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This Yankee fan won’t bow to “new king”
(by Luigi Luciano - August 30, 2007)
Ok there is nothing worse for a Yankee fan than seeing the headline in last weeks USA Today “Red Sox Nation new king of the road”.
I was looking at the attendance record of teams when I read this article. At Boston's Fenway Park, the smallest stadium in the majors with a capacity of 36,108, the Red Sox have not had an unsold seat since May 15, 2003, a streak now at 370 games. What’s great about that is like most teams (Yankees included) fans tend to stay away from a losing team. So by May of 2003 the Red Sox being only 6 games behind the Yankees got the fans excited. Prior to that time it was very up and down.
Once the Red Sox scored that stunning come back against the Yankees in 2004 the flood gates were opened. Every closet Sox fan must have come out of the woodwork. So that brings us to last week’s headline. The Red Sox returned to the playoffs in 2005 and led the majors in road attendance — topping the Yankees, baseball's top road draw from 2001 to 2004. The Red Sox fell to third place in the AL East last year, missed the playoffs and saw the Yankees reclaim the road attendance crown. These are not real fans. Because the Red Sox were out of it they stop going to see them on the road. Yankees fans go because they want to see the star players not just because they are winning.
The big news is that the Red Sox are averaging 1300 more people at away games than the Yankees. I guess this is big news to the Red Sox Nation. To Yankee fans this means nothing. Being the most recognized team is baseball is enough.
What is the real story behind this? Everyone likes to take down a winner. The Yankees have been on top almost since the beginning. They are run as a professional organization where the players cannot be dressed in baggy uniforms or have hair on them that looks so stupid that it is embarrassing to the organization.
For years people claimed that the Yankees had to buy winning teams. Well it is true that they spent a lot of money but so do many teams. In fact with the Luxury tax, the Yankees pay millions to other teams who choose not to take that money and reinvest it into their own teams.
The Yankees and Red Sox rivalry goes way back. All the way back to when Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees on January 2, 1920. Ruth had just broken the single-season home run record, hitting 29 in 1919. Legend has it that Frazee did so in order to finance the Broadway play No, No, Nanette, starring "a friend", but the play did not open on Broadway until 1925.
This had caused what was known as the Curse of Ruth until 2004 when the Red Sox finally won a World Series.
Before 2004 the Red Sox fans had that curse to blame and hold onto. It was shocking when they won in 2004 but for Red Sox fans I can only feel for them. With one win in 86 years it felt good at the moment but what now? So they have become like a typical team just playing and hoping to have a winning season. The excitement of waiting for that ring is gone.
This year they all but had the division sewed up but in typical red Sox fashion want to make it a race. Leading the Yankees by 14 games in May they have a 5 game lead as of August 23. Will the Yankees catch them? Who knows? In my heart I am hoping. The reality is the Red Sox have better pitching and should win the division. But being the Red Sox, that apple gets hard to swallow.
What really bothers me about the Red Sox is...let me think…everything. The fans with that crazy “pahk the cah in the yahd” accent. They all sound like some wacky Kennedy family member.
The bottom line is I am a Yankee fan. I love the Yankees. I like the traditions from being well groomed to trying not to air their dirty laundry.
The Yankees greats are too many to be named. The Red Sox greats were great but few.
People that hate the Yankees, they say that we are arrogant. Maybe we are…a little. The difference between the Yankee fans and others is we expect to win. Not like other fans that when the season opens hope for their team to win. We really do expect them to win. We had our down time in the 80’s and we stuck it out. But the Yankees have always tried to give the fans what they want: a winning team on the field. That is all a fan can ask for. As baseball history continues to be written the same will be said 10 years from now about the Yankees that is said today. They spend too much money, they buy their players and they win. From The Babe to Derek Jeter there are so many great players that the Yankees have given us that it is hard to think where Baseball would have been without them.
As far as the Yankees winning, it is a given to the Yankee fans and it is expected by the owners. As far as this year and winning? in the memorable words of Yogi "It ain't over 'til its over."
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