Read the opposing arguments from Bleacher Fan and Loyal Homer.
Remember when your mom used to tell you, “People who do not like you are just jealous!” She was lying to you. It probably had nothing to do with jealousy, and more to do with your haircut, hygiene, or personality. Do you know how I know this? Because that statement pretty much only applies to the New York Yankees.
The New York Yankees epitomize being the object of envy. Twenty seven World Series championships, dynasties in multiple eras of the sport, and rosters that often boast as much talent as an All-Star team have given fans of cellar dwellers a lot to be jealous of, and in turn have encouraged a great number of teams to gulp Anti-Yankee Hatorade. That is why I am absolutely shocked that a study performed by the Nielson Company ranked the New York Yankees fifth among the most hated teams in baseball. I believe that the number crunching nerds down at Nielson might have a TI-84 or two on the fritz because, like in everything else, the Yankees deserve first place.
The Yanks are far and away the most hated team in Major League Baseball, and that is a distinction the team has worked tirelessly to achieve. They actually seem to thrive on the boos (or Bronx Cheers as they are sometimes called around the Burrow) they receive while on the road. The Bronx Bombers have worked very hard to earn the envy of their… well, I would write peers, but I cannot since they do not really have any.
The Yankees are a modern day Goliath sitting atop the baseball ranks in an unrivaled fashion. They seem to get the most TV exposure, sign the most coveted free agents, and make it to the playoffs every season. Lesser franchises would thrill to just achieve one of the aforementioned things, let alone all three routinely. Jealousy fuels the flames of dislike into hate. That is why I have an incredibly hard time buying that there really is more hatred for teams like the Houston Astros, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Indians than the New York Yankees. Depression, self-loathing, and embarrassment I could buy, but not hatred.
After all, how do you really measure a quality like hatred anyway? The guys behind the research at Nielson based it off Internet searches that included the team names and words expressing qualitative judgments (i.e. love, hate, etc.). Each one was assigned a positive or negative value to determine an overall rating. While this is a nerd-tastic approach might get the Sports Geek tweaked just talking about it (Editor’s Note: It does.), is it really a valid quantification for a feeling? Can a process like this account for the strong feelings and emotional ties that are so often present in sports rivalries? I am not sure I could assign a word to describe the utter soul crushing loathing I have for Dustin Pedroia and his team, let alone a ranking.
Society is aware that the Yankees have been deemed the biggest villains in Major League Baseball. That much is made abundantly clear by the media and pop culture. In movies like Major League and For Love of The Game the Yankees are the antagonists. In these movies the Yankees are portrayed as brutish bullies that must be overcome by the underdogs. Why? Because people love to hate the Yankees. Popular nicknames for the team illustrate the societal vilification of the Yanks. The Yankees have been referred to as the “Evil Empire” and “The Best Team Money Can Buy” as an attack on the unrestrained spending by Yankees’ ownership. While the New York Yankees have an incredible national and international following, their dominance of the sport has caused masses of non-Yankee fans to unite in shared disdain for the club. Yankee hatred bonds fans of poor clubs like the Florida Marlins and rich clubs like the Boston Red Sox and National League purists and fans of the DH. Come to think of it, Yankee hatred is actually a great uniting force in baseball.
Add to that the larger than life personas that give life to Yankee legend and now we are reaching some serious mass bitterness. Players that leave behind legacies with other teams for the Yankees, like Wade Boggs and Johnny Damon, create lightning storms of resentment. The fist pumping of Joba Chamberlain ruffles feathers now much like the hulking antics of Roger Clemens did during his days in pinstripes. Who can forget the image of Rocket hurling shards of a broken bat near Mike Piazza (I said near because Clemens is a professional. If he wanted to hit Piazza he would have impaled him.)?
Of course there is the grand-daddy of all controversial modern day Yankees, Alex Rodriguez. Whether he is distracting fielders while rounding the bases, chopping at gloves to get a base hit, or just walking right across the pitching rubber he gets people’s attention, you either love him or hate him. A lot of people fall into the latter category.
In general Yankees players dominate headlines. The fact that A-Rod’s dating life gets more TV time than some team’s game highlights tends not to sit well with some fans, and that is another reason the Yankees really rank number one as the most hated team in baseball.
Although it sounds like doublespeak, the Yankees are all at once the most beloved and hated team in baseball. There is no way Cleveland wins this hatred contest unless we are talking about places LeBron James wants to play next year. And just like baseball, I’m betting the city of New York wins that sweepstakes, too. But that’s a different debate entirely.
