Posts Tagged ‘Yankees’

Is New York a bad baseball town or just a mediocre one?

July 14, 2010

I was just looking at the New York Yankees’ annual attendance figures.  They have 27 World Series championships but unfortuately, their fans haven’t been very loyal, except for the past 12 years or so.

From 1913 to 1945, the Yankees never averaged more than 20,000 fans per game. Same from 1962 to 1975 – no seasons in which they averaged more than 20,000.

Then we have 1989 to 1996, when the Yankees never averaged more than 30,000 fans per season despite  winning a World Series title in 1996. The first five (non-winning) years of the Washington Nationals’ franchise, the Nats have averaged more fans than the Yankees did from 1992-1996.

The funny thing is that Yankees fans think they’re real fans, though they root for a team that has by far the biggest payroll in baseball.  Are you also going to root for poker players who get an extra card or two?  Fair weather fans — like LeBron James.

Before you talk about the Yankees’ attendance being better than most other teams, remember that New York is by far the largest city in the country, and the 27 World Series titles should draw fans for them.

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George Steinbrenner: the worst owner in the history of baseball?

July 13, 2010

I don’t believe you should only say good things about people who die, I think you should say the truth.

George Steinbrenner helped ruin the game of baseball by making it a game of haves an have nots.

The Yankees had a payroll of over 200 million dollars while some other franchises had a payroll of less than 30 million.  They bought up so many star players from other teams that it became a joke.

He constantly yelled at his managers as if that would help.

He made 20 managerial changes in 23 seasons from 1973 to 1996.

He paid money to smear one of his players – Dave Winfield.

Also see my previous post, “Are Yankees fans bad people?” I don’t think they’re bad people — just not real baseball fans.

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Baseball

December 4, 2008

One of the things I don’t like about major league baseball is that the small market teams don’t have a chance to win because the sport doesn’t have enough revenue sharing.  (As I write this, the Tampa Bay Rays made it to the World Series, but that was an aberration).  We complain that the NFL has a lot of turnover with its rosters, but the fact is that most NFL teams have a chance to compete every year because of revenue sharing, whether they are in New York or Green Bay.  You can’t say that about baseball.  In fact, it’s really disgusting how the Yankees constantly buy up all the great players.  They took Mike Mussina from the Orioles, Randy Johnson from Arizona, Roger Clemens from Toronto, Alex Rodriguez from Texas, and even Johnny Damon from Boston.  I usually don’t think it’s right to enjoy the misery of others (except in the case of the Yankees).  So every year they don’t win the World Series (eight years and counting) is a good year.  They won four out of five years before that, though, while teams like Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Milwaukee rarely have a chance at a winning season. 

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