Eric Alterman on “Why it’s OK to Hate the Yankees” —
… I’d still not feel the slightest bit guilty about hating the Yankees and rejoicing in their misery. Am I a bad person? Perhaps but here are my reasons:
1. Steinbrenner.
2. Money. According to this ($) extremely useful analysis by the Wall Street Journal’s Allen St. John, the cost per victory of a team good enough to make the playoffs is approximately $900,000 per. The White Sox made the playoffs at just $759,373 per victory while the Angels paid $1.03 million. In the National League, the Cardinals managed at $862,685 per victory while the Astros ponied up $921,068. The Yankees, on the other hand (with its $208.3 million payroll) led the majors with a ridiculous $2.2 million per victory, which is seventy percent higher than that of the closest competitor, the Red Sox, at $1.3 million. To root for the Yankees, therefore, is to root for the power of the money, pure and simple. You might as well root for Citigroup…
#3. Double plAy-Rod. He should have signed with the Red Sox two years ago.
I may be one of the few people in this country who doesn’t think that Alex Rodriguez is paid too much for what he does. I could care less about his salary, in fact. He’s one of the best players in the majors today (and maybe ever). Just because he has a couple of bad games, he gets this much grief!?! Jeez.
On a team of good players, he had the highest batting average, slugging percentage, home runs, runs scored, and was second in on-base percentage. Seems to me that he is a lot of the reason that the team made it to the playoffs in the first place. He shouldn’t have to shoulder the load all the way through the playoffs also.
If he had signed with the Red Sox two years ago, last week would have been different. I think the Angels would have just beat the Red Sox in the ALDS and the Yankees wouldn’t have been playing at all.
Rodriguez is one of the true good guys and one of the real class acts in all of sports.
That said, he went 2 for 15 in the division series, had zero RBIs, committed a key error in game three that led to the tying run for the Angels, and left three runners on base in game five.
I hardly think A-Rod is a reason to hate the Yankees. He may be one of only a couple of reasons NOT to hate them. But he deserves every bit of blame currently being thrown at him for the Yankees’ loss. In a series that close, his failure to show up might very well have been the difference.
And not only that, but A-Rod was a shortstop before coming to the Yankees. He agreed to play third base so that Derek Jeter could remain at shortstop.
And Derek Jeter is one of the classiest guys in baseball.