Yankee fans go to war against the forces of evil

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Interesting stuff is bolded, comments are italicized in brackets

 

http://www.nyyfans.com/article/8075/

 

Media Watch: Yankees Bias?

Yankee hating as trendy as driving an SUV

 

By Matthew Lesh

NYYFans.com Staff Writer

November 17, 2003

 

“Yankees suck! Yankees suck! Yankees suck! Yankees suck!” We’ve all heard it a million times, in a million different places. I had the misfortune of spending last New Year’s Eve in a Chicago bar with a party that included an inebriated Red Sox fan. Upon learning that I was a Yankees fan, this drunken moron decided to get a “Yankees suck” chant going in the middle of the bar. Happily, no one else cared enough to join in, and the besotted Bostonian returned to his Sam Adams and miserable existence.

 

Red Sox fans are easy to deal with. When they get belligerent, you mention 1918, or something about Ted Williams’ headless body, and they turn into weepy fools. [classy! decapitation jokes are so killer!] But Yankee hatred isn’t just for Beantown anymore.

 

Everywhere you go, every visiting ballpark you attend, you hear the chants, you see the vulgar T-shits [ewww], you take the abuse. Anti-Yankee venom is spreading, fueled by a volatile combination of jealousy, stupidity and bandwagon-jumping.

 

Recent Yankee dominance [last world series victory: 2000] has the rest of the baseball world in a lather with ill-conceived notions of bought championships and prima donna players. Yet where is the bitter hatred toward the Florida Marlins, who signed an All-Star team’s worth of free agents in 1997, then dismantled the franchise and practically doomed baseball in South Florida? Where are the “Huizenga Swallows” T-shirts? Where is the outrage against the worthless Midwestern franchises who promise to raise payroll if taxpayers build them new stadiums, then continue to linger in the cellar and trade their stars each July?

 

The answer is simple: hating the Marlins, or the Reds or the Brewers simply isn’t cool. It has no caché. Yankee-hating has been popularized by the supposedly objective national media. [i knew the media was controlled by Yankee haters!]

 

True Yankee hatred used to be relegated to the side streets and alleyways of Boston, a secret, dark obsession in a town consumed by decades of disappointment. In the last several years, though, a new wave of anti-Yankee media coverage has arisen in otherwise reputable newspapers and magazines. Children who grew up watching the Yankees crush their team every year now work for ESPN and Fox Sports and Sports Illustrated, and spread their resentment in print and over the airwaves.

 

By far the most consistent offender, at least on a national scale, is ESPN.com’s Page 2. [Of course, this influences millions] This hip, younger cousin of ESPN.com employs not one, but two full-time, card-carrying Yankee haters on its roster. [OH MY GOD!! Two?!?! EEEEVVVVVIIILLL] Jim Caple alone has written eight (eight!) anti-Yankee columns just since May. [Cite Please!] Keep in mind that these are not columns with a passing insult directed New York’s way, but columns whose only reason for existence is to allow Caple to vent his misplaced anger. In fact, Yankee-hating seems to be Caple’s only reason for existing himself, because he certainly can’t cut it as a journalist or humorist. Meanwhile, “The Boston Sports Guy” Bill Simmons can’t get through a paragraph without an out-of-place swipe at the Yanks and their fans. Perhaps most absurdly, in Page 2’s summer tour rating every ballpark in baseball, Yankee Stadium ranked 21st, behind the likes of the charm-free Miller Park and the dump heap in Chicago known as U.S. Cellular Field. Huh? In the immortal words of John McEnroe, “You cannot be serious!” [since.. of course, Yankee Stadium is #1 and all! It has monuments!]

 

Much of ESPN’s animosity falls under the guise of humor or satire [Yeah, it's cleverly hidden under that 'humor'. But, it's all evil!], but that doesn’t relieve Page 2’s responsibility to give voice to Yankee fans as well as Yankee haters. [since Yankee fans are under-represented] Not one pro-Bronx voice exists anywhere in Bristol. Even Peter Gammons, lead baseball analyst, while rarely expressly anti-Yankee, still can’t stop himself from writing about the Red Sox every other day.

