How much do you hate the Yankees?

[Al Zarilla]

All of those were before my time. The Yankees previous World Series appearance happened months before I was born. I knew about the Yankees, sure, but they were no different to me than any other opponent the Sox faced. The Orioles, A's, and Tigers (to a lesser extent) were the behemoths of the AL at that time.

OK. My first following of the Sox was in the 50s, and I was the kid who could recite all of their batting averages, including subs to relatives when they came over. I quickly learned about Frazee selling Ruth to the Yanks, so I immediately hated him and the Yanks at the same time.

 

[Van Everyman]

I’m gonna to confess at this point that I have totally lost track of what is true or not about the Frazee/No-No Nanette aspect of the Curse. Was it that the musical happened a lot later and Frazee needing the money bc his girlfriend was in some terrible musical wasn’t actually part of the whole transaction?

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

I’m gonna to confess at this point that I have totally lost track of what is true or not about the Frazee/No-No Nanette aspect of the Curse. Was it that the musical happened a lot later and Frazee needing the money bc his girlfriend was in some terrible musical wasn’t actually part of the whole transaction?

Yeah, the No No Nanette connection to the Ruth trade is total bunk. The truth was that Frazee hadn't yet completed the purchase of the team and had a payment come due right around the same time that he decided to move Ruth. The sale of Ruth enabled him to complete the purchase of the team, finance a smaller lesser known play called My Lady Friends, and with a $300,000 loan from the Yankees, buy Fenway Park too (it wasn't part of the original sale). The only connection No No Nanette had to any of it came years later when the proceeds Frazee made from the Broadway production enabled him to pay off the mortgage on Fenway.

 

[nighthob]

How much do I hate the Yankees? I wish the Soto thread tax discussions upon their fan base.

 

[nighthob]

Yeah, the No No Nanette connection to the Ruth trade is total bunk. The truth was that Frazee hadn't yet completed the purchase of the team and had a payment come due right around the same time that he decided to move Ruth. The sale of Ruth enabled him to complete the purchase of the team, finance a smaller lesser known play called My Lady Friends, and with a $300,000 loan from the Yankees, buy Fenway Park too (it wasn't part of the original sale). The only connection No No Nanette had to any of it came years later when the proceeds Frazee made from the Broadway production enabled him to pay off the mortgage on Fenway.

Weirdly the Yankees and Red Sox nearly traded cities a year or two later (Jacob Ruppert was interested in Fenway Park and letting Frazee deal with New York stadium issues). It would have been weird to grow up a Yankees fan.

 

[teddywingman]

YED is still my favorite day of the year, and game 5 was glorious. But I certainly don't hold the hatred that burned between the Offerman fantom tag and game 7, 2004.

 

[bob burda]

All of those were before my time. The Yankees previous World Series appearance happened months before I was born. I knew about the Yankees, sure, but they were no different to me than any other opponent the Sox faced. The Orioles, A's, and Tigers (to a lesser extent) were the behemoths of the AL at that time.

Your earlier post is a narration of my early fandom, starting as an 8 yr old in ‘71, and then it closely follows the contours of Gammons’ “Beyond the Sixth Game” take on that specific time frame. I think you nail it in how the Orioles, and for a little while the Tigers, were a much bigger problem than the MFYs then - that is, if you were born into that early 70’s reality, the historic MFY domination of the Sox and the rest of the league didn’t really register.

That quickly flipped - as a young Sox fan, I adored the ‘75 team that had redeemed us from the ‘72 rip off and the ‘74 collapse, maybe as much for what they accomplished as what they seemed to promise (almost all the ‘75 standout position players were 26 yrs old or less). But ‘76 was a brutal dose of reality and the beginning of the MFYs as the MFYs - and then the disasters that followed after ‘76 could only be redeemed by something as anomalous as ‘04.

Which is another way of saying I have a lifelong “baseball fan stress disorder” on seeing those pinstripes. Today it is completely under control and no longer triggers my snarling at them as they appear on screen, or bellowing “thaaaaaah Yankees lose” with venom when they fail, but I will always hate them with a passion for preventing the core of my childhood heroes team from getting to another WS, and for eliminating the 2003 team, which along with the ‘77 and ‘04 teams, was maybe the most lovable of Sox teams of the last 50 yrs.

 

[AMS25]

I would like to say that I don't hate Yankee Fans. I hate the Yankee Organization with its ridiculous facial hair policy, its refusal to establish a meaningful mascot, and its endless ball-washing of True Yankees, past and present.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Just another of the many ways I hate the Yankees: I hope at some point one of their players shits his pants on live TV on a highly televised game. Preferably a pitcher. And not like a "shart". Explosive diarrhea that completely seeps through and soaks the entire back of his pants. With enough volume that they grounds crew has to come out and there's a delay of game.

