Sports fandom not unlike religion
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- October
- 6
In my new role as a GA reporter, I’ll be writing some features about the Yankees’ playoff run.
I have an article going tomorrow about…Yankee haters.
As a nearly life-long sports fan in New York, I know that the Yanks have a large and passionate fan base. But I also know that many baseball fans can’t stand the most prominent team in sports.
Many are Mets fans. Some are old Dodger fans. Most decry the arrogance of the Yankees and their fans. Not to mention the team’s fat payroll and all the free agents.
I thought it would be fun to let Yankee haters vent, so we put a few queries on LoHud and in the JN to find some “haters.”
The reaction reminded me oh so much of covering a conflict between religious traditions.
Not only were many Yankee haters truly over-the-top in denigrating the team they love to hate. But Yankee fans wrote to me to protest my desire to highlight what everyone knows is true: that many New Yorkers don’t like the Yanks.
Yankee fans wrote that I was trying to polarize New York at what should be a time of unity. Lighten up!
It’s like a Clash of Civilizations out there in baseball land.
Maybe I shouldn’t have used the word “haters.” How about non-Yankee fans?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 3:41 pm by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