 

The boys club at ESPN is by no means alone in presenting unfair coverage of the Yankees. Many national radio personalities, notably Sporting News Radio’s Papa Joe Chevalier, make no secret of their distaste for New York and the Pinstripers. The Sporting News itself makes no effort to present both sides of the story, as their Yankee beat reporter once called Derek Jeter, apropos of nothing, “a rather unlikable lad.” [Now, THAT'S slander] Subtle anti-Yankee overtones often slip into television coverage, including Fox’s post-season games. And there’s supposed to be a pro-Yankee media bias? Sadly, the most fair, two-sided Yankee coverage around is probably on the YES Network. [Nevermind that it's owned by the Yankees and all]

 

Fans can hate any player or team they want to hate, and so can journalists for that matter. I don’t care. In fact, I encourage it. However, balance is a long-held American journalistic standard, and one which is being violated in sports pages across the country. The next time you hear someone talk about how the Yankees buy all their players, or are a bunch of arrogant, pampered babies, instead of trying to argue in vain, think about who is putting these ideas into peoples’ heads.

 

In the coming weeks and months, I will use this space to examine anti-Yankee bias in the media, its causes and effects. I will “out” the most offensive spreaders of bias in news outlets [Witchhunt time!], as well as look at broader issues of Yankee media coverage. If you spot anything noteworthy in any media outlet, whether pro or anti-Yankee, please email me at [email protected] and let me know. Include a link if you can.

 

OMG!

[alfdogg 0]

Meh. The Yankees are SO last month.

[Slayer 0]

Someone call the wahhhmbulance on this one

 

This article seems more like a cleverly disguised bashing of the Red Sox, if anything

 

But the Yankees are a "class" organization with "classy" fans, my bad...

[treble 0]

The answer is simple: hating the Marlins, or the Reds or the Brewers simply isn’t cool.

Bullshit, plenty of people hate the Marlins, either for the post-1997 firesale or for Jeffrey Loria.

 

Jim Caple alone has written eight (eight!) anti-Yankee columns just since May.  Keep in mind that these are not columns with a passing insult directed New York’s way, but columns whose only reason for existence is to allow Caple to vent his misplaced anger. In fact, Yankee-hating seems to be Caple’s only reason for existing himself, because he certainly can’t cut it as a journalist or humorist.

Again, bullshit. Caple is pretty damn funny, just read his review of Olympic Stadium from the summer ballpark tour.

 

Perhaps most absurdly, in Page 2’s summer tour rating every ballpark in baseball, Yankee Stadium ranked 21st, behind the likes of the charm-free Miller Park and the dump heap in Chicago known as U.S. Cellular Field. Huh? In the immortal words of John McEnroe, “You cannot be serious!”

Honestly, there are probably only a few parks that ended up ahead of Yankee Stadium that shouldn't have been there. But, history and the like wasn't the main judging point in the rankings, and really, Yankee Stadium doesn't seem to have that much character to it (based solely on seeing the place on TV) as compared to most other stadiums of around the same age (Fenway, Wrigley, etc.) or the new wave parks.

 

Anyway, boo hoo, cry me a river. You poor Yankee fan, sorry that no one likes your team, you should find lots of sympathy now.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Jim Caple alone has written eight (eight!) anti-Yankee columns just since May.  Keep in mind that these are not columns with a passing insult directed New York’s way, but columns whose only reason for existence is to allow Caple to vent his misplaced anger. In fact, Yankee-hating seems to be Caple’s only reason for existing himself, because he certainly can’t cut it as a journalist or humorist.

Again, bullshit. Caple is pretty damn funny, just read his review of Olympic Stadium from the summer ballpark tour.

I skimmed over the article so I missed the Jom Caple bashing earlier. Caple, in my opinion, is one of the best writers on espn as far as baseball goes. He's an admitted Yankee hater, but he's rational about it, and he gives credit where credit is due. He also regularly bashes Bud Selig, so he's a-ok in my book.