I'm A Yankee Fan. I'd Hate Us, Too. In Fact, I Kind Of Do.
Yankee fans are spoiled rotten — myself included.
There is a look that comes across people’s faces that I’ve grown accustomed to — a combination of disbelief, disappointment, and disgust. It doesn’t come about when I say who I’m voting for in the election, how I feel about climate change, or what I put on a cheesesteak. It’s something much more important than that.
It happens when I tell people I’m a fan of the New York Yankees. It’s a fact I find myself grappling with often, especially right now as the team finds itself two wins away from reaching the World Series and hoping to end a 15-year title drought.
Okay, fine. I don’t get that look every time I mention my affinity for the Bronx Bombers. In fact, I get plenty of knowing smiles when my favorite baseball team comes up in conversation. That’s partially because I live in northern New Jersey and I’m surrounded by Yankee fans. Even if I didn’t live here, there’s a strong chance I’d be in good company. Because there are Yankee fans everywhere. You can find their interlocking “NY” logo across the globe, worn by plenty of people who have never set foot in the United States, let alone Yankee Stadium. The franchise has won 27 World Series championships, the most in Major League Baseball by a large margin (three times as many as the Boston Red Sox! Suck it, Charlie!) [See, this is why people hate Yankee fans. I give the man a job and he writes stuff like this. - Charlie]. That success has made the Yankees one of the most recognizable brands in the world, athletic or otherwise.
And therein lies the problem.
The Yankees are among the most polarizing teams to root for. When you win as much as they have, it comes with the territory. It’s safe to say fans of the 29 other teams in the league got sick of the monolith north of Manhattan being shoved down their throats at every turn. It’s the fact that the Yankees love to brag about their rings but won many of them when the league was still segregated and many others when the league was both smaller and less competitive.
It’s the fact that the Yankees are worth more than everyone else, spend more than everyone else (yet still cry poor), and charge more than everyone else. It’s the fact that the Yankees were once built around homegrown role players but have spent much of the last two decades building rosters of over-the-hill “stars” with less chemistry than the team behind New York City mayor Eric Adams. It’s the fact that they tore down the old Yankee Stadium, a true baseball cathedral, and replaced it with a sterile shopping mall of a stadium. It’s the fact that Brian Cashman has compared this roster in the past to a “fully operational Death Star” and the stadium plays a sound imitating the massive weapon from “Star Wars” powering up whenever a Yankee pitcher has two strikes on a batter. This team calls itself the Evil Empire proudly! Obviously, Darth Vader is cool, but this is excessive.
Okay, and maybe it’s Yankee fans.
There are so many Yankee fans I love. I know plenty of true midnight navy blue fans who have a deep connection to this team, whether because they’re from New York or because they inherited their fandom from their family — my pops grew up in the Bronx, so I fall into that later category. Fans who wax poetic about the good old days of watching Luis Sojo, Shane Spencer, Ruben Sierra, and other deep-cut obscure role players. Plenty of people love this team with every fiber of their being but still have some sense of rationality.
But I also know there are many fans who are either frontrunners or have allowed the team’s success to make them completely insufferable. The fans that call up WFAN and complain about every player the second they falter (but seemingly complain less about the white players). The fans who are ready to boo a player after one rough playoff series, no matter how great he was in the regular series.
Yankee fans are spoiled rotten — myself included. Like so many people my age, I grew up in the heyday of the 1990s Yankee dynasty. While the Bombers have spent much of their existence as favorites, that run actually started with them as plucky, dare I say likable, underdogs. A manager named Joe Torre who had never been to the World Series. A bunch of veterans like Wade Boggs, Charlie Hayes, and Paul O’Neil trying to find the promised land. Some rookie named Derek Jeter. They ended an 18-year title drought in 1996 and soon reeled off four titles in five years. I was so young and naive that I simply thought the Yankees winning was a given. I bawled like a baby in 2001 when they lost a heartbreaking Game 7 of the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks months after 9/11 (probably the only time the country was actually pulling for them) — my young brain simply couldn’t comprehend that the Yankees didn’t win the title every year.
I have since grown up (at least a little), and now understand championships are not a given. The Yankees have won just one World Series in the new millennium, which has given me plenty of chances to learn that lesson [The Red Sox have won four. - Charlie]. But the Steinbrenner Doctrine (named for George, the team’s bombastic late owner) lives on. It decrees any season that doesn’t end with a ring to be a failure. Plenty of fans still judge the team by this standard and aren’t afraid to tell you about it.
And let me tell you… that’s a shitty way to watch sports! In the film “Talladega Nights,” Ricky Bobby is famously given a mantra by his father: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” But later in the film, Ricky’s father corrects this mentality. “That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell you can even be fifth!” The championship or bust mentality is no fun because even if you do win the title, you were supposed to because you’re the Yankees. Plus, you’re simply not going to win like you did in the ‘60s and ‘90s anymore. And life is far too short and soul-crushing for me to let a team that is one of the final four left playing in October be deemed a “failure.”
Maybe 2024 is the year the Yankees finally get back on top. They are two wins away from their first pennant in 15 years, and it doesn’t even feel like they’re playing their best baseball yet. But for me, this season is already a success because of who I got to watch it with. I grew up going to the Bronx with my dad and uncle, attending countless Sunday home games and even a few incredible playoff games that I was too young to fully appreciate. Many of my best childhood memories took place in the upper deck of that rundown old stadium with them.
My dad had a major health crisis in January, and at one point I wondered if I’d ever get to watch a Yankee game with him again. He thankfully bounced back enough to get to the Bronx by the time the season rolled around, and I took in as many games with him as possible this summer. They won some, they lost some, it didn’t matter. So many things have changed since I was a doofy 9-year-old in a Chuck Knoblach jersey, but going to the stadium with my family is still magic. We went to a game in September against the hated Red Sox. Boston was up 4-0 and the Yankee bats seemed dead before Aaron Judge came to the plate with the bases loaded in the midst of one of the worst slumps of his career. The crowd rose to its feet and the stadium roared before he even saw a pitch. I thought to myself, whatever happens, I’m just happy to be here in this moment, in this place, watching this team with my pops again.
Judge hit a grand slam and the stadium erupted. I screamed so loud that I gave myself a headache and I didn’t even care. It was probably the best moment of the regular season, and I got to share it with my dad.
So if you hate the Yankees, I get it. If I wasn’t born into this, I probably would, too. But just remember — for every obnoxious fan who boos everyone and never stops complaining, there’s another diehard who just wants to watch another game with the person who made them a fan in the first place.
Jeremy Schneider is an Emmy-nominated food and culture reporter for NJ.com based in Jersey City, New Jersey. He has been canceled twice on Twitter, but only regrets the first time. Follow him on Twitter @J_Schneider and on Instagram @JeremyIsHungryAgain.
I just asked someone (wearing head to toe Yankees gear) in the lobby of an office building in Midtown to please tell me what these games are that everyone is talking about. So he sweetly outlined for me the wins and losses so far and what's left to play in the (now I know) World Series. I know NOTHING about sports clearly, but I am psychic and I will say confidently that that sweet guy is going to be happy with how this turns out. And you too, Jeremy!
I cannot wait for tomorrow night's first game of the World Series. Go Yanks!