Friday, October 7, 2011

Note to (Some) Yankee Fans: Grow Up Already

I was in a bad mood after the Yankees lost Game 5 of the ALDS, and I'm still peeved this morning. But frankly, most of the my peckishness is directed at some of the Yankees fan base than at the team. The way some of these fans carried on last night, both online and at the Stadium, you would think that the team hadn't won a playoff series in 50 years. 
 
Please understand that I'm not talking about all Yankee fans. But some of the team's fans need to hear this: Get over yourselves already. Acting like spoiled, entitled jerks doesn't make you good Yankee fans. It just makes you spoiled, entitled jerks. Newsflash: The Yankees won the World Series TWO YEARS AGO. It really wasn't that long ago, folks. Show a little gratitude for once in your miserable lives.

You think you have it bad? Imagine being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, who hasn't seen their team even sniff .500 in nearly 20 years. Or a Chicago Cubs fan, rooting for a franchise that hasn't won in 103 years. Or a New York Mets fan, being in the same town as the Yankees, but having dumb owners who lost their money in a Ponzi scheme and are now making it clear that they're going to run a big-market team with a very small-market budget. I could go on and on, but you get the point. How many teams' fan bases would love to make the playoffs every year but one since 1995?

Back in March, the Yanks weren't expected to win anything this year, not with CC and the Has-Beens and Never Weres in the starting rotation, let alone win the AL East with 97 games. I certainly didn't think so this spring. No Cliff Lee, no Andy Pettitte, and no hope. The joke was that Brian Cashman had assembled a team that would have been great for 2005; not so great for 2011. It was supposed to be the Sox's year, not the Yanks.

And the Bombers had a ton of injuries throughout the year, including to Derek Jeter, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Alex Rodriguez, Bartolo Colon, and Rafael Soriano. Not to mention A.J. Burnett pitching horribly for the second year in a row. Yet the team overachieved, got key contributions from the Class of 2005, and made it to the postseason with the best record in the league.

Sure, I'm disappointed and ticked off that the Yanks lost the series. And I can point to a lot of things that went wrong -- like Joe Girardi refusing to pinch-hit for anybody last night, and the Yankee hitters' inability to get much done in runners in scoring position (and frankly, when you only score two runs against the Tigers at a home game, and one of them was driven in by a bases-loaded walk, you don't deserve to win.)

But it's one thing to be upset over the series loss (although for me, it doesn't even make my top five worst losses, and nothing will ever match the pain of 2004.) It's another thing to act like some unruly, hateful mob, scapegoating one player (you know who, of course!) Some of the very same "fans" who couldn't open their mouths to cheer on their team in the ninth inning -- the Yanks were behind by just one run, but the place sounded like a morgue -- found their voice outside the Stadium after the game, chanting "A-Rod sucks." Sure, Alex had a bad series, but this was a collective loss, and shouldn't be pinned on one person. Ross Sheingold of NYYStadiumInsider.com was at the game, and described the scene this way on Facebook:
Never been more embarrassed to be an New York Yankees fan. Hundreds (if not more) were chanting "A-Rod Sucks" in unison as they exited the stadium and headed down River Ave. In the past, chanting as a crowd down River Avenue was reserved for joyous moments. Now, the fans are entitled and only enjoy the game of baseball if the team marches to a World Series victory. It is sickening, and not enjoyable to be a part of.
Do those Yankee fans think this makes them look good? As Sully Baseball, a Red Sox fan friend of mine, put it last night on Facebook, "THIS is why people hate Yankee fans. Most fan bases would salivate to have a 2 time MVP who led their team to a World Series title. You cry that he hasn't given you more. Next time you wonder why the rest of the planet Earth cheers when the Yankees lose, look in the mirror. (That is if they allow mirrors in Bellevue.)" Exactly!

I just hope A-Rod has bodyguards with him anywhere he goes in this town. The unbridled hatred for him out there is out of control, and more than a little frightening.


Not only have too many Yankee fans forgotten 2009, they have forgotten who led them to that title. When I pointed out online to some Yankee fans last night that A-Rod carried the team on their shoulders that postseason, they either denied that he was the reason they won, or said "that was two years ago," like it's ancient history, or said that he only did it once, and implied that it somehow didn't count (tell that to Bucky Dent, Aaron Boone, Jim Leyritz, etc....) When I then pointed out that the Flip Play was ten years ago, but people still talk about it incessantly, I was chastised for daring to put Rodriguez in the same category as Derek Jeter. Good grief. What a bunch of ungrateful clowns.

Sure, it stinks that the Yanks lost, but they did do much more this year than I expected them to. Besides, things could be worse -- the Red Sox humiliated themselves way more this season than the Bombers did!


What do you think? Tell us about it!

11 comments:

Left Field said...

