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 Why do you hate the Yankees? We asked CNN/SI users for reasons to hate the A.L. champs, and the replies rained down like batteries from the bleachers at Yankee Stadium. And we found out that there is a huge need for a Red Sox support group.
Posted: Fri October 16, 1998
—Bill Grady, Nashua, N.H. They are from New York. If the same team played in Kansas
City or Tampa Bay they would only be remembered as a good
team, not the greatest team of all time. Also they have all
of the east coast media fueling the fire of their
greatness. George
Steinbrenner might as well have said it, the smaller markets can't
compete with New
York.
The baseball gods were either on vacation or on crack in
1996 because pixie dust and Cinderella slippers smell like
dog-doo when they're put on high-priced mercenaries in
pinstripes. The Yankees are way overdue for a massive
kharmic rebate, and I just
hope I'm around long enough to see the
reckoning.
Do you remember that kid [Jeffrey Maier]
who robbed the game from the Orioles in '96, who
completely changed the momentum of the postseason? Well,
that kid embodies the essence of New York, the greed of
Wall Street, the pushing to the front of the line at the
subway, and the holier-than-thou
attitude those Yankees fans feed on. The Yankees have had
the great good fortune of signing some of the great players
of all time—Reggie, Joe, Mickey, etc—but baseball is not
about singular players; it is American myth, unfolding
legend. And those
legends are not born out of the cold, drab, self-absorbed world
of New Yorkers, in the ruthless dictatorship of George
Steinbrenner—the same loser who fired Billy Martin about
two million times. I hate the Yankees and I don't need to
justify it, just as I
don't need to justify breathing. It is simply
innate.
Oh, let me count the ways: Derek Jeter - one of the
cockiest players around. He thinks he's the greatest, and
he's not even the third best at his position in the
American League!!! Then of course there's Paul O'Neill (Mr.
Happy) — Paul, if it's not
fun, then sell cars or something. Joe Torre — the most
overrated manager, next to Bobby Cox, that has ever been.
Let's see what he could do without George feeding him
free-agents. Andy Pettitte - overrated. GEORGE - I've got
an idea - build a team, don't
buy one. Hell, now George is waiting along the beaches for
the rafts to wash up the defecting Cubans so he can sign
them!
How can you
not?
To root for the Yankees is to root for man's worst
instincts to triumph: It's to wish for the rich to triumph
over the poor, powerful corporations to crush
entrepreneurs, Goliath over David....rooting for the
Yankees is like rooting against the Joads in
The Grapes of
Wrath.
1. Bucky
Dent
Because when Steinbrenner made Dave Winfield the first $1
million man, he started what has become the downfall of
modern sports. Because Ted Williams should have been named
MVP in 1941, not Joe DiMaggio. Because Mickey Rivers gave
Bucky Dent a corked
bat. Because we didn't get anything in return for Babe
Ruth.
They need
12-year-olds to help them win the
pennant.
One reason? How about 114
reasons?
Two Words: Bucky
Dent
Steinbrenner
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