Posted on 10/31/2010 5:14:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
When the underdog Texas Rangers eliminated the “Evil Empire” New York Yankees from the playoffs last week and dispatched them back to their smoldering Death Star, millions of people across America, and around the world, cheered.
Why is that?
There was a time, not too long ago, when America loved the Yankees, and the world loved America. And no Yankee was more loved than Babe Ruth, who personified the Yankees, and the America, of his day. “Babe Ruth’s big appetites for home runs, food, drink, women, and even life itself helped deliver the message that America was an up-and-coming power. We were young, strong, uninhibited, and had that can-do attitude that war-ravaged Europe sorely lacked,” wrote Kevin O’Connell and Josh Pahigian in their book Why I Hate the Yankees.
Fast-forward to today and the New York Yankees are viewed by many as too rich, too powerful, too arrogant, and what former President Clinton advisor Lanny Davis called “the epitome of the capitalist enemy within the world of baseball,”—much the same way America is viewed within the world of nations.
If it is true that, as America goes, so go the Yankees, then what has changed about America and the Yankees since the days of Babe Ruth?
In the 1920s, America was a rising power. So were the New York Yankees. Then the Yankees and America went on winning streaks.
When Babe Ruth first joined the Yankees, the team had never won the World Series. Since then, the Yankees have won the World Series twenty-seven times—far more than any other team and almost triple that of their nearest competitor.
The Yankees and America went from underdogs to superpowers. That is what changed since the days of Babe Ruth. “In other words, the Yankees are the United States. Those Americans puzzled by the ambivalence, to put it gently, with which U.S. leadership in the world is met might consider their own love-hate relationship with New York’s finest. The parallels run deep and true,” wrote Alex Massie in The Spectator after the Yankees won their twenty-seventh World Series championship last year.
For the past five years, I have conducted perhaps the most comprehensive study ever on our love-hate relationship with underdogs and overdogs. And I noticed a pattern. When people choose sides between the Yankees and the Rangers, America and other nations—or any contest between unequal powers—they tend to choose the side of the underdog. This is no surprise.
What is a surprise is how some people’s natural love for the underdog has warped into an automatic, blind, irrational hatred for those who have more power (overdogs). In the case of the New York Yankees, it manifests itself as “Yankee Derangement Syndrome.” When it comes to America—even with a new, swagger-free, more globally-minded President in the White House—America is still “the Great Satan” in the eyes of millions, and the focus of scorn, resentment and rage the world over.
I call this belief system “Underdogma,” which is the reflexive belief that those who have less power are good because they have less power, and that those who have more power are bad because they have more power. According to those who practice Underdogma, the underdog can do no wrong—even when he does wrong, and the overdog can do no right—even when he does right.
So how can the Yankees, and America, overcome such hatred? Let’s ask someone who overcame his hatred for the New York Yankees.
Last year, former special counsel to President Clinton and lifelong Yankee hater Lanny Davis went against his “family history,” against his “DNA,” and did what he said would make “grand-pa cry in Heaven.” He rooted for the Yankees.
“So it happened. A miracle. In the 2009 World Series, I became a Yankee Fan. May Dad forgive me,” wrote Lanny Davis last year.
What caused Lanny Davis to break the generational cycle of Underdogma? The first crack in his belief system came in the 1980s and early 1990s. As Mr. Davis wrote, “finally, there seemed to be some economic and social justice in the world. The Yankees didn’t win a World Series for 16 years—from 1979-1995.” But then the Yankees went back to their winning ways, which led Lanny Davis—via Underdogma—back to hating the Yankees. And then a “miracle” happened: he found himself rooting for the Yankees against the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2009 World Series. What finally tipped him over the edge? It was when the scales of power tipped against the Yankees.
“First, they [the Yankees] hadn’t won the Series for eight straight seasons—from 2001-2008 [championing of the underdog]. “Second, the Phillies had won the year before and they were described as the ‘favorites’ by a lot of sports writers” [scorn for the overdog].
Thanks to Mr. Davis—and the underdog Texas Rangers—the New York Yankees, and America, now have a blueprint for breaking the generational cycle of Underdogma. All the Yankees and America have to do is…lose.
I love the Yankees...sitting at home watching the World Series.
Go buy some more players lol.
I think I got real Yankee Hating creds. (See the tagline.) But I love Texas and Tampa Bay because they are everything the Yankees and Boston are not: scrappy, hungry, aggressive on the base path, resourceful, diligent and grateful.
The Yankees and these days the Red Sox act like they are owed a play off spot the first day of Spring training. I LOVE watching guys like the Rays and Rangers. It’s almost like the Bob Schieffer asking Scott Brown why he would presume to occupy Ted Kennedy’s seat. IT’S NOT THE YANKEES AND RED SOX’ PLAY OFF BERTH!!!! It goes to the guys who are really willing to work there butts off to get it!
I’ll make the analogy with the United States: Nobody owes us anything. We are not granted a special place by God that allows us unquestioned economic supremacy over the globe. If we act like the world owes us just for showing up, some hungry kids in China or India or Brazil are going to eat our lunch. We became rich when Americans knew they had to earn their job everyday, that there was no free lunch and the government was good at spending money but not at creating wealth.
Tears in my eyes. Tuesday can’t come soon enough.
Yankee-hating (of the baseball, not the Confederate kind) goes way back. "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant" was a book written in the late 40s (I think - can't check from my iPhone) that was later made into the musical and movie "Damn Yankees".
The evils bought success in 1919 when the sox owner was going under to get Ruth and the pattern continues to this very day. The author can delude himself all he wants, its no more complicated than that. Go Sox !
