THE TEAM AMERICA LOVES TO HATE Why Baseball Fans Despise the New York Yankees ppt

[...]... able to secure served as proof that there really wasnÊt a bad seat in the house The reaction of the Pittsburgh fans every time Bonds strode to the plate revealed why this was the toughest ticket in town They simply hate this guy, and they showed up in droves at PNC Park not so much to cheer for the Pirates, but to jeer Bonds mercilessly Their boos seemed to bring them more joy than the two Pirates victories,... begin to articulate Of course, players leave teams for any number 18 THE TEAM AMERICA LOVES TO HATE of reasons and under a variety of circumstances, and who better than the scorned fan to articulate the acute pain of losing a favorite player·for any reason, under any circumstances to the New York Yankees LetÊs begin with the phenomenon of the stolen player·a fan favorite snatched away by one of the many... likeable·prior to their move to New York Natsfan11, a Washington Nationals fan, mentions outfielder Johnny Damon as a prime example of this phenomenon, claiming to have „loved him with the Red Sox, but he seemed like he was lured by money to the Yankees. ‰13 Indeed, DamonÊs income rose from $8.25 million in 2005 to $13 million upon signing as a free agent with the Yankees in 22 THE TEAM AMERICA LOVES TO HATE. .. self-defeating But when it comes to the Yankees, itÊs an attitude that I share with countless baseball fans So, what is it about baseball fans that leads them to harbor such loathing for just another baseball team? Is it something inherent to the game of baseball, or is it something within that class of human known as the fan? In other words, whatÊs it all about? Perhaps the best place to start is that curious... have hated the Yankees [In] 1979, I started following the Jays.‰23 Jaysfan is certainly not the only baseball fan to remember this moment from a one-game playoff against the Red Sox for the American League East title, which propelled the Yankees toward a World Series victory However, the fact that a single moment could not only create a Yankee hater, but also cause that Yankee hater to abandon his team. .. image of the tastes such people possess and how they display them: beautiful homes built by old money and acquired through inheritance, fully stocked wine cellars and the knowledge of viticulture required to consume them properly, and expensive collections of original 8 THE TEAM AMERICA LOVES TO HATE works of art and the knowledge needed to interpret them properly Put bluntly, these are not the people... on an otherwise sweltering July afternoon; where fans in the cheap seats sat behind steel columns that supported the leaking roof These were minor inconveniences to a kid attending a Major League Baseball game, but I couldnÊt help wondering, „Do Yankee fans have to put up with this stuff?‰ Of course, they did have 4 THE TEAM AMERICA LOVES TO HATE to endure similar indignities, at least until the remodeling... equally familiar to sports fans: cutting off reflected failure, or CORFing, which involves limiting oneÊs identification with a losing team in order to preserve psychological well-being; and blasting, through which diehard fans incapable of CORFing due to their intense identification with their team simply trash the performance of the other team, the officials, the opposing fans, the guy selling snow... fans, from the least knowledgeable casual observer to the deeply knowledgeable and obsessive executive fan So, allow me to detail the method by which the fan narratives of Yankee hatred found in this book were gathered On June 10, 2008, the following message, titled Who Hates the Yankees? , was posted to the message boards on 29 of the 30 team Web sites of Major League Baseball: IÊm not a (name of team) ... obvious reasons, I did not post the message to the New York Yankees Web site and, for reasons unknown to me, the June 10 post to the Los Angeles DodgersÊ Web site did not register and was reposted on June 12, 2008 Within 24 hours, I received a total of 154 responses to these postings, with an additional 17 responses arriving over the course of the next few days Fans of every team were represented in this . alt="" The Team America Loves to Hate This page intentionally left blank THE TEAM AMERICA LOVES TO HATE Why Baseball Fans Despise the New York Yankees. from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Warner, Charles R. The team America loves to hate : why baseball fans despise the