Evil Empire and The NEW YORK YANKEES

          The New York Yankees are the most successful sports franchise in professional sports bar none. With twenty seven World Series titles in just over onehundred years the team has dominated the sport of professional baseball. With its history of unparalleled talent and success the Yankees have become the very image of dominance and power in the game of baseball. this legacy of dominance has lead to the greatest following of fans in the world as can be seen by the ubiquitous nature the NY logo ball cap. However the Yankee nation also has a very large contingent of individuals who are joined together in their simple hatred of everything Yankee. These people like many Americans dislike the unchecked power of a dominating force that seems to operate outside the rules of fairness and even simple mortality. Web pages are dedicated to the disparagement of the Yankee organization and people wear their hatred for the Yankees like a badge of honor. Not withstanding the pure success that the team has accomplished the means by which it has is reason for some of the hatred. The overall power and money that the Yankee organization has spent and continues to spend in the pursuit of Championships has turned many against the Yanks, and ownership like Steinbrenner has not helped their image at all. However I still wonder why the hatred for a team who is so successful could be so far reaching. Is it really a response to the money spent and the characters who have ran and played of the team over the past century or is it something diffrent altogether. By compiling the entirety if my wiki I believe that one can see that the efficiency that the Yankee organization has produced success is a direct reflection of the parameters of the American Dream and the capitalist system that the Dream is operated in. I contend that the hatred that is laid at the feat of the Yankee ball club is really a reaction to the fact that the "Yankees...symbolize among other things the fundamental unfairness and inequality of the capitalist system", and in the realm of sports where the real world is supposed to be supended the Yankees organization applies these real world strategies for success (Ritzer 279). The American past time is dominated by a team that much like the transnational corprations can afford to retool and adapt to insure continued success in their particular  business field.

          In an article by George Ritzer the idea of how the Yankee success is so abrasive to true America sensibilities is explored. Ritzer points out an aspect about the Yankees Organization that is more a physical manifestation  than a idealogical of the opposition toward the ideals of the American Dream. Ritzer points out how "the team itself is noted for its unemotional, businesslike approach to the game", and "on a day to day basis it too operates like a well oiled machine" (ritzer 282). I find that with the psychological aversion to the American Dream that the Yankees poses that this physical, and emotional aspect is also just as powerful to the baseball fan. By all intents and purposes the Yankees with their efficient ways and unparalleled success have created an image of inhuman characteristics that have created a divide between many fans and themselves. However this same system is what we as Americans have come to know as a blue print for wining and success and is what most would consider as a is a rational way to run a business, and a Ritzer explains "they appear to run the most highly rationalized, or in my terms McDonalaized, operation in major league baseball (Ritzer 282). Now the term McDonalized may seem to be a sort of insult on the surface, but it is impossible to argue with the success that the McDonald's franchise has and continues to have. The Yankees have in many cases been ridiculed for their successes. This brings me to another conclusion about the dislike of the Yankees and in other aspects the American obsession with the Underdog

         At any sports bar during any game one can here the saying "I'm rooting for the underdog", and it is know exactly what is meant by this. Many of those who proclaim their hatred for the Yankees use the excuse that their reasoning is based on wanting the "little guy" to win and topple the champ. Now variety being the spice one can understand the cry for a change, but the continued hatred of one particular team to fail still falls to some larger issue. In an article for Time magazine Joel Stein wrote about the deluded obsession of Americans with the underdog(84). Stein points to the fact that, "we are the country of crushing,, monolithic corporations--of McDonald's, Walmart" and that some "are so powerful we don't even know what they do" (84). The Yankees in my opinion are just another example of these large transnational powerhouses that comand the industry that they operate in. Those who chose to dislike the dominance of the Yankees in turn for the hope of an underdog is reacting to the actual unfairness of the American Dream. In reality to the actual system in place the "Yankees are the only [baseball] team that teaches the true story of our country, that might mixed with class, talent and hard work often breeds success" (stein 84).

         The Yankees with their superior management, unparalleled talent and premier business model has become the most revered and hated baseball team in the world all at once. It inspires hatred from the fans of cities like Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, but at the same time breeds envy among the same individuals because of its unmatched success. People have devoted entire websites like http://www.yankeehater.com  where people from all over the world come to bash the Yankee baseball franchise. This mass appeal of hating a singular organization must have some greater motovating factor other than just their success. Perhaps the fan of baseball and the meaning they place on an organization like the Yankees is really to blame. Maybe it is the city of which they represent or maybe the myths their players stand for, or maybe it is the dream that they expose as being not a dream but rather a formula that must be executed with precision and calculated emotionalises that inspires the vitriolic hatred they receive. 

The Real Reason

We Hate

the

Yankees