It's not that they win. It's not that they spend. As the Yankees and Twins open the 2010 ALDS, here's one fan's opinion on just what makes the Bombers so hateable.
Oct 5, 2010 - I hate the Yankees. I cannot remember not hating them. I think I hated the Yankees before I really understood hate, before I could adequately express visceral and total dislike. But I've been thinking about why - and it's not for the classic reasons.
The easy way out is to state payroll statistics. From 2000 to 2009, New York spent over $1.6 billion on player salaries - more than half a billion more than the next team. To put that in perspective, the Yankees spent as much as the second-place team, the Red Sox, plus the entirety of the Twins' payroll.
But that's not why I hate the Yankees. The Dodgers, Braves, Cubs and Mets all spent north of $900 million over the same span; I don't hate those teams any more or less than any other National League team.
I don't hate them because they win. New York made the playoffs nine out of the past 10 years, winning two World Series, but that's not why they've earned my enmity. The Angels and Red Sox both made the playoffs six times in that span (and they both spent oodles of cash, too), but I don't hate those teams. The Sox won two championships, the Angels one, and Anaheim even turfed the Twins out of the playoffs in fine style in 2002. I don't hate the Angels.
They're not a rival of the Twins in any real sense. They've knocked the Twins out of the postseason a bunch, but so have the Angels, A's, and White Sox, and I don't hate those teams any more or less because of those events.
Yet, I hate the Yankees more than any other team, with the exception of the White Sox. And I'm not alone: 70% of Twins fans, earlier this year, named New York as their favorite team to beat.
I've been thinking about this, and I think I've figured out why: the Yankees don't have to win the way they do - but they do anyway.
They don't have to spend outlandish amounts on players from other teams. With the cash flow they have, they could put together a development and scouting operation that would blow every other team's out of the water. They could sign every international prospect from here to Vanuatu. They could develop wave after wave of young talent, bring them up to the bigs, and win the way most other teams have to win. But they don't; they lean on their disparate sources of revenue.
Fair play to them, you might say; they have the money, and they can roll it up and cut out Benjamin Franklin paper dolls if they want. But they do all of the little annoying things, too. They've become the masters of the goofy, absurdly slow pitching change. Earlier this year against the Twins, they sent Andy Pettitte out to the mound to warm up for an inning, let him throw all his warmup tosses - and only then had Joe Girardi wander out to the mound at the speed of a lost Alzheimer's patient, to take Pettitte out
They will stretch out the seventh-inning stretch with 45-minute renditions of "God Bless America," in order to ice the opposing pitcher down for the bottom of the seventh. They will make up un-needed regulations about bringing bottled water into the stadium, so that they can charge you for the same bottle inside. They will get taxpayers to build them a billion-dollar replica of their old stadium, just because they wanted a shinier one.
In a way, Alex Rodriguez is the most perfect Yankee ever. A-Rod didn't need to take steroids to excel at baseball. He almost certainly would have been a Hall of Famer without them. He hit 125 home runs in the three seasons prior to the period he says he was on the juice. In five full seasons, he was a four-time All-Star, won four Silver Sluggers, and finished four times in the top 15 of the MVP voting. Nobody in the league needed steroids less than A-Rod. But he took them anyway. He wasn't a Yankee then - but he already knew how to act like one.
Remember earlier this year, when Derek Jeter cheated his way to first base? I can't think of a better play to sum up the Yankees. Here's a Hall of Fame shortstop on the most powerful team in the league, and he's cheating his way onto first like he's an irritating Little Leaguer.
The Yankees are like a Harvard graduate who has connections through his dad, that gets the plum job on Wall Street or wherever that everybody else wants - and then games the system and backstabs his way to the top anyway. They're the team that was born on third base but refuses to sprint to home. They have everything, but they cheat anyway.
And that, my friends, is why I hate the Yankees.
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Nice Read From Yanks Fan
Well, I’m not gonna come in here and say you’re stupid, because then it just becomes an anger argument rather than a discussion. Anyway, first of all, you said it’s because the Yankees spend tons of money on players that come from other teams. Can you please tell me who? Because outside of CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, they haven’t spent a lot of money on a FA from another team.
Derek Jeter – Home Grown
Robinson Cano – Home Grown
Alex Rodriguez – Traded
Jorge Posada – Home Grown
Bret Gardner – Home Grown
Curtis Granderson – Traded
Nick Swisher – Traded
Entire Bullpen minus Kerry Wood, Mitre, and Gaudin – Home Grown
Mitre, Gaudin, Wood – Traded
Andy Pettite – Home Grown
Phil Hughes – Home Grown
AJ Burnett – FA Bought
CC Sabathia – FA Bought
Mark Teixeira – FA Bought
That’s only 3 players they “Bought” from Free Agency. Do you know how they win? They home grow and trade for their players and “buy” a few key pieces. If you look at the Red Sox, they have SO many more “bought” players than the Yankees do.
