If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Did I get your attention?
This is the way I see it: Those who despise the Yankees and root against them, regardless of opponent, are like those libs who carry on incessantly (and a little too loudly) about the evils of big business.
The whines are the same from Yankee-haters and anti-capitalists: Success is bought. They crush the little guys -- the innocent, fun-loving Twins/the quirky, family-owned book shop -- and they do it like a cold, evil machine. They skirt the rules. They crowd out the competition. They steal all the good stuff from honest folk. They overcharge for everything. They're really running things, not the so-called authorities.They show no respect. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Listen, I'm not the biggest Yankee fan that ever lived. In fact, I grew up a Met fan, and that gives me more right than most to hate the Yanks. But when I covered New York professional sports in my 20s, I realized that those who single out the Yankees for seething hatred -- just because -- are as lame as those New York Times disciples that we all know who foam at the mouth at the mere mention of Wal-Mart, Texaco, or GE. When I was covering the team, I actually found the players and brass to be more respectful, more disciplined, more grateful than those from other teams.
At the very least, the Yankees are no more or less evil than, say, the White Sox. Or the Cardinals. Or Micrsosoft.
I know pretty much everyone on Ricochet hates the Yankees, so I know you will tell me where I'm going wrong with my analogy. Can you prove that the Yankees cheat? Can you make a compelling case that they hire more criminals and degenerates than other teams out of a desire to win at all costs? Did they cause the financial crisis? I'd love to hear about it.
Here's what I don't want to hear: "I hate everything that they represent."
Because then, it seems to me, you actually hate competition and can't stomach that there will always be winners and losers. And maybe, just maybe, you are a closet lib.
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Nov '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
I have nothing against the Yankees.
It's Yankee fans that are abhorrent; their bottomless sense of entitlement that is so galling. Which is why it's so pleasurable when some lesser Midwestern team --the Indians, say-- hands them a beat.
Edited on Apr 17, 2011 at 10:54amDec '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Funny, I always thought that since the Yankees were from the hot-bed of liberalism - right up there with Chicago - that if you LIKED the Yankees you were a flaming lib.
May '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
I will try to post some rational commentary after I recover from the blizzard of tremors that comment provoked in me.
One thought has wormed its way through the fog, though: I wish Roger Maris were alive to comment on the Yanks/Cards angle.
Now I have to go lie down.
May '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Ursula, thanks for that post. As a mild Yankees hater but big time Microsoft fan, I appreciate the comparison. You may have just talked me out of whatever Yankee hatred I've managed to muster up thus far.
That said, professional sports and other businesses (like Microsoft) are different in a very crucial way. In order for people to want to watch sports, there has to be a certain amount of equality of product (team). If they Yankees won every single game they played, no one would watch them. The possibility of them being beat is necessary. In the case of Microsoft, this obviously isn't the case. They could be the only software available in the world and all it would mean is they would jump from 90% business desktop OS market share to 100%.
May '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
They're in the American League, that's why. The DH. It's flatly cheating, like the leg-before-wicket rule. If you must cheat, do it on the sly, so when you're caught, you say, good work ump, it's a fair cop. Don't put it into the rules.
That said, I did root for the Sox when living in Chicago. The Cubs were too precious and twee even for me, which is an achievement.
Jan '11
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Part of the problem is that big business is usually successful in the field that it is competing in. In the case of the Yankees, they are successful because it's owner is very wealthy and can buy skilled players and tip the scales in his team's favor. But it's his success in the business field that allows him to monopolize the baseball field, and that chafes the rest of us who have crappy teams composed of his table scraps. I'm guessing. I hate them because I'm a Dodgers fan and we're pretty irrational.
Dec '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
The Yankees' position is based on an enforced monopoly (or duopoly, if you like). Based on population, the NYC area should have at least 6 major league teams.
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
I was with you until the Cardinals reference. That's a team unlike any other. But as for the rest, I'm just not familiar with the junior league or its teams and liberal practices. I get familiar each year for the World Series, but that's about it.
Jul '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
A sports league is an imperfect stand-in for the free market. Teams are more like divisions within a single company than competing companies. Unlike a market, dominance by one team cheapens the product (that is, competitive play) of the entire industry.
