Is it even FUN being a yankees fan?

Cafe Society
121

One more thought, inspired by a very old joke.

There are several variations, but the gist of the joke is this: two antelopes are grazing on the plains of Kenya when a ravenous lion starts chasing them. The antelopes run as fast as they can, but the lion is fast and keeps getting closer.

Finally, one antelope says to the other, “What’s the use? We’ll NEVER be able to outrun this lion.”

The other antelope answers, “I don’t HAVE to outrun the lion. I just have to outrun YOU!”

My point? The Yankees’ money gives them a big advantage, and USUALLY guarantees them a spot in the playoffs. But that’s all it does. Baseball is not like football, after all. In football, it’s shocking when an 8-8 wild card team beats a 14-2 division winner. But in baseball, it’s not shocking at all. Over a 162 game season, the best team will invariably put up the best record, but in a short series, it’s very close to a tossup. The better team DOESN’t always win a 7 game series. If an 81-81 wild card team plays a 102-60 team in a 7 game series, the 81-81 team has a damn good chance of winning. Fact is, EVERY one of the 4 teams that makes it to the post-season has about as good a chance of making the World Series as any other.

So, instead of whining “We can’t compete with the Yankees,” the Royals should understand that they don’t HAVE to compete with the Yankees! They just have to compete with the Tigers, Twins, Indians and WHite Sox. That’s eminently do-able. Thos teams don’t have huge payroll advantages over the Royals. Kansas City COULD very easily be competitive in that division. And if they squeaked into the playoffs somehow, they’d have an excellent chance of going all the way.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are screwed, most years. But if you’re a team in the Central or Western Divisions of either league, don’t you DARE cry poverty. You’re quarantined in divisions where the other teams are just as financially strapped as you are. You CAN compete with them, and if you do, you’re in the post-season with a definite chance of going all the way.

Quit bellyaching and make that happen.

122

JUST the Tigers,Twins,Indians and White Sox. Every one of them are better than the Yankees.

123

I must say, that’s pretty creepy. I’ve only been to Yankee stadium once, back on 2005 (on July 4, no less!) and i never noticed this sort of enforcement. Then again, i don’t think i tried to go anywhere during the playing of the anthem or of God Bless America (Worst. Song. Ever.).

On the other hand, that one experience in the Bronx was rather pleasant, despite the dire warnings i had been given beforehand about rooting against the Yankees. I saw them play the Orioles (my team), and was clapping and cheering for the Birds throughout. No-one said a word to me, not when the Yankees were up 6-0, not when the Orioles came back to take the lead 8-6, and not when the Yankees rallied to win 13-8 (yes it was a long game; 4h 12min for 9 innings).

Also, for a variety of reasons that i’ve gone into before, i refuse to stand for national anthems and other patriotic songs. I’ve sometimes had people glare at me, or make snide comments when i remain seated. But no-one at Yankee Stadium gave me even a second glance, as far as i could tell. And this was, as i said, on July 4.

I’m going to New York next week (16-23 May), and am thinking of taking in a Yankees-Red Sox match. I’ll keep an eye out for the enforcement described in that NYT article.

124

On the subject of the Yankees more generally, i come at this from the perspective of someone who didn’t grow up loving or hating the Yankees. When i came to live in the US, i had very few preconceptions about baseball. I had lived in Canada for a couple of years, and i guess i considered myself a nominal Blue Jays supporter. I was living in Vancouver and working in a bar when Joe Carter hit his memorable Series-ending homer. But i never really followed baseball when i lived there; i was too busy following hockey.

So it was only when i came to live in the US that i really started to get into baseball. Living in Baltimore, i had a ready-made team to root for. To the extent i dislike the Yankees, it’s a combination of obligation (if you support another AL East team, i think you have to hate the Yankees, by law) and annoyance at their spending practices. Also, i tend to come with a predisposition to root against teams that win a lot, or that everyone else seems to love. I’ve also cultivated rather intense dislikes for the Lakers, the Notre Dame football team, and Duke basketball. Funnily enough, i don’t mind the Patriots.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that baseball, and other major sports, are businesses, and that seeking any sort of moral high ground from sorting teams is pointless. Also, while the money might be bigger in America, the fact is that professional sports worldwide have all become more about mercenary transfers than about loyalty to club or city. Big-name players often move around, and clubs with the big names and the big money get them. So i had no trouble adjusting to any of that when i arrived here.

But there is one aspect of baseball transfers and trades that i HATE, that really exemplifies, for me, a level of cynicism and mercenary attitudes that ruins some of my enjoyment of the game. And that is the mid-season flurry of transfers and roster additions, exemplified (in the case of the Yankees) by Bobby Abreu last year.

Basically, what we get before the trade deadline is a bunch of clubs sitting down to evaluate their chances of making a playoff run, followed by a series of trades that sucks good players from bad teams and plonks them down in cities where they have a chance to win a pennant. In return, the crappy clubs get a chance to try again next year. I’ve heard arguments for this system, and some of them might make some sense, but to me it just feels viscerally wrong. If i ran the league, i’d ban trades after the first month of the season.

Climbs off soapbox.

125

If you’re right (and you may very well be, this year, anyway), you’ve proven the point that the Royals have no excuse for crying poverty. All those organizations have managed to put competitive teams on the field without 200 million dollar payrolls.

So why do “small market” teams like the Royals and Pirates deserve any sympathy? Is it really so impossible for the “small market” Pirates to keep up with the Reds, Brewers and Astros? Is it really impossible for the “small market” Royals to compete with the Indians, Twins and Tigers (none of whom has much more money than the Royals)?

126

Wow - VERY well said.