"I hate the Yankees"
Posted on 11/04/2009 4:56:58 AM PST by Born Conservative
When the Yankees try to nail down their 27th World Series title tonight, they'll do it as one of the most polarizing teams in sports.
Few know that better that East Stroudsburg University professor Charles Warner, who was so perplexed with the concept of hating the Yankees — he readily admits to living most of his life as a Yankee hater — he decided to research the subject.
The result of more than a year of research and writing came out in October as the book "The Team America Loves to Hate: Why Baseball Fans Despise the New York Yankees."
Warner said he came up with the idea after years of hating the Yankees as a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan, a team that doesn't even play in the same division as the Yankees anymore, even though the two teams played against each other in the American League East until the mid-'90s.
He was on his way home from a Pittsburgh Pirates game against the San Francisco Giants, and thousands of Pirates fans turned out for the sole purpose of booing their former hero, Barry Bonds.
Warner said he thought the relationship was similar, fans who turn out to boo Bonds and fans who turn out to boo the Yankees.
"I sort of wondered whether it extends to fans of other major league teams, whether they all hated the Yankees or not," he said, and he found out rather quickly, "Yeah, they do."
Randomly, Warner decided he'd start out by going on some Internet message boards in the spring of 2008 and asking fans whether they hate the Yankees or not. Within a day, fans of every team had responded: Yes.
He saw an ad from Praeger Publishers looking for academics to write non-academic books, and pitched the idea with the message board hatred as his evidence.
The company bit, Warner took a leave of absence from the university and by the start of summer, he had finished the 187-page book filled with anecdotes, hard evidence and reasoning to get to the bottom of America's obsession with Yankee-hating.
"There's a chapter about the players, there's a chapter about the fans, the system, there's even a chapter about it being family tradition," he said. "There are all kinds of reasons. There is even evidence that it's a cultural resentment, that they just hate New York City and therefore hate the Yankees."
It's the first time Warner, 54, has written a book. The communication studies professor has been at East Stroudsburg since 1988 said he's helped with chapter contributions in the past, but decided this was the chance to explore his own idea.
And since the subject matter was something he considered close to his own heart, even those days when he had a blank screen staring back at him.
"What a feeling of relief it was, finishing the book," Warner said. "The amount of self-motivation it took to get that done was just tremendous. But when you're doing something you're interested in, it's that much easier."
Even if it's not easy living in what is at least partly Yankee country in the Poconos. Warner said he's ambivalent to the World Series, even though it pains him to say he probably cheers for the Yankees, who carry the American League banner.
Plus, it wouldn't exactly hurt book sales if the Yankees win, especially since the book would fly off shelves in the Delaware Valley.
"Yeah, that can't be bad news for the book," he said, laughing.
Ping
Why hate the Yankees? They suck. Next question?
Their fans are just big cry babies.
It’s easy to hate them, as they do have all those championships. But they won ‘em fair and square.
Usually, the best teams money can buy! Go Yanks!
That sounds like obummer.
Most Polarizing teams:
1) NY Yankees
2) Notre Dame Football
3) Duke Basketball
4) Dallas Cowboys
5) LA Lakers
But not as a big a bunch of cry babies as Cardinals and SAWWXXXXX fans.
See, you are crying already
It’s like democrats and their use of class envy.
Damn Cowboys! Sick of hearing that “America’s Team” crap! :)
Puuulllleeezzeee...
Hate them all you want but lets stick to reality here. They are the winingest (not a real word I know) team in all of professional sports history. All sports.
So whatever else they may be, they most decidedly do not “suck”.
just for the title
LOL! BTTT sir.
I’m actually not a Yankees fan...just wanted to get a dig in on the Cards and Sawx.
When I saw ESU in the headline, my first thought was that it stood for Enormous State University (in the Tank McNamara comic strip).
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