You either love 'em or you hate 'em. Least that's the adage involving the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball.
No team in American sports history has more World Championships, spent more money, or had a richer past than the Yankees.
And no team in American sports has also had more bandwagon fans. It's not a surprise of course — everyone wants a piece of the cake, some claim to glory. And if 26 rings isn't enough glory, then one could always look to their players, from Joe DiMaggio to Lou Gehrig to Roger Clemens to Yogi Berra to The Babe Ruth himself (or to Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, Whitney Ford, Reggie Jackson…)
The Yankees are in some way, part of America, so it's not a surprise that so many fans across the nation jump onto their very prestigious and often very successful franchise even though they shouldn't.
And then you have the Boston Rex Sox, sitting cozily at Fenway Park, nestled in the heart of Boston, filled with a different kind of baseball fan, fans who speak in rich accents which seem to portray every word as some sort of insult.
But however innocent as they may seem, the Boston Red Sox are actually the New Evil Empire of Major League Baseball.
Seemingly the antithesis of the Yankees, the B-Sox hide behind a shield of misery and disappointment while garnering nearly as many unjustified claims to their wagon as their nemesis. Oddly enough these fans join Red Sox Nation for an entirely different reason than those of the Yankees, even though the two franchises are as similar as Dr Pepper and Mr. Pibb in the way they're run.
Like I said, you either love 'em or you hate 'em — but who said hating the Yankees meant you had to love the Red Sox? Most of these fans who wear their standard B hats couldn't even tell you the difference between Pesky's Pole (right field) and Fisk's Pole (left), or why Bucky Dent always seems to have an explicative in the middle of his name.
The Yankees' payroll is an egregious $195,229,045, clearly the highest payroll in baseball. Some would say they buy their championships, and although since the beginning of free agency there is certain truth to that, they're just simply better at it than the Red Sox. That's because the Red Sox payroll is quite healthy itself, coming in second in the majors at an absurd $143,123,714.
The bandwagon fans that have enough intelligence to realize this then must connect with the Red Sox in a different way. They wear their standard 'B' hats to exemplify and find solace in hardship, for until recently, that is what the Red Sox's have represented. It's been especially easy to jump on for the last few years; go with the Yankees and play into the cliché, add to the merchandise and take a number behind millions of fans who already found a reason to like the Yankees. But go with the Sox and you not only get to be part of what is becoming one of the more interestingly successful franchises of the new millennium (the Yankees haven't won in this millennium) but you also get to hide behind decades and decades of lucky home runs, called shots, and missed first base rollers as you sympathize with wounds you have not actually suffered or inherited.
You hide behind agony only to claim long desired victory. Hide behind the big machine of New York to claim foul. And you, yes you, don't deserve it.
Cause I'm not buying it, not even for a second. Hell I don't like either team, frankly! If I had it my way it'd be Tampa all the way every year! They're both buying their successes (this year four out of eight playoff teams were in the top eight in MLB payroll) and from a marketing perspective, they're both selling their pasts.
The only question is which one you're buying. Glorified rings in the Bronx or historical wounds in Beantown? New or old? Hot or cold? Red or gray? But just remember this: buying yourself a standard 'B' hat doesn't make you a 'B' fan; it just makes you a standard 'B' follower.
And well Yankee fans, they speak for themselves.
Reach the reporter at: joshua.spivack@asu.edu.
