Whenever I wear my OLD Johan Santana jersey, I get a lot of criticism from Floridians. Of course, Florida being the state with clusters of people from all over the country, there is never really one team that they cheer for.
Very few Floridians that I know are actually fans of Florida teams, either the Marlins or the Rays. Not to mention there is a huge rivalry in the Tampa-Bay Area, between the Rays fans, and Yankees minor league affiliate, the Tampa Yankees.
Being a DJ, and mixing a lot of parties and events in the Daytona Beach area, I have to deal with a lot of drunk people. However, one of the most frequent places I DJ is Red Tails Sports Bar, owned by a former Yankee minor league player Hank Foley.
Of course this place is known to be a Yankees bar. But Hank sponsors the Daytona Cubs, Single A Cubs affiliate, so he isn't biased to just the Yankees.
But the drunk, idiot, belligerent college kids that I have to deal with DJ'ing parties need to go play in heavy traffic or something, anything to get them off my back. There is something about the Yankee fans, not the ones at Yankee Stadium itself, but every place else you go, they are arrogant and stubborn.
Yes I agree, the Yankees are a great team, I am not taking anything away from that. But they were great in a different era. The Yankee Dynasty of the late 90s was a force that could not be stopped, except by greed.
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The way I see it, the Yankee Dynasty ended when George Steinbrenner became obsessed with winning at all cost, even if it meant dishing out a $200+ million payroll.
Just like money can't buy happiness (aside from superficial), money cannot buy wins. Money buys a lot of great players with great egos. Too many times, big names get in each others way, and cannot work as a team, but instead are more worried about personal stats rather than the teams stats as a whole.
I won't crab and moan about the born and raised Yankee fans from New York, but it is the bandwagon fans that don't know anything about baseball that get on my nerve at the bar. The only thing that they know is what they've heard, and limited history, prime example 26 championships.
These are the type of fans that will blindly argue a point with you, but when they find out that you know more than them, all they can do is come back with a childish insult.
Now, back to the Santana jersey. I get a lot of beef from Yankee fans when I wear it at the bar. They always say that the Twins suck, and Santana will be in pinstripes (before the trade).
I usually just brush it off, and continue about my work, but a lot of them get belligerent and start personally attacking me. I usually turn and laugh in their faces.
One of the things that I usually say to shut them up is “yes the Yankees were great, I agree, but the Steinbrenner has ruined the team, because money cannot buy wins.” They always try to bring up 26 championships, but again that's all the information that these drunk fans usually know.
So I say, “the 2006 season, the Minnesota Twins won 96 games with a $70 million payroll, the Yankees won 97, with a $200+ million payroll. Now lets do the math, the Yankees payroll was almost three times that of the Twins, but they won only one more game. Does $130 million justify one more win?”
By this time the drunk, ill informed fan gives me a blank stare and says something along the lines of “well the Twins still (expletive) sucks.”
It just goes to show that buying an explosive lineup, and rotation is not always going to bring about success nor will it guarantee wins.
As for Yankee fans, I would like to reiterate, I do not hate the true, born and raised Yankee fans, but the bandwagon fans that want to be like you give you all a bad rep.
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5 months ago
Couldn't argue...or agree with you more. As one of those born-n-raised Yankee fans for 30+ years I've had to neutralize my fair share of bandwagon, fairweather wanna-be Yankee 'fans'.
But baseball is a national pastime, and I think that it must be recognized that every team is going to have that kind of following; especially the spotlight, championship teams. I don't know how big the 'Red Sox Nation' actually is, but I'm pretty sure it has it's very own large contingency of butt clowns running around with "B" caps on faking everything from a New England accent to even intermediate baseball knowledge.
Then there are those hate-filled mercenary fans, who's favorite team is anybody playing your favorite team. Those are the ones who are just targeting you...or the team/player you root for; and apparently have nothing else going on in their lives.
And it doesn't stop at baseball. Wherever a championship trophy/banner is hoisted, there'll be carpetbaggers mixing themselves into the victory dance; trying to get that free drink on the house and generally feeling better about themselves than they would looking at the tickertape parade from the outside.
from 5 months ago
I am glad to hear a Yankee fan agree with me on this point. I kind of thought that I would only receive criticism from Yankee fans, but It was obvious that you read the whole article rather than fume after reading only a few paragraphs, swaying your opinion the further along you read.
5 months ago
The Yankee fans I know are pretty....aggressive in their 'pride'.
4 months ago
Great piece, I really enjoyed it! Fan-on-fan criticism too often devolves into "oh yeah, well, your team sucks", but you really lay out pretty solid complaints, most of which jives perfectly with my experience as a Twins fan. Every team has their die hards and their bandwagon fans, but it does seem like the Yankees have a lot more of the latter than most teams do.
4 months ago
I love to go to Oakland A's games when they are hosting the Yankees because one of my little perversions is getting bandwagon Yankees fans thrown out of the Coliseum. I've sat with and enjoyed many games with real Yankees fans, so let me emphasize I know and respect the distinction. But the bandwagon fans practically beg for removal. My single game record is 13. I got a whole row sent out after a half-inning exchange that started with them chanting Oakland sucks and ended when I called them the skin flute section on the Yankees bandwagon. They dumped a couple of beers on me were walked out toot-sweet, and I didn't pay for another beer all night.
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