 

[Otis Foster]

I would like to say that I don't hate Yankee Fans. I hate the Yankee Organization with its ridiculous facial hair policy, its refusal to establish a meaningful mascot, and its endless ball-washing of True Yankees, past and present.

You don’t hate Yankee fans? Do you kiss your mother with a mouth like that?

 

[Didot Fromager]

But ‘76 was a brutal dose of reality and the beginning of the MFYs as the MFYs - and then the disasters that followed after ‘76 could only be redeemed by something as anomalous as ‘04.

There’s a prehistory here. I grew up with my father still bitter over Joe D winning two MVPs that Ted should have won and he’d get more upset over ‘49 than ‘48. And it didn’t help that in both pennants were lost because of questionable decisions by Joe (ex MFY) McCarthy.
My father would never use the phrase MFY but he’d usually pause for a beat and swallow before uttering the word “Yankees.”

 

[pedro1918]

Runner up: Luis Gonzalez hitting that flare piece of shit off of Rivera in 2001. This was only a few weeks after 9/11 and the entire fucking universe wanted me to be cheering for the Yankees. In that moment, I realize exactly how deep my hatred ran.

Whenever you see highlights of that Series, inevitably, someone says something like “and everyone was rooting for New York.”

And I say to myself “Well, not everyone!”

 

[8slim]

Whenever you see highlights of that Series, inevitably, someone says something like “and everyone was rooting for New York.”

And I say to myself “Well, not everyone!”

Bingo. People said we needed to go on with our lives after 9/11, and to me a big part of the return to normalcy was hating the Yankees. Too bad the Mets didn't make the Series that year, I would've pulled for them.

 

[AMS25]

You don’t hate Yankee fans? Do you kiss your mother with a mouth like that?

Who could hate Jon Abbey, terrynever, Wingack, cromulence, etc.? To be sure, they are wiser than the Average Yankee Fan. But, it's my belief that they were socialized at a young age to follow the wrong team.

 

[ookami7m]

Who could hate Jon Abbey, terrynever, Wingack, cromulence, etc.? To be sure, they are wiser than the Average Yankee Fan. But, it's my belief that they were socialized at a young age to follow the wrong team.

You don’t blame people who are born into a cult for being cult members.

 

[Shaky Walton]

Someone on SoSH once wrote “the Yankees could be 0-161 and if they won the last game, a little part of me would die inside.” That sums up where I’m at. I hate them with the fire of a billion suns snd their entitled fanbase even more. 2004 was incredible in so many ways, including because the MFYs were so humiliated, but it did nothing to reduce my Yankees hatred.

And yes, you CAN hate Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera!

 

[Dewey'sCannon]

Your earlier post is a narration of my early fandom, starting as an 8 yr old in ‘71, and then it closely follows the contours of Gammons’ “Beyond the Sixth Game” take on that specific time frame. I think you nail it in how the Orioles, and for a little while the Tigers, were a much bigger problem than the MFYs then - that is, if you were born into that early 70’s reality, the historic MFY domination of the Sox and the rest of the league didn’t really register.

That quickly flipped - as a young Sox fan, I adored the ‘75 team that had redeemed us from the ‘72 rip off and the ‘74 collapse, maybe as much for what they accomplished as what they seemed to promise (almost all the ‘75 standout position players were 26 yrs old or less). But ‘76 was a brutal dose of reality and the beginning of the MFYs as the MFYs - and then the disasters that followed after ‘76 could only be redeemed by something as anomalous as ‘04.

Which is another way of saying I have a lifelong “baseball fan stress disorder” on seeing those pinstripes. Today it is completely under control and no longer triggers my snarling at them as they appear on screen, or bellowing “thaaaaaah Yankees lose” with venom when they fail, but I will always hate them with a passion for preventing the core of my childhood heroes team from getting to another WS, and for eliminating the 2003 team, which along with the ‘77 and ‘04 teams, was maybe the most lovable of Sox teams of the last 50 yrs.

I'm about five years older than you and I grew up in Poughkeepsie, among mostly Yankee fans. The Yankees were pretty bad by the time I started watching baseball in the mid-60s, and the Mets didn't start to get interesting until Seaver came on board in '67 and Koosman in '68. But by that time I had latched onto the Red Sox and Yaz-mania since I had relatives near Worcester who were Sox fans. (I did adopt the Mets as my second team in '69, and am married to a Mets fan, although that came several years after '86).

So there was no real reason for me to hate the Yankees until 1976, when George Steinbrenner started buying players after the advent of free agency. And it didn't help that a couple of my brothers jumped on the Yankees bandwagon around that time. '78 only made the rivalry, and the hatred, grow. I still hate the Yankees just as much, in part due to the smugness that is displayed by much (but not all) of their fanbase, which TBH includes a lot of frontrunner/casual fans/those attracted to rooting for the "most popular" team. I hope they finish last every year.