OT - Granderson gets emotional discussing trade/ return to play Tigers in May (VIDEO)
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The Yankees seem to be "in the running" whether they are or not, with every major free agent when trade rumors begin circulating. Fans of smaller market clubs see them as the team with the checkbook poised to pick up their favorite franchise player whose jersey they just paid big money to sport around.Numbers, sir. The organization, with the YES Network and the sales of merchandise, and regular season games that each bring in more sales than most teams make in the playoffs -- they are flush when compared to almost every other team. They are on a different financial plane; percentage-wise, they commit less of their total income to payroll. This alone isn't what bothers other fans. It's how those players get treated when they get to New York. What happens when Granderson goes on one of his strikeout streaks in New York? What kid in the Bronx is going to pick a .280 line-drive hitter for their favorite player when the roster is already chock full of Hall of Famers. My kid could have been a Granderson fan, like I was a Trammell fan and my dad was a Kaline fan and his dad was a Greenberg fan and his dad was a fan of Wahoo Sam.
The media makes it seem like money is never an option for the Yankees while discussing it frequently regarding FAs going to other teams (jealousy?).New rule: any argument that starts with "The media" gets an automatic /facepalm. "The Media" is gigantic, and couldn't get together to agree on the color of pinstripes. "The Media" includes bloggers and magazine writers and writers for local rags and the L.A. Times and supermarket tabloids. Jeff Passan makes it seem like money is never an option for the Yankees while discussing it frequently with other teams. I'm sure there are plenty of others. The problem you're referring to is oversimplification by national sports columnists of the "different financial plane" thing described above.
They built a dynasty and most sports fans have trouble rooting for dynasty teams and look for the underdog upset. The fans that root for the dynasty teams when they have no real connection to the club (from the city, family from the city or otherwise) tend to enrage fans of other clubs.This isn't true. Fans love dynasties. They go nuts for dynasties. They are intrigued by dynasties. This is one of those juvenile "I hate them because I really love them" things. Sports fans have an affinity to great teams. Look how Joe Montana and his 49ers, or the Yankees of the 1920s and 30s, etc., are used to promote their sports today. Do you think Tiger fans in '45 were rooting for Joe DiMaggio's streak? At the time, they hated on it like mad bastards. Today, an entire nursing home in Detroit perks up at mention of the Streak. Another example: how much Michigan hatred is out there? Yet we still find Wolverine fans all across the country. Guys who grew up in the middle of Ohio come to Michigan and become the next great Michigan men. How much did people really hate USC these last few years? We called them the evil empire, but search your soul and then tell me if you weren't secretly happy to have watched Reggie Bush in your lifetime? That's not to say we're all secretly Yankee fans. But underdog rooting is not something you see in serious sports fans; it's more common in women than men, actually. We were discussing this effect at the Wings' game last week against the Kings. I was sitting next to two people from Toronto -- big Leafs fans -- and they remembered every guy from the '90s teams. Now, a Leafs fan is supposed to hate the Red Wings, right? That shit doesn't last; today they remember Sergei Fedorov in his prime, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, et al. I mentioned to them that my feelings had changed on Joe Sakic -- I used to hate him, I mean HATE him, but now I can't wait to gush about his stickhandling skills when he enters the Hall of Fame. And both me and the Torontoan also realized that we could name every Avalanche of the late-'90s, but only a few Avs of today. The fans who really hate the Yankees are those who have teams that can compete on their level. That's where great rivalries come from. Michigan and Ohio State is like that -- Iowa fans care because you're watching two titans. Yankees-Red Sox is like that too -- baseball fans will tell you they're as sick of "Red Sox Nation" as they are of Yankee fans, but almost every baseball fan can name either teams' starting lineups. In sports fandom, attention is the key, not buying a jersey.
Steinbrenner. I mean he's as polarizing a figure as they get.And a Buckeye. Nuff said.
