Why Guardians fans hate the Yankees and why New York prefers it that way
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Yankees manager Aaron Boone bowed his head and tapped the crown of his cap.
He was pointing to baseball’s most polarizing crest. New York’s logo may have been MLB’s top pick at Lids last season, but it also inspired several thousand Clevelanders to chant “Yankees suck!” on Monday night.
Such is life in the pinstriped clubhouse. Win or lose, somebody’s celebrating. All because of Boone’s hat.
“New York,” Boone said, tapping his crown again. “Yankees. There’s a great following in that and a great interest in that. … And it’s one of the great things about getting to wear this uniform, getting to play day in and day out. It matters to a lot of people.”
Recommended Guardians stories
Boone’s proof lies in the Aaron Judge jerseys that dotted the concourse of Progressive Field during the Guardians’ 3-2 win over New York on Monday. Cleveland loves to boo Judge, just like it loved to boo Derek Jeter before him. But you wouldn’t know it from traversing the ballpark before first pitch.
Guards fan Zak Zevchik’s calls the annual invasion his least favorite part of Yankee privilege. He already considers the franchise “obnoxious” for forcing players to shave clean – “So corny,” Zevchik said -- and its fans “entitled” due to their long winning tradition. But the worst part about the Yankees?
“They’re everywhere,” Zevchik said. “… If I went to Yankee Stadium, I wouldn’t dislike those people – well, maybe. But I don’t like the people here because I know like 80% of them live here. That’s really annoying.”
Those nuisances often come with a story. Or, as Cleveland native (and Yankee supporter) Cam Sico called it, “my excuse.” Sico, an Ohio University student, grew up a Cleveland fan but changed allegiances once he started watching more baseball a few years back. He used his grandfather’s home borough – the Bronx – as his ticket onto New York’s bandwagon. And while Sico still claims to “like” the Guardians, he wore Yankee colors to Monday’s game.
“When I was getting back into baseball, I didn’t love baseball,” he said. “I was like, I’m gonna get back into it. I want to watch good baseball. I want the top-tier baseball.”
If top-tier was Sico’s goal, he found the right franchise. New York has won the most pennants (40), produced the most Hall of Fame players (27) and claimed the most World Series titles (27) in MLB history.
“Not only that, but we got money,” said Fabian Encarnacion, a native New Yorker. “Steinbrenner, he left that organization right.”
For teams like Cleveland, that’s the problem. The Guardians rank 25th on spotrac.com’s list of highest MLB payrolls (about $90 million) The Yankees rank second at $278 million, per spotrac, and have ranked no lower than 7th (and never behind Cleveland) since 1998, per stevetheump.com.
Those discrepancies breed envy and, among fans, bickering. Yankees reliever Michael King, who grew up a New York fan in Rhode Island, remembers his friends telling him that his favorite teams simply “bought” all of its championships.
“And then every time, I’d come back with: “How many World Series does your team have?” King said.
“Even if we cut our payroll, they’d still think of us as that big bad giant,” King continued. “Historically speaking, we’ve always had a big payroll and we have the most World Series. So I think that’ll always be the Yankees’ reputation.”
And that reputation will always rub opposing fans wrong, which Yankees ace Gerrit Cole learned as the son of two Yankees fans in Angels country (Orange County, California). With his ties to New York, Cole believed he couldn’t root against New York’s “core four” of Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite and Mariano Rivera.
“That’d be like growing up in Southern California and not being a Kobe fan,” he said.
But his loyalty still came at a price. Cole’s friends often trash-talked his favorite team. And in class, “If the teacher was an Angels fan, you weren’t getting called on,” Cole said.
The teacher would’ve been happy Monday night, watching Cole’s Yankees lose to a team that spends a third as much money on its roster. New York shouldbe beating teams like Cleveland, and when it doesn’t “That’s always fun,” said Guardians fan Patrick Gaertner.
Gaertner wants to see Cole and the Yankees in Cleveland again this postseason. He wants to beat them, then tell them, “Man, you guys really suck,” Gaertner said. “You got every (player) you wanted and look at what it did for you.”
So do 28 other fanbases. As Boone often tells his team, wearing the crest comes with pressure, expectations and enemies who chant “Yankees Suck!” when they beat you.
But fans like Sico say that the same fans jeering his favorite team are the same ones who text him wanting to grab tickets when New York comes to town. Players like Cole consider it a “blessing” that plays wearing a target that “demands another level of focus.” And when Boone tells his players about pressure, he reminds them to embrace it.
“We always say, Tuesday night in the middle of June, it matters,” Boone said. “And I think that’s the best and only way to do it. It can be heavy sometimes, but I think our player development organization does a really good job of preparing our guys, not only between the lines but getting them ready to be Yankees.
“That’s just part of it.”
If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-589-9966 or the National Council on Program Gambling Helpline (NCPG) at 1-800-522-4700 or visit 1800gambler.net21+ and present in Ohio. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
