The Biggest Misconception in Sports

(I know we've slipped a bit of late, but no longer. AFOMG will be back tomorrow, Cheddar on Friday and then starting next week we will back to our usual Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule)

I'm just back from another stop on the Sip World Tour: a 3 week cross country chop from Los Angeles to New York via Phoenix, Odessa, Dallas, Norman, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

It was a heck of a run, with stops at eight different ballparks, highlighted by my always favorite Wrigley Field and new favorite (of the modern parks) - PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

I returned to the city a week after A-Rod decided to "Strike a Pose" feeling different. I think spending time in so many different places just does that to you.

People buy homes for what we pay to rent a toilet seat.

There are roads where you can't see civilization for what seems like an eternity. There was a time in West Texas where I saw this beautiful mountain ahead of me. I laughed four hours later when I finally passed it.

I realized that so much of what makes up a New Yorker is dictated by what New Yorkers are "supposed" to be. We grow so convinced that we are the way we are portrayed in movies and news that we convince ourselves that we are something we most likely are not.

I arrived at the corner of 80th and Broadway yesterday and the light was red.

Yet people were crossing the street, j-walking. When a car came, people didn't spot. It was a short cross walk, no more than 20 feet and people just scampered along.

Naturally, I did the same thing.

I knew it was wrong. My light was red. There was a car waiting to go through and the driver was rightfully upset.

But I did it anyway.

I did it because I'm a New Yorker and in New York in this case doing "wrong" is "right."

I wouldn't do what I did elsewhere. But I did it here.

New York dictated my actions. It was the New York Way.

* * * * *

Over the last 15 years, there is another group of New Yorkers that have been told that they are something that they are not.

15 years ago these people were non-exsistent, a pariah in the fancy world that is New York City society.

Today, they "are" the cream of the crop. Nothing has changed except their surroundings.

Yet they have emerged as the best of the best.

I truly enjoyed the All-Star festivities.

Josh Hamilton at the home run derby almost had me in tears. That's right, all you ladies looking for a sensitive blogger, I'm talking tears.

I cry at weddings, at the end of Rudy and I guess when a recovering drug addict makes the game's greats look like children.

I thought the All-Star game itself was awesome as well. I stayed up into the early hours of the morning to watch my main man Nate McClouth emerge as a potential hero only to see the American League take yet another All-Star game.

So many studs from my bottom half payroll league emerging on America's stage.

Seeing Cliff Lee throw against Ben Sheets, I got excited.

I saw a lot.

But you know who didn't:

THE GREATEST FANS IN BASEBALL.

I got a text from my buddy, a diehard O's fan in the 13th inning saying:

"Where did all the diehard Yankee fans go?"

I laughed.

The crowd was about 30% full.

People had spent hundreds of dollars for seats for a once and a lifetime opportunity only to leave when the game was... getting exciting.

Ladies and Gentlemen, "the greatest baseball fans in the world."

* * * * *

I don't mind all the press Yankee stadium has received. In the history of the game, no place has housed more legends, champions or Hall of Famers.

What I do mind is that lumped into the Babe Ruth's and the rings and the history are the Yankee fans.

In 1995, the Yankees averaged 23,521 fans per game.

In 2007, they averaged 52,510 fans per game.

What happened between then and now that made Yankee fans so much more "passionate?"

Why between then and now did Yankee Stadium go from being a more than half empty shithole to the home of baseball's biggest diehards?

The answer is pretty simple.

The Yankees became the Yankees.

With success on the field and the emergence of Derek Jeter off it, the Yankee name grew. Everything about the organization got bigger and the Yankees began to transcend baseball into the world of popular culture.

From there, Yankee fans jumped on board what we in sports call a "bandwagon."

And over the last 10 years Yankee fans have emerged as the game'"greatest."

And it all comes down to one simple thing:

Money.

Make the fans happy and its more money in everyone's pockets.

Tell them they are the game's "classiest" even when they threaten Jonathan Papelbon's wife at a celebratory parade.

Tell them that they are the game's most "passionate" and watch 70% of them leave a once and a life time game early.

Tell them that they are the most "knowledgable" and watch them boo their own team in crucial spots of a game whose outcome could eventually effect their playoff fate.

* * * * *

Yankee fans are the "best" because baseball wants them to be the best. The happier the fans, the more money in the owners' pockets.

Players talk about how great the fans are because otherwise the media and thus the people will hate them.

And like other things in New York, Yankee fans have actually grown to believe all of this.

When I crossed the street at that red light I was wrong. Yet as a New Yorker, I was very much right.

And just because Yankee fans are told they are the greatest fans in the game, does not mean it is true.

It couldn't be further from it.

And shockingly, this pisses me off.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of Cnn.com, paran.com, slower.net)