There are plenty others. I personally like Jeter, he's a class act, and I think with his clubhouse influence Granderson should continue his work in the NYC community as he has in Metro Detroit. I'll pick him up and root for him on my fantasy team, but as for the rest of the pinstripers I say ... Go Sox baby!What's classy about Jeter? He's a party boy. He's also a great baseball player. And what clubhouse influence can Granderson have? Is A-Rod going to change anything about how he approaches the game because of Curtis? Will Jeter? Or Posada? Or Teixeira? Granderson is there to be windowdressing and to play centerfield. He won't affect the clubhouse one iota. It's not his team. It will never be his team. He was a White Sox fan growing up and a Tiger coming up, and -- here's what Yankee fans never understand -- Curtis's heart will always be in the Midwest. You go to New York for the paycheck. You put your soul aside. And that's why guys never play as well for the Yankees as they did. That's why Yankee fans are always scratching their heads, wondering why A-Rod isn't the absolute best player who ever lived, or why Teixeira seems to play so much tighter, or why Giambi isn't hitting the ball like he used to, or why Godzilla doesn't jump up and down when he hits a homer. When among a collection of stars, when living under the heat lamps, when your fans expect hot streaks to last forever and Championships or disappointment, you lose some of that attenuation to the game that fans really identify with. Think of how you felt about Mike Hart. Remember that rush when he just wouldn't go down, even if 3 Big Ten linebackers and a safety were already on him? That only happens when the player and the fans are both enchanted by the game. Hart can't be that guy to the Colts. He could only be that guy in college, and be appreciated for it by his fans in college. Likewise, the chord that Granderson struck could have only been struck in Detroit. He could be a great player in New York -- that pinball machine they play in will help those pulled fly balls turn into homers -- but he won't move a city again like he did when he robbed that home run in Cleveland. This, in the end, is what fans really hate about the Yankees -- not only do we lose those guys we rooted for, but they lose their luster. It's a waste. Ask Oakland what they felt like when Giambi became a benchwarmer, disappointment, and roider in the New York lights. What did he really lose? The mustache? The chemicals? What Giambi lost when he switched coasts was that swing -- the way he would turn on a baseball like a kid being thrown his first pitch. Giambi was a thing to behold in Oakland. He played the game differently -- the way Granderson played it in Detroit, the way Hart played football in Ann Arbor. A-Rod in Seattle was the same way. He was still young enough that he thought he had to justify his hype, and though his hitting wasn't nearly as precise then, his fielding was out of this world -- he would get to balls and turn them and it was beautiful. He couldn't take that to Texas, or to New York. When a player is feeling the game, fans identify with that. That thing is lost when a player goes to New York. I was talking to Juan Berenguer during the extra innings of last year's play-in game between the Twins and Tigers. I asked him which team he most identifies with -- since he won the World Series with both. He didn't think about it -- it was as a Tiger. He said he loved his Twin teammates, has more friends from those years left, and the Twins, at the time, were a better organization to play for. But there's nothing like playing in '84, let alone being the rookie sensation of that team, and the way the fans were in it with him. That's not exactly what he said -- his English still isn't great -- but that was the gist. The gist of that story: players feed off of fan love. Twins fans -- who are EXCELLENT fans btw -- didn't feel Juan B like Detroit did. Ben Wallace was a great defender when he went to Chicago. He wasn't the player he had been in Detroit. Allen Iverson outside of Philadelphia is what? A selfish player whose teams lose. Jack Johnson out of Ann Arbor is a defenseman out of position. When you look at it that way, the Yankees are an abomination. They grab a guy that made all of Oakland or Seattle or Detroit happy, and who in turn fed off of that love to play the game better, and plug him in. They take the talent, but they lose the soul, which simply dies. Maybe Granderson will re-sign in Detroit when three years in New York end with no championships and a season hitting .250 with too many strikeouts brings out the boo birds and screws up his confidence. But the thing that made him a Tiger, that thing is gone. The great is gone. Fans only have room in their hearts for one guy like that per sport at a time, and Jeter is that guy in New York, even if A-Rod is better at playing baseball, and ultimately Granderson is the better man.
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