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Nov. 5th, 2009 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drydemSo, let's imagine a story.
You have two groups
One group who has been successful frequently in the past through spending large amounts of money and consists of a group of very clean cut people without much in the way of distinctive personality, including people who had the individuality drained out of them when they joined the group.
The other group is the perennial underdog, the biggest losers in sports who despite odds against them fought their way to the top. They are a diverse bunch of people with individual styles from lots of different parts of the world, some of them with accolades in the past, most of them unknown.
Now, which team is America's team? If you answered the first team, then you are a Yankees fan, Buying your way to championships over other teams, draining personality from players and increasing baseball salaries everywhere.
I just can't see a compelling narrative for a Yankees fan. All I see is ultra-conformist arrogant plutocrats who don't play fair. The Phillies could have afforded the entire roster of the Marlins and the Padres in addition to their own roster and still not have matched the Yankee's payroll. If you don't include the bumps in salary after last year's World Series win by the Phillies(looking at last year's payroll) they could have afforded the LA Dodgers as well.
Don't get me wrong, there's a storied history to the Yankees, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, etc, but rooting for the Yankees is rooting for Bush's America. You may love Lincoln's America, Teddy Roosevelt's America, FDR's America, JFK's America, even Thomas Jefferson's America. But the Yankees are the America that invaded Iraq and expected to be welcomed as liberators.
You have two groups
One group who has been successful frequently in the past through spending large amounts of money and consists of a group of very clean cut people without much in the way of distinctive personality, including people who had the individuality drained out of them when they joined the group.
The other group is the perennial underdog, the biggest losers in sports who despite odds against them fought their way to the top. They are a diverse bunch of people with individual styles from lots of different parts of the world, some of them with accolades in the past, most of them unknown.
Now, which team is America's team? If you answered the first team, then you are a Yankees fan, Buying your way to championships over other teams, draining personality from players and increasing baseball salaries everywhere.
I just can't see a compelling narrative for a Yankees fan. All I see is ultra-conformist arrogant plutocrats who don't play fair. The Phillies could have afforded the entire roster of the Marlins and the Padres in addition to their own roster and still not have matched the Yankee's payroll. If you don't include the bumps in salary after last year's World Series win by the Phillies(looking at last year's payroll) they could have afforded the LA Dodgers as well.
Don't get me wrong, there's a storied history to the Yankees, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, etc, but rooting for the Yankees is rooting for Bush's America. You may love Lincoln's America, Teddy Roosevelt's America, FDR's America, JFK's America, even Thomas Jefferson's America. But the Yankees are the America that invaded Iraq and expected to be welcomed as liberators.
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Date: 2009-11-06 03:41 am (UTC)I also don't like how male-centric and gender-normative the whole culture is.
But I can see how the comraderie, the narratives, etc., could be appealing. I personally just find the whole thing really, well, dull (among other things). I realize I'm missing out on something socially meaningful, but I'd rather just read a book than bother with all that sports stuff. ;)