I love ignorant statements like this. As if the players on whatever team you follow volunteer their time out of the goodness of their hearts. Every team “buys” their players - it's called a contract. The Yanks are simply willing to spend more for the players they wish to have represent them on the field.
If Ford and GM both wanted LeBron James to pitch their cars and Ford offered more money than GM, would you hate Ford over GM because they paid more money for James to represent them?
Think about it...
Go buy some crackerjacks and enjoy the World Series.
...What is the difference between a Smorgasbord, an All you can eat buffet and Yankee pitching?
Nothing. They all serve it up on a platter. The Yankee Pitching just costs a bit more.
...the reflexive belief that those who have less power are good because they have less power, and that those who have more power are bad because they have more power.
Agreed.
I am enjoying the WS. I enjoy a good game no matter who is playing. If Boston takes it to the Yanks, I tip my hat, say “good game” and wait for tomorrow. I don't sit in a stew of loathing wishing calamity on the opposition.
You are correct about one thing - the Yanks pitching was inadequate and ineffective. They deserved to go home early. I am sure that will be addressed by next season.
I’m a liberal because I don’t like the Stankees?
LOL.
I guess you are a MSM journ o list because you think we all have to think like you.
God forbid everyone thinks like me - how boring an existence! However, there is an acknowledgment of sorts as to how a conservative views the accumulation of capital and the wise use of it. I would be interested in hearing your viewpoint on the matter.
So according to the article some (stupid) people hate the Yankees for the same reason they hate America, they are both winners. At least they used to be. Its an astonishing phenomenon that a country that used to be #1 scientifically, economically, militarily, etc, is hell bent on throwing it all away to be like loser countries in Europe. Its like a physician looking at a wino on the street and saying to himself, “I want to be more like him”.
The Yankees are winners, and winners they attact fans, fans mean money, and money aquires the best players so you can keep winning. Its a simple formula. Why other teams cant figure this out is a mystery. I realize that fans of other teams resent the Yankees because they BEAT THE CRAP out of their teams on a regular basis (so sad). The article is right in one respect, the Yankees are like America. To hate the Yanks is to hate the US.
The Yankees have what they have and make use of it because they have a lock on a lucrative territory, not because they have been particularly astute businessmen.
So a true conservative would be in favor of opening up baseball to some new entrepreneurs....
Mariano Rivera is a fine example. Would anyone call him "scrappy"? No. But only because he's clean shaven and quiet, and approaches his job with consisten stoicism.
I like scrappy players, too. I like Ichiro. The Yanks have had some scrappers through the years. Brett Gardner is such a player.
But cool quiet Cano is the latest example of the modern Yankee ideal. It seems as if he isn't scrappy, but the numbers don't lie.
I’ve always said people hate the Yankees for the same reason people hate America.
“No, you’re not a lib because you don’t like the Yanks. It’s your attitude and animosity toward those that have and are willing to spend it in order to improve themselves that has me curious as to your mindset.”
LOL, sports and economics eh?
So, you are a Socialist based on the fact that you support the team that has the largest federal and local government subsidies in the US? I believe the Yankees have about half a billion in stadium subsidies. That doesn’t even include parking garage subsidies.
Please, it’s sports. You’re being silly.
I'm afraid you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what sports IS (especially to a fan). Sports may be a business to the franchise, but people don't pay hundreds of dollars to go watch professional accounting. Sports are about demonstrating skill, and team sports are about TEAM-based skills. That's why fans watch (and it's the fans that this piece is directed at).
Well, team-building is an art form in and of itself, and teams that manage to take the disparate personalities and skills that each member possesses and weld them into a unified whole, operating at a higher level than any one member can achieve by themselves, are the teams that people love to cheer for. Fans appreciate great teamwork as much as they appreciate individual skill (otherwise, why would the fans be watching a team sport?).
The hostility towards the Yankees (and the Cowboys... remember when they were "America's Team"?), et al., is based in a perception by the fans that the team management is trying to short-circuit the process of team-building by purchasing the highest-price talent in the league and dominating simply on personal skill, rather than actual teamwork. See another NY team, the Rangers, for a textbook case of this. After their last Stanley Cup, the Rangers tried to "buy" another by spending exorbitant amounts of cash on individually talented players with little team chemistry (Jaromir Jagr and Alexi Kovalev, anyone?). As one commentator put it, they had some of the best scorers in the league, with no one to pass the puck to them...
Thankfully, the NY Rangers failed miserably, because they symbolized the antithesis of a team sport to most fans... men who had no interest in teamwork. So why be surprised that the Jerry Jones' and George Steinbrenners' of the world would engender such hatred from fans. Fans are paying to see a team sport, and these franchises are working to subvert the very requirement of good teamwork for championships. If Jerry Jones could buy a championship every year, he wouldn't even care if the football was lousy. And, as the man making the money, his position is understandable. But as the fan paying the money, don't expect us to cheer lousy football in the name of Jones' pocketbook...
Socialist? Hardly. Every major league team has some sort of revenue producing subsidy - be it parking, stadium concessions, apparel, ect...and they receive some sort of consideration from the gov’t - it's the way business is done.
But you still haven’t addresses your your attitude and animosity toward those that have and are willing to spend it in order to improve themselves. What would you have them do?
But to say the fans have no appreciation or understanding of the economics of their favorite team is a bit misguided. Listen to sports radio and the fans talk about contracts, ticket revenues, parking,and team apparel.
Most fans expect whoever is brought in to become part of the team. The ones that cannot(Manny Ramirez, Terrel Owens, Dennis Rodman) are shown the door. A-Rod has struggled. So did Randy Johnson. But for the most part, the Yanks have fielded a team that plays well together and wins. That, to me, is the basis for the strong dislike - winning.
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