From www.boston.com (Boston Dirt Dogs)
Yes, Virginia, You Can
Stick a Fork in New York
http://bostondirtdogs.boston.com/Headline_Archives/2007/08/yes_virginia_yo_1.html
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The more I root against the Yankess, the better they do. It’s unreal.
I have always grown up loathing the Yankees and their fans (I was forced to root for the O’s without the lovable losers the Nats), but I have to say, Sox fans are almost as unbearable these days.
My own joy is watching Yanks fans convince themselves that winning the AL East isn’t important, that the Wild Card is really the goal.
If there was a way I could get the Blowjays or the O’s to win the AL East out of nowhere, and neither the Sox or Yanks winning the Wild Card.
As a lifelong Sox fan and baseball fan (I’ve been hooked since the early 70’s), I will readily agree that the people who have hopped on the bandwagon the past few years have given Sox fans in general a bad name. Most of these people became Sox fans because it was trendy. Their answer for everything is “Yankees suck!” and could most likely not tell you which two teams Johnny Damon played for before coming to Boston. Movies like “Fever Pitch” and “Still We Believe” don’t help either, and as much as I love reading Bill Simmons on ESPN.com, even he goes overboard at times with the “woe is us” approach.
Here’s a perfect example from just last week - I went to last Thursday’s game against Baltimore and the guy sitting behind me is all decked out in brand new Sox gear (hat, replica jersey etc.) and has a glove on as well. Before the game he’s going on and on to the guy sitting next to him about how he watches every game, is a huge fan etc. The Sox were honoring Hall of Fame second baseman Bobby Doerr before the game and as Doerr is driven out onto the field in a 1940’s-era convertible, the guy says “Who’s the old guy in the car?”. I turn around and say “He’s a Hall of Famer. See the retired numbers out in right field? Number 1 is his. He’s probably the best second baseman to ever wear a Red Sox uniform”. His reply? “Oh, I’ve only been watching them for a few years”.
Well As a life long yankees fan, (my Grand Father ushered in yankees stadium in the 1940’s & 1950’s and I was brain washed 
), not all Yankees fans are Steinbrenner fans. I really beleive Steinbrenner is at the heart of why the Yankees are hated. I like the Steinbrenner wants to win, but when the left side of the Yankees line-up has a higher salary then the opponents starting line up something is wrong. I think you have to look at Major League baseball and the Players Union for being culpable more then the either of the franchises. Both teams have more resources then almost any other team and the lack of a real salary cap makes the anomaly possible.
Overall, I think the rivalry could be good for baseball but is far past the point of diminishing returns.
Peace,
RF
I think you have to look at Major League baseball and the Players Union for being culpable
Not quite. How many people buy tickets to games to watch owners? The players should, and do get a large chunk of the revenue because without them there is no paying audience. These are highly gifted athletes who perform at levels very, very, very few of us can relate to. So where is the union in all this? Well their job is to protect player’s earning potential. When we review we see a few telling things: We see that owners all the way back to Albert Spalding in the late 1800s have complained about players salaries, and how they will ruin the game. We also see that no franchises have folded in the 107 years both leagues as we know it, and that there has been one relocation in the past 30+ years, and that was a bit of a special case, but one that probably could have been saved had the owner there chosen to invest in his product rather than cry poor and hope the Florida Marlins-style tactics of gutting the team, not drawing crowds and then saying “we can’t compete” would win sympathy.
Where the players union has any culpability in any of this is difficult to find. Owners, who typically have been self-made millionaires, thus are not stupid people, continue to sign players to contracts that some people deem “too much money.” Some clubs refuse to do so, and the poor management confines them to the basement(Kansas City, Pittsburgh). Others refuse to do so because they realize making that signing is a poor allocation of resources(Oakland, Minnesota.) All the Yankees money has not bought them much in the starting pitching department this season has it?
The Yankees have always been the highest payroll. They were also the most successful franchise before the players union got some teeth. The “payroll gap” that has developed between Boston, NY and the rest of baseball has really only come into play in the last 6-7 years. So let’s give it this decade. All that money has bought them 2 championships. We’re actually approaching a situation like the 1980s where only one team won 2 WS. 19 teams have made at least 1 playoff appearance, and all 7 titles have been won by 7 different teams. For all the money and blitz, etc., Boston has made the playoffs 3 times. Oakland has been there 5 times, and Minnesota 4. Thanks to the wild card, there is no “well those guys aren’t in the Yankees division” argument. To hear the money argument would make it seem like the Yankees win the division 115 wins to 110.
