The Bronx Bombers

    Dating all the way back to the early 1900's, the American baseball team the New York Yankees have been one of the largest fandom's in baseball history. They have a long history of winning, constructing a successful and respectful organization, maintaining good sportsmanship, and most importantly having the best fans in baseball. Once becoming a Yankees' fan, that is something that stays with you for life. Loyalty is everything with these fans and it is very hard to take that away. 

   
Fans wearing pinstripes
with pride
An exciting feature to the Yankee's is their pinstriped home uniforms. Only 6 out of the 30  major league baseball teams wear pinstripes which makes the team and their jerseys unique. According to the nypost "The pinstripes were first added to the team’s jerseys in 1912 when the team was still known as the New York Highlanders. But after a 102-loss season, the stripes were ditched for the next two seasons. They were finally adopted for good in 1915." (Taylor). Fans originally were not to fond of the idea saying "it is weird" but as time went on, it's something fans started to go nuts for! The Yankee's soon got the nickname "The Pinstripes" and its been something that they still get called to this day. Along with other names such as "The Bombers // The Bronx Bombers", "The Bronx Zoo", "The Evil Empire", and lastly "The Yanks" which were all thought up by fans! 

Fans taking pictures 
in monument park
    The Yankee's organization also absolutely loves culture and is always finding ways to hold on to it. I believe this is one of the main reasons why the fan base is so huge. One form of culture the Yankee's have is retiring numbers of players that have had great success in the organization. The first person to have their number retired was Lou Gehrig (4) in 1939 and the most recent person being Derek Jeter (2) in 2017. Having your number retired is very special because it means that no other Yankee player will ever be able to wear that number. Not only that, but the number of the player gets hung up on the stadium walls know as "monument park" for everyone that attends the game to see. Unlike other baseball teams, the Yankee's do not put their last names on the back of their jerseys, therefore that number acts as an icon to everyone who views it. The Yankee's also happen to have the most amount of retired numbers at 22 in the major leagues right in front of the St. Louis Cardinals with only 12. This just proves how many great players the Yankee's have had in the past 100 years. 

    The most common way to participate in this fandom is by purchasing a ticket or watching them play on television. You can also keep up on all the latest Yankee's news by going to yesnetwork.com or by watching the yesnetwork on tv. This network is practically for Yankee's fans who want to know more and get a daily scoop of what is going on around the organization. If that isn't really your style, you can also follow the Yankee's on facebook, instagram, and twitter @yankees. This is a great way to be involved in the organization and allows you to obtain some behind the scenes type information. Currently the Yankee's have a combined 14.5 million followers across each platform with over 100,000 posts. 

    When people in society hear "The Yankees" they rather are diehard Yankee fan's or they hate the Yankee's. There usually is not an in-between unless they don't really follow baseball. One big factor of why the Yankee's are hated is because they have won 27 world championships. This may not seem to be a lot if you do not know much about baseball, however that is the most championships a single MLB team has ever won, followed by the St. Louis Cardinals with winning 11 world championships. After watching the Yankee's win year after year, sports fan start getting tired of seeing them win, especially when you are a fan of a team who has never won a world championship. 

Yankee's Player Expenses
Another big factor of why the Yankee's are one of the most hated teams is how much money the organization spends on their players. According to the New York Times, "The Yankees have a looser signing strategy. If they want a player, whether he’s theirs or someone else’s, they usually do what it takes to sign him." (Chass). Looking at the graph to the right, the Yankee's spent 253 million dollars on contracts for their players. That is an absurd amount of money to spend on contracts considering half of the 30 MLB teams pay less than 100 million dollars a year. It sort of makes sense why people say the Yankee's bought themselves the world championship. 

Despite all the negative things people have to say towards the Yankee's, the upside of the situation is, Yankee fans just do not care. It doesn't matter what you say or do because at the end of the day, the Yankee fans are the most loyal fans you will ever experience. Once a Yankee, always a Yankee, and after experiencing a live game, that is all the proof you need to understand that. 





References: 

Chass, Murray. “Yankees Use Economics to Their Advantage.” The New York Times, The New         York Times, 17 Nov. 2007,
       https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/sports/baseball/17chass.html.

Dovovan, Pete. “A Number of Nuggets about Retired Numbers around the Major League.” The            Desert Sun, Palm Springs Desert Sun, 16 May 2017,
          https://www.desertsun.com/story/sports/baseball/pete-
           donovan/2017/05/16/number-nuggets-retired-numbers-around-major-
           league/325373001/.

Hogg, Curt. “10 Reasons Why the Yankees Are America's Most Hated Team.” Bleacher Report,             Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/393399-10-
            reasons-why-the-yankees-are-americas-most-hated-team.

Taylor, Alex. “The Yankees Are Giving up on a Century-Old Tradition.” New York Post, New                 York Post, 10 Aug. 2017, https://nypost.com/2017/08/10/the-yankees-are-giving-up-                on-a-century-old-tradition/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iJN4YFBKF0&ab_channel=KyleKondor


    


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jordan Rivers - The Natural Grouch Face

Image
Jordan Rivers The Natural Grouch Face     My father seems like a very stern man, but he truly is kind. Every time I see him, his face is stiff and looks almost as if he's glaring all the time. When near him, it's almost as if the wind near him gets colder and colder. Even so, behind that cold and strong look is a caring, kind, and a sarcastic joker.      On a warm, calm day during spring, my father and I decided to go to the mall to get me some more clothes. I look over at him and see him with his usual stiff, stern, annoyed face.     "Yo, Dad?" I asked hesitantly. "You good?" I've been with him since morning and I have not seen anything that would have made him upset.     "Yeah, Scrap, I'm chilling." He replies. "Want me to start yelling to make you feel better?" He says jokingly. I knew he wasn't lying since he used my nickname. He usually says my actual name when he's bothered.       He's the type of person that cha...
Read more

The Star Wars Fandom

Image
The Star Wars Fandom      Star Wars is perhaps one of the most popular and successful franchises of all time. Even if someone doesn't know much about Star Wars, the name is still recognizable and exposure to some sort of Star Wars media is almost inevitable. The Star Wars franchise is a collection of movies, TV shows (Figure 1), comics, and videogames that all take place in a galaxy far, far away and tells a connected story over a long period of time. The main storyline is referred to as the Skywalker Saga, stretching through nine movies in order from episodes one to nine, telling the tales and struggles of the force wielding Jedi, Sith, and Skywalker family. It's popularity exploded in 1977 when the first ever Star Wars film, A New Hope, debuted in theatres and kickstarted the Skywalker Saga. Despite the initial low expectations and many issues while filming, A New Hope ended up being one of the most successful movie releases to date. As more Star Wars movies and shows...
Read more

Miley Cyrus Fandom

Image
The Smilers Figure 1: Miley from a recent photoshoot   I have been a fan of Miley Cyrus ever since I was very young. I remember feeling a rush of pure excitement whenever watching her TV show, Hannah Montana. Later on in life, after her show TV ended, I found myself continuing to love everything that she did, whether it was music or starring in a movie. Over the years, not only has she become my all time favorite artist but someone that I admire and look up to. Miley Cyrus  started to gain a fanbase when she was very young.  She played as Hannah Montana /Miley Stewart in a popular TV show called Hannah Montana. According to Wikipedia,  Hannah Montana first aired in March of 2006 and received 5.4 million viewers (2021).This show was watched by many young people and she quickly gained a fanbase as Hannah Montana. Later, beyond the show, she began to release music as herself, Miley Cyrus. This is when she gained her fanbase called the Smilers. Her fanbase...
Read more