Very well said, Lisa. I really have nothing more to add. I'm just happy to know there are plenty of Yankees fans out there who aren't giving us a bad name.

Hopefully, the folks you wrote about were in the minority, and that their voices were heard only because, unfortunately, the obnoxious ones tend to drown out the reasonable ones.

J said...

Lisa, I understand the aggravation with some of the Yankee fans and I know that we won the championship two years ago and we made it a lot further than anybody expected but I understand the anger with the fans towards AROD. Yes he carried us in 2009 but one year does not erase the number of times we have seen him come to plate and just need a productive out from him and he just can't do it. Now I know it wasn't just him as well. Our line up just could not get the the big hit we needed(I found myself waiting for Matsui to come out of the dugout to bail us out) but as a Yankee fan how many times have you seen AROD come up in a big situation just to see him fail miserably.

Unknown said...

The season definitely exceeded my expectations, but I think there's a lot of extra anger at how this series went down.

When all the numbers point to the Yankees being the ones who should have won, you're going to be that much more upset. This wasn't last year's ALCS where they were clearly outplayed by Texas.

BrooklynGirl said...

Great post Lisa. It was a team collapse. Texiera hasn't had a clutch hit since the walk-off against the Angels in 2009, but nobody boos him; when has Swisher ever gotten a big playoff hit since he has been here. But Alex gets all the grief. Spoiled Yankee fans just love hating Alex becuase "its the thing to do". It's unfortunate and sad.

Considering that most of the baseball experts didn't expect the Yankees to really do anything this season kudos to Girardi for getting this team to this point. Better luck next year.

Anonymous said...

The Yankees were collectively horrible. A-Rod, Tex, and Swish just looked horrible. ARod doesn't deserve all the blame; there is plenty to go around, including Saint Jeter.
What does it say about a team when the standouts are Gardy for OFFENSE, Grandy for DEFENSE and AJ for pitching!
This was a team that I felt if they moved on thru postseason we were lucky and if not, well it didn't surprise me.

Anonymous said...

Lisa, as a Mets fan, I agree with you that the fans should show a little restraint before shooting off their mouths. It's one thing to want your team to win, but quite another to grouse about it when they don't win every year.

But where do you think Yanker fans get their attitudes from? It starts at the top. It was reported today that YOUR team president, Randy Levine, labeled this season "a failure". They say that s**t rolls downhill, yep it starts right at the top with the Yankers. They already have s**t for brains, then when they speak the s**t comes rolling right off their tongues, then travels all downhill from there, right into the fans heads. Talk about a group of s**theads!

Ask the fans in Chicago (north), Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Baltimore: what is a successful season?

I think it's high time that everyone in Yankerland, team and fans included, eat a huge slice of humble pie and quit thinking of themselves as elitists, because you are not better than anyone else, as proved last night by the Tigers.

Good luck to the Tigers, may the best team win. The most expensive team already flopped!!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Jonmouk71 said...

I've asked this question on blogs with no real response - will the failure of the Yankees' "wait-for-the-three-run-homer" offense make them players in the sweepstakes for Jose Reyes?

I don't particulaly like his attitude but here's my rationale:

1. Get younger and faster with a singles-doubles-triples guy which the Yankees really need
2. Ease El Capitan out from SS to RF (easier to play than LF at Yankee Stadium) where he replaces Swisher
3. Tick off Met fans!
4. Also, Hal would probably like to stick it to Freddy the Cryptkeeper Wilpon over the Newark fiasco - what better way than to keep Reyes in NY as a Yankee?

Uncle Mike said...

Forget it, Jonmouk. Reyes is so bad in the clutch he would make A-Rod look like Joe Montana.

The defeat really was a team effort. It was something like the 1960 World Series: The games we won, we won big; but we lost enough close ones to lose the series.

And you know what happened the next year? 109 wins, a truckload of home runs, the lefty ace went 25-4, and we won the whole thing. A good pattern to follow.

Anonymous said...

Mikey, Mikey, I think next year you can expect a season more like 1965. Your team is OLD, same as it was then.

The only way the Yankers are going back to the postseason is if they spend a couple hundred million more dollars on payroll and incidentals, which is quite likely given their history.

Uncle Mike said...

You're forgetting, Freshy, Mike Burke isn't running the Yankees now, and Dan Topping and Del Webb haven't been here to strip the farm system dry.

Scranton has been no lower than 3rd since it became a Yankee farm team, Trenton has won a couple of Pennants and sent several players to The Bronx, and those "Killer Bs" pitchers will be ready by the 2012 stretch drive. So if you're counting on 2012 being like 1965, in the words of Pete Rose, don't bet on it.

nutballgazette said...

Lisa

Does this mean I cannot say I am a
"Long Suffering Yankee Fan"?

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