I’ve added a link to Michael Aubrecht’s blog, Pinstripe Press Blog. Michael is a regular reader of this blog, and I’ve enjoyed interacting with him.
There are two reasons why I haven’t added his blog previously.
First, and foremost, it’s only partially about the Civil War, and the Civil War posts often delve into religion, an area that, to be very honest, holds very little interest for me. However, Michael has some good and interesting insights, and I think that it’s appropriate for me to share those with you since I read them myself.
Second, it’s in part devoted to the New York Yankees, the greatest team money can buy. As someone who firmly believes that George Steinbrenner is, without any doubt at all, THE single worst thing to ever happen to the game of baseball (which is one of the great loves of my life), I despise the New York Yankees with a deep and abiding passion exceeded only by my hatred for the Dallas Cowboys and George W. Bush, which makes them all pretty poor company no matter how you slice it. I have an absolute and inviolable rule: no matter how much I might like a player, the instant he joins the Yankees, I MUST hate his guts. Thus, I find myself hating Bobby Abreu, whom I loved when he wore a Phillies uniform, and Randy “The Big Unit” Johnson, who was one of my very favorite players for many years until he sold out and signed with the Yankees. I can’t support or endorse anything associated with the Yankees.
So, Michael, I’ve added you as a link in the blogs I like section, but that only applies to the Civil War portion. However, until you develop better taste in baseball teams, I can’t endorse that aspect of your blog. 🙂
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Gee, Eric, you sound like the average Detroit area sports fan.
Up here we take pride in hating the Yankees. The fact that
George Steinbrenner is a big fan of the Central Ohio Truck
Driving Academy only accentuates the dislike.
JFE
Nothing like the Yankees to stir up trouble! I have a Yankees fan in the office. The only thing that unites the south siders (White Sox) and north siders (Cubs) is their universal hatred of the Yankees.
Though a New Yorker, the last baseball team I rooted for was the old New York Giants (I still recall the Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff and the ‘shot heard round the world’ when Bobby Thompson hit Ralph Branca’s pitch into the seats in 1951!).
However, though I’m not a Yankees fan per se, I take issue with the complaint that the Yankees ‘buy’ their talent. To begin with, WHO DOESN’T? Every team is involved with ‘buying talent’ since the dawn of the era of player reps, agents and free agency. Gone (almost) are the days when teams developed their own talent through farm systems and held on to players for years.
Then, too, the Yankees have not always ‘bought’ their way into competition. At one time, Yankee GM George Weiss (I believe) upon leaving the team sold everyone but the bat boy and the franchise went into the toilet for quite a number of years. Secondly, this year the Yankees have lost a lot of first-string players to injuries but some of the ‘no-names’ they brought up have come through for them. Thirdly, the money made by the Yankees is spread through baseball either by virtue of revenue sharing or as the result of increasing the attendance of even marginal clubs when the team comes to town. No matter who the Yankees play, the stadium is usually sold out. Then there’s the fact that it is EXPENSIVE to do business in New York. Try it some time!
Finally, say what you want about Steinbrunner, he knows what has to be done and he does it. He puts money BACK INTO THE TEAM. I have learned that the owners who get money from the Yankees and other ‘producing’ teams don’t have to do that. They can simply pocket the money and let the franchise go belly-up. Frankly, Scarlett, that to my mind is called STEALING! Revenue sharing should only be permitted if the money from profitable teams that is given to unprofitable teams is used to make those teams profitable and NOT to line the pockets of the owners. Does Steinbrunner make money? Sure! That’s what he’s in business for. He ain’t in it for the ‘glory’ of the whole thing. Does he DESERVE to make money? Sure! How do I know? Because almost every game is sold out and that says that Yankee fans are happy with what he has done for and with the team.
Frankly, I have very little use for ‘sports’ of any kind – amateur or professional. Like my ‘hero’ John Mosby, I think that they are a waste of time, effort and money and nothing more than ‘mind candy’ – a sort of ‘bread and circuses’ to keep people’s minds blank. But if one likes athletics, then let’s be honest. Most ‘fans’ want to support a winning team – and nowhere is that sentiment more fundamental than it is here in New York, a city that has a VERY small tolerance for losers. And so, Mr. Steinbrunner does all that he can to give New Yorkers (who support his ‘enterprise’) what they want – a winner.
Jim,
LOL. I hear you.