And secondly, cheating? Really? How did the Yankees cheat? Derek Jeter? If the ump awards you first base cause you got hit, does that make you a cheater? No right? Oh but now you will bring up the case that Jeter acted. Well, he didn’t call for the trainer, all he did was act like he was in pain. Also, even if Jeter did call for the trainer and manager, how is that cheating? Whether or not he called for them, the end result is the same so how is that cheating?
Now with Alex Rodriguez. NOBODY needs to take steroids. Why did Alex Rodriguez do it? We don’t know. Can we sit here and say he’s stupid for doing it? Yeah. But have you ever had an entire state on your shoulders while you make 200+million dollars with the entire world expecting you to hit 320 55 HR and 140 RBI? No, and until you do, you can’t even come close to judging him. Why? Because the only way you can start to judge a person is by being in their shoes first, and that’s just the beginning my friend.
It seems to me like the only reason you hate the Yankee is because that’s the popular thing to do. You have hated them without reason for so long that you don’t have a legit reason to hate them.
You hate the Yankees because their best player took steroids in Texas, because Derek Jeter was awarded first base on a bad call, and because the Yankees don’t let you bring water bottles inside their stadium. Are you serious? Come on man.
Don’t think I’m attacking you, I’m not. I just don’t understand your logic. Looking forward to reading a response.
by xs0ng on Oct 6, 2010 9:21 AM CDT reply actions
wah waaahh
that’s what this sounds like. You have a point with the farm system, but after that you just seem to be fishing for things. xs0ng says it all.
by jetanumba2 on Oct 6, 2010 10:16 AM CDT reply actions
Why This Fan Hates Cry Baby Yankee Haters
- They don’t know what they are talking about (see xs0ngs roster overview)
- They throw around needless slander about players they would worship if they were simply on their team and not the Yankees
- Generally, as this fool has demonstrated clearly, they are unwilling to admit their hatred is a manifestation of simply being a sore looser. I’m sorry, what is the Yankees record against the Twins in the last decade ? (i’ll give you a hint, it’s wicked bad)
Bottom line, the answer to “why you hate the Yankees” is that after crying in your beer for years you decided the better way to get the attention you need was to ramble on the internets. Great Job !
(That being said, best of luck in the upcoming series)
by jelw on Oct 6, 2010 10:47 AM CDT reply actions
Twins
As a Yankee fan, I have actually always liked the Twins. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s, our team was a wasteland and the Twins were a fun team to watch win. So I don’t want to get into any screaming matches with fans of a team that I kind of enjoy watching. It’s articles like these that make Yankee fans relish in other teams misery and become the arrogant jerks that we all know we are and love to be.
1) The Yankees grow/recruit their own talent and they pay them to stay. That gives them an advantage that other teams don’t (aka the Twins and Santana). The Twins are quite frankly lucky that Joe Mauer did not become baseball’s Lebron James. Which he could have because either the Yankees or Red Sox would have made him insanely rich. I always have to laugh at the lunacy of sports fans who don’t apply this logic to their own lives. How many people still work at their first job out of college because of loyalty? You get paid what you deserve or you leave and get paid more by the competition!
2) The new Yankee stadium is very similar to the old one, but it in no way a replica. Love it or hate it, the stadium has a COMPLETELY different feel than the old one. BTW, this is from Wikipedia’s page regarding Target Field: “On April 26, 2005, the Twins and Hennepin County announced that a deal had been reached, in which the Twins would pay roughly 1/3 of the stadium’s cost ($125 million), with the rest being paid for by a 0.15% Hennepin County sales tax.” Sure, Yankee stadium cost more to build, but the donkey should not refer to the mule as an ass.
3) I guess Derek Jeter should have turned to the ump and said, “No, you got that call wrong. I wasn’t hit. Let me stay here in the batter’s box with my .270 average.” Please, this happens all the time in sports. How many times have you seen Kobe get cleanly stripped and then flop his arms around looking for a call? How many times have you seen a WR or CB scoop a football off the ground and pretend it was a reception/interception? Of course, if this had been Kevin Youklis instead of Jeter, I would have been pissed.
4) 45 minute renditions of “God Bless America.” To hell with remembering the men and women fighting overseas, who the fans are reminded that’s why we’re standing, right? To hell with the 3,000 men and women who were slaughtered less then 10 miles away, right? Jose Mijares needs to stay fresh!
5) Slam A-Rod over the steriods. Fine. BUT…..There are plenty of names that have not surfaced. Plenty. And A-Rod has taken his fair share of hits for something that most of his fellow players (past and present) are guilty of. Again, I must bring up the parable of the donkey and the mule.
You hate the Yankees. We get it. Most people hate the Yankees. But the reasons here just sound childish. As a friend of mine said, “Yeah. I hate the Yankees. But you know what…I hate them because my team can’t do anything right.”
"We're only going to score 17 points? *giggle, giggle*" -Tom Brady
by JustinTuckRule on Oct 6, 2010 11:46 AM CDT reply actions
Wasn't Target Field taxpayer funded too?
Like $350 million dollars worth? Glass houses.
Strikeouts are boring- Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.
by CasanovaWong on Oct 6, 2010 11:51 AM CDT reply actions
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