Apr '11
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Ursula Hennessey:
At the very least, the Yankees are no more or less evil than, say, the White Sox. Or the Cardinals. Or Micrsosoft....
Finally, the Yankees achieve parity.
Ursula H: "Because then, it seems to me, you actually hate competition and can't stomach that there will always be winners and losers. And maybe, just maybe, you are a closet lib..."
Actually, what JB says is pertinent re: competition. The Yankees depend on true competition to make their product worth paying for. When they act as a monopoloy, which they do, they are the opposite of conservative. They are the Public "Option" of the sports world.
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Steroids.
Steroids is cheating. Look how many of them were on roids in the 2000 championship year.
Cheating is institutional with "Jeter and the Cheaters." And historical.
It goes back to Babe Ruth, who shot himself up with lamb testosterone or some such illicit material.
That's right - I said it: Babe Ruth was a cheater too.
Conservatives stick to the rule of law and cerainly cheating, gray areas and refusing to compete on equal terms is the mark of a liberal.
So if you root for the Yankees, you are a liberal.
May '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Not quite.
Major League Baseball is not 32 businesses competing with each other for market share. Conversely, Microsoft is not a franchise and does not have a pre-defined market. It's an apple and oranges comparison.
Player Development and labor costs are not determined by market size. It costs Cincinnati the same to scout the Caribbean and the High Schools of rural America as it does the Yankees or the Mets. In fact, the large market teams have the advantage there as well as they can afford more scouts and earmark more for signing bonuses.
And unlike other businesses, a small market team cannot expand their market. Television and Radio markets are protected. The A's cannot build a new stadium 35 miles away in San Jose because that has been predetermined to be Giants territory. Even though they are presently just 17 miles apart now. That's insanity.
The Yankees and the Red Sox don't cheat. They have a built in market advantage. But they can't play each other 162 games a year.
Edited on Apr 17, 2011 at 11:41amRe: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Yeah, okay, Tommy, but what about Barry Bonds? As far as I can tell, it's nigh unto impossible to argue that the Yankees made more use of steroids in the bad old days than did other teams--notably, the Giants. Right?
Jun '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
I don't fit your profile. I hate the Yankees only because they beat the Dodgers in the World Series in '77 and '78. Those were my formative years emotionally and am thus scarred for life. Some things just never heal.
May '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Bonds may be a poster boy, Peter, but how many World Series Championships did the Giants win with Bonds? Zip, None, Nada. Mssrs. Clemens, Giambi and Jeter? They reaped the harvest.
Jun '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
To expand on your other points about hating the big guys like Microsoft, etc., that doesn't fit me either. I've always been neutral or supportive of Microsoft because they created something that most people want. Yes, they have certainly been aggressive, but I don't want to get dragged into this or that example from the past. They are still the preferred vendor despite the fact that competitors even offer similar products for free.
I worked for Intel for 10 years, another big guy that has constantly been hounded by monopoly issues. If people only knew how much trouble companies like Intel go to in order to avoid that accusation, even to the point of holding themselves back and indirectly trying to keep healthy competitors alive, you'd be amazed. Being successful always makes you a target.
Jun '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
Something about the Yankees smells to me of crony capitalism.
I say this confidently in the absence of any evidence whatsoever.
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
As a Red Sox fan, I hate the Yankees in the same way a Dodger fan hates the Giants, or a Twins fan hates the White Sox. They are your rival, their winning keeps you from winning.
Red Sox fans can scarcely complain about Yankee spending. We would spend the same amount we do now to beat the Yankees, the Orioles and the RayJays. It's the way the league is set up; if you don't like how the money is spent, complain to the owners and Bud Selig.
May '10
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
About that headline - the biggest Yankee haters in the world are Red Sox fans and nobody is more liberal than Red Sox fans. So, your point is?
Apr '11
Re: If You Hate the Yankees, You Must be a Liberal
I used to hate the Yankees as a younger fellow; but over the years, I tell people that hatred mellowed into a begrudging respect and eventually admiration. I can't say that I root for 'em (they have enough adherents), but at some point one has to admire their success. Other teams have some of those advantages, but they aren't in it year after year. That being said, when I heard Stephen Jay Gould lament Bill Mazeroski home run in game 7 in the 1960 World Series ... agggh. Must they always win? Insufferable fan.