Yankee Steel
We wandered around the stadium a while before the game, and a nice Yankees fan offered to take a picture of us next to this big metal Yankees logo on wheels with Robin's telephone. So we allowed ourselves to be recorded cavorting with the enemy.
Here are some facts about the New York Yankees.
The Yankees began their existence in Baltimore in 1900 as one of the very first American League teams, and at first they called themselves the Orioles. There have actually been lots of teams that called themselves the Orioles. Things didn't go well for this first iteration of the Orioles, though, and in 1903 they pulled up stakes, moved north to the Bronx, and started calling themselves the Yankees. They built the first Yankee Stadium in 1922 and played there until 2008, when they moved north to this new version just across 161st Street from the first one.
The Yankees are the great behemoth of Major League baseball, the evil Empire, the home of Ruth made ruthless by his departure. They dominated the American League and baseball in general for much of the 20th century, and some would argue that they're the most successful franchise in history. They have the highest all-time winning percentage of any Major League team, and they have the most American League pennants and most World Series Championships. They've played in more World Series games than any other team, more than twice as many as their nearest competitor. They're the fourth-highest-valued sports franchise in the world and the richest team in baseball. Since baseball has no salary cap, this means they can poach the best players from all the other teams, and the greatest names in baseball that even non-fans know are mostly associated with the Yankees, people like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, A-Rod. Internet sources differ on how many Yankees are in the Hall of Fame, and I'm not going to go to the Hall of Fame web site and count, but everybody agrees more Hall of Fame plaques show Yankees caps than those of any other team.
Because of all this, the American public hates the Yankees. I've never figured it out, but for some reason, Americans don't like sports teams or individual players who win all the time. I don't get this, and I've long argued it shows the great hypocrisy at the heart of American culture. We value winning above all else, even God or flags or family, and we built a military machine that could fight and defeat all the other militaries in the world all at once with its aircraft carriers tied behind its back. And yet we hate winners. We whine about the Yankees and the Patriots and Simone Biles and LeBron and Jimmie Johnson. But I grew up a fan of a dominant dynasty team -- the University of Kentucky Mens College Basketball Wildcats still have the most wins in college basketball history (thanks to a little help from some recent malfeasance at Kansas) -- so I've always kind of liked the Yankees.
The Yankees haven't been great lately, though, and it's been 14 years since their last World Series championship. This isn't the longest championship drought in their history -- they went 18 years between 1978 and 1996, despite all the times George Steinbrenner fired Billy Martin -- but it's up there. And considering that between 1923 and 1962, they won every other series on average, this moment is kind of historic. They need to turn things around, but they weren't going to do it this season. They were, at this moment, in last place in the American League East standings, and had lost 9 of their last 10 games.
Yankee Steel
We wandered around the stadium a while before the game, and a nice Yankees fan offered to take a picture of us next to this big metal Yankees logo on wheels with Robin's telephone. So we allowed ourselves to be recorded cavorting with the enemy.
Here are some facts about the New York Yankees.
The Yankees began their existence in Baltimore in 1900 as one of the very first American League teams, and at first they called themselves the Orioles. There have actually been lots of teams that called themselves the Orioles. Things didn't go well for this first iteration of the Orioles, though, and in 1903 they pulled up stakes, moved north to the Bronx, and started calling themselves the Yankees. They built the first Yankee Stadium in 1922 and played there until 2008, when they moved north to this new version just across 161st Street from the first one.
The Yankees are the great behemoth of Major League baseball, the evil Empire, the home of Ruth made ruthless by his departure. They dominated the American League and baseball in general for much of the 20th century, and some would argue that they're the most successful franchise in history. They have the highest all-time winning percentage of any Major League team, and they have the most American League pennants and most World Series Championships. They've played in more World Series games than any other team, more than twice as many as their nearest competitor. They're the fourth-highest-valued sports franchise in the world and the richest team in baseball. Since baseball has no salary cap, this means they can poach the best players from all the other teams, and the greatest names in baseball that even non-fans know are mostly associated with the Yankees, people like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, A-Rod. Internet sources differ on how many Yankees are in the Hall of Fame, and I'm not going to go to the Hall of Fame web site and count, but everybody agrees more Hall of Fame plaques show Yankees caps than those of any other team.
Because of all this, the American public hates the Yankees. I've never figured it out, but for some reason, Americans don't like sports teams or individual players who win all the time. I don't get this, and I've long argued it shows the great hypocrisy at the heart of American culture. We value winning above all else, even God or flags or family, and we built a military machine that could fight and defeat all the other militaries in the world all at once with its aircraft carriers tied behind its back. And yet we hate winners. We whine about the Yankees and the Patriots and Simone Biles and LeBron and Jimmie Johnson. But I grew up a fan of a dominant dynasty team -- the University of Kentucky Mens College Basketball Wildcats still have the most wins in college basketball history (thanks to a little help from some recent malfeasance at Kansas) -- so I've always kind of liked the Yankees.
The Yankees haven't been great lately, though, and it's been 14 years since their last World Series championship. This isn't the longest championship drought in their history -- they went 18 years between 1978 and 1996, despite all the times George Steinbrenner fired Billy Martin -- but it's up there. And considering that between 1923 and 1962, they won every other series on average, this moment is kind of historic. They need to turn things around, but they weren't going to do it this season. They were, at this moment, in last place in the American League East standings, and had lost 9 of their last 10 games.