Why do fans root for a specific team?
Is it a generational thing? “My grandfather and father were Yankee fans, so that’s who I root for.” “My dad was a Yankees fan, so I root for the Mets, just to piss him off.”
So if a team decides to change its look, would that make a difference? Several clubs now have City Connect togs; in some cases, more than one version. The cynic in me thinks it’s just another way to make money.
The Dodgers recently added a corporate name to their home park: Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium. That kind of rattled some traditionalists who bemoan the selling out. There are a handful of teams that have retained their fields’ names through the years, including Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Yankee Stadium. What team is steeped in tradition more than the Yankees?
According to this article on the Sports Illustrated website, “The Yankees are the only team in MLB to never wear names on the backs of their jerseys, and they’re also the only team never to wear a regular alternate uniform.”
Not so fast.
The Yankees are considering a new look. Which translates into a new way to extract more cash from their fans from their fans.
From the SI article:
According to a Wednesday report from Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, Yankees players recently pitched organizational higher-ups on wearing an alternate jersey — their navy and gray batting practice/spring training tops — for the first time in franchise history.
OMG!
Naturally, not everyone is happy about this. Chris Kirschner at The Athletic believes “Yankees’ alternate jerseys would be another damaging dent to storied tradition.”
What would George Steinbrenner say? For that matter, what would Jerry Seinfeld say?
There’s a great book, Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century: The Official Major League Baseball Guide, by Marc Okkonen, which came out in the early 1990s, so that needs an update. (Todd Radom offers a more opinionated take in Winning Ugly: A Visual History of Baseball’s Most Unique Uniforms.)
The Hall of Fame offers this Uniform Data Base, based on Okkonen’s work, but it does not include City Connect or alternate unis.
In an amazing case of timing, I just received this: VegasInsider.com has updated its analysis of the most foul-mouthed MLB fandoms, analyzing over 1 million comments from the subreddits of all 30 MLB fandoms to find out which fans are the most polite and on the contrary, which fandoms are the most foul-mouthed. Additionally, the analysis also uncovered which MLB fandoms are the most positive and which fans are the most negative. You can find that study here.
A synopsis:
“An analysis of 1.264 million MLB fan comments found the Athletics to be the most foul-mouthed fandom, with 6.03% of their fan comments containing swear words, marking the second consecutive year they ranked #1 in this category. The Boston Red Sox placed second with 5.114% of their comments containing swear words, followed by the Los Angeles Angels as the third most foul-mouthed fandom with 5.106% of their comments including profanities.
In terms of sentiment, the Boston Red Sox ranked as the most negative fandom, with 27.6% of their fan comments classified as negative. The Athletics were in second place since 26.61% of their fan comments were classified as negative, while the New York Yankees ranked as the third most negative fandom with 26.47% negative comments.
At the other end of the scale, the St. Louis Cardinals were found to be the most polite fandom since only 3.13% of their fan comments included swear words, followed by the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals as the second and third most polite fandoms. The Colorado Rockies turned out to be the most positive fandom since 46.45% of their comments had a positive sentiment, followed by the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals.”