.
To Jon and others I say, embrace them! Enjoy the thrilling sports drama that the New York Yankees continue to provide. If nothing else, look upon them as shining beacons and hope that your own teams can follow in the path that the Yankees have blazed, for when they do, history is made. Look no further than the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies for proof. The Yankees and all they have accomplished would say “You’re welcome” for paving the way, but they are too modest to do so.
Carry on.
Go yankees