Eric
Dave,
It just goes to show you that even the most vehemently opposed folks can find common ground. 🙂
Eric
Val,
With all due respect, just because Steinbrenner’s “the rich get richer” approach to the game makes the Yankee fans happy doesn’t make it good for the game. How can a small market team like the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Milwaukee Brewers ever hope to compete when they can’t afford to go out and spend outrageous and unwarranted sums of money on every free agent player to come down the pike? That is precisely the reason why I firmly believe that Steinbrenner is THE worst thing to ever happen to the game.
Eric
Eric thank you I am flattered. BTW: I started in this writing biz (6 years ago) as a baseball historian for Baseball-Almanac (a position that I still hold) and although you can still find me cheering for the Bronx Bombers of today – the majority of my affections, studies, and essays – have focused on the pinstriped players of days gone by. After all, even Rod Sox fans can’t say anything bad about Lou Gehrig.
A couple years ago, I did write a non-biased biography on “The Boss†entitled “George Steinbrenner: Leader of the Evil Empire†and funny enough, the MLB used a “shortened†version of it in the program at a banquet that was honoring him. My NY contacts said that he liked it, but I wonder if he ever read the full-length version. Your so-called “hatred†is not just shared between fans, in my experiences with the REAL old-timers, many of them cursed the Yankees in our conversations – not because of the payroll discrepancies, but more for getting their butts kicked by them again and again.
Anyway thanks for the link to my Blog – and you’re also invited to my website at: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/pinstripepress/. There’s plenty of my work on Confederates and oh yeah… the Yankees too.
And BTW: Billionaire Mark Cuban offered to buy into the Pittsburgh Pirates last year (he, like me is a Pittsburgh native) and they turned him down flat. Now, the heart of the steel-city always will belong to the Steelers, but Cuban would have written check after check to make the baseball team “financially competitive” on the field. Pittsburgh (BTW: all my family still lives there) has no one to blame but themselves. PNC is an absolutely beautiful ballpark (my father helped build it), but nobody there at an administrative level wants to invest the dough to put anything “worthy†in it. So I don’t feel sorry for my kinsmen at all. And no, I did not grow up a Pirates fan – I loved 2 players: Omar Moreno and John Candelaria and guess where they went… yeppers to the Yankees. I followed them and I’m glad I did.
Michael,
You’re welcome. I won’t hold your poor taste in baseball teams against you. 🙂
Since you’re a baseball historian, you’re probably familiar with the works of the father of one of my childhood friends. One of my oldest friends is a fellow named Mark Voigt. Mark’s father, Prof. David Quentin Voigt, was one of the original members of SABR, and wrote a fabulous three volume history of baseball. Some of my favorite memories were flipping through Prof. Voigt’s scrapbooks from the 1930’s and 1940’s.
As for Cuban: I can’t say that I blame anyone for turning him down. He has a well-established record and reputation for being one of the world’s biggest jerks–on a par with Steinbrenner, by the way–and, given his unacceptable NBA antics, who would want him?
I love baseball. I always will. I just despise the Yankees for everything that they stand for. And most of all, I despise Steinbrenner.
Eric
It isn’t Steinbrunner that’s the problem, it’s the system. When you pay people who play a game more money than most people receive in their entire earning lifetimes, something is wrong somewhere! Steinbrunner isn’t responsible for these immense salaries, he is just able to pay them. But that doesn’t ‘buy’ results! The Yankees did NOT win it all last year or the year before (I don’t remember what they did the year before that). If money made you a winner, they would have been World Series champs the last two years instead of the various colored ‘Sox”. They weren’t, so your argument is seriously if not fatally flawed.
Furthermore, owners who get money from teams like the Yankees might be able to pay for expensive players too – if they didn’t pocket the revenue but ploughed it (as does Steinbrunner) back into the team! On the whole, I’d rather pay to see a good team than an owner who’s milking the revenue sharing program for all it’s worth.
If what you want is mediocrity a la football, then put on salary caps. That would assure that NO team would have too many expensive players and nobody would ‘dominate’ the sport – although I cannot see any major league baseball team ‘dominating’ the sport for many years. We have had any number of teams in the World Series and not just the old reliables like the Yankees and the Dodgers. Some World Series winners have been from really poor baseball markets and the home field wasn’t sold out even for the October Classic. So, again, I think that your argument doesn’t hold water.
Frankly, as a New Yorker I think it’s a matter of ‘pin-stripe’ envy myself! 😀
Val
Bush is enough to loathe…So much to loathe.
Well said, Bud. Well said.
Eric