Good management, and spending some money still win in baseball. If those teams want to spend like buffoons, then go ahead. The Yankees have needed to go 25-10 in their last 35 games just to get within half a game of the wildcard, and they have needed Detroit to lose 9 of 10 as well. Neither one of those is going to continue at that pace.
The rivalry is good for baseball, but I think ESPN, etc is bad for the rivalry. It is very important that they play each other 19 times, but none of those games are Game 7 of the ALCS, so media need to stop acting as though it is.
Interesting article series by BP that (I think) conclusively shows that the player salary boom coincides (i.e., is a result of) many of the teams getting new stadiums (at the public’s expense). We should blame the Sky Dome. People went to the games to see the MallPark.
Ticket prices are high because of demand. The demographic of ticket buyers has chnaged dramatically. Baseball is now solely an upper and middle class sport. Teams make more money and they spend more money.
This pertains to the Yankees in that they have A LOT of tradition, are in a VERY large market, have VERY wealthy fans, and a VERY high demand for tickets. Not only are they selling $50,000 tickets per game, but they’re getting $60 a ticket, as compared to pittsburgh’s 22,000 tickets at $20 a pop.
One needs to only look at college sports ticket prices to see that player salaries don’t result in higher tickets, demand for the tickets does. People have more money these days, and spending fans are almost strictly middle/upper class, and people are spending their money on sports versus other alternatives.
Money that would normally go to movies, museums, etc … goes to sports tickets. Interesting that during the 94 baseball strike, many downtown areas realized a “boom” in sales, only to see it dissappear once MLB resumed.
I’m rambling and all over the place, I know.
I admit I hate the Yankees. To be more specific I hate the amount of attention they get, namely due to their history and size of their media market. I say that because if they’re good or bad, the rest of the nation in essentially forced (by volume) to pay attention to whatever is happening with the Yankees.
On the field, the Yankees are usually a very intriguing bunch, and the late 90s, early 2000’s Yankees were perfectly designed and functioned as well as a complete team could function.
From a Boston-NYY rivalry standpoint, how huge would it be the the Yankees made the playoffs as a wild card and knocked Boston out in the ALCS, reversing the result from the 2004 playoffs? For you Red Sox fans, I promise not to root against NYY in that series … as it would, in effect, guarantee a Yankees sweep. grin That 2004 series where the BoSox rallied from being down 3-0 to win the series in 7, was unbelievable. Then they swept the WS 4-0, playing perhaps, the greatest 8 game stretch any team has ever played (at least in the playoffs).
It is interesting how the Red Sox identity feeds off of the Yankees. The Yankess have “rules” regarding the length of players’ hair, limiting facial hair, how the jersey is to be worn, etc. Then, the Red Sox just allow any and every appearance. Classic.
The rear-view mirror picture is awesome.
I can’t even begin to imagine just how much Red Sox fans HATE the Yankees. We cardinal fans hate the Cubs, but it’s completely different … we beat the crap out of them most of the time and rarely have our hearts ripped out by them. Being a Red Sox fan and being in the same division has to be similar to having an older brother that’s a 6’6 240 beast with skills and you having to grow up playing them one-on-one in basketball every damn day. grin
Even with the Cardinals on the fringe of the wild-card chase and missing their top 3 pitchers, I am very much looking forward to this year’s baseball playoffs. I admit I am most looking forward to seeing how the Angels do. I think they do everything right, both on the field, and in the front office, and well, Vladamir Guerrero is as impressive of a specimen as it gets. I get the feeling, based on experience, that he’s the type of player that once you see him on the field, makes you doubt your own ability. Man amongst boys. Seeing him reach down, grab the ball bare-handed in the corner of Stade Olympique, stand up and throw in on a line, in the air, to home plate to nail a runner is the single most impressive thing I have ever seen on a baseball field. U-N-R-E-A-L.
Being a Red Sox fan and being in the same division has to be similar to having an older brother that’s a 6’6 240 beast with skills and you having to grow up playing them one-on-one in basketball every damn day.
Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan had a good analogy along these lines, comparing Yankees-Red Sox to the rivalry between the hammer and the nail. He stopped using that after the 2004 ALCS, but it was still pretty good.