Are Mavs, Magic and Yankee Fans Stupid??

[mary]

Yankee fans are stupid

By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist

Of all the lessons I didn't expect to learn in a uniquely unsatisfying visit to the Bronx this week, here's the first that jumps to mind: Yankee fans are stupid.

I don't mean that in any negative way. It's just an incontrovertible fact, and given all the enviable success of that storied franchise, you have to shake your head at the colossal waste.

How else but raw stupidity to explain why the loudest spontaneous ovation in Wednesday night's 3-to-1 pitcher's duel came when the Jumbotron in right-center field showed a live-shot of Jack Nicholson wearing a Yankee hat in the front row?

Think about that. Jon Lieber pitches the game of his career, and good-guy John Olerud hits a decisive homerun. But what really gets the crowd going is that an aging actor took time away from his splashy courtside seats with the Los Angeles Lakers to see and be seen in New York.

By the way, I use the word spontaneous because most ovations are not. Rather, they're prompted by the message flashing on multiple scoreboards, ''Make Some Noise!!!" That's followed by a cartoon of clapping hands, as if the locals might not be sure how to comply on their own.

And that's followed by the spectators looking down at their own hands as they smack them together. You can all but see the thought bubbles sprouting over their heads: ''Am I doing this right?"

The disappointing truth is that going to Yankee Stadium isn't much different than heading to an NBA arena in a city like Orlando or Dallas, except everyone here looks like Joey Buttafuoco or Gordon Gekko. Someone should tell these people that the 80s and early 90s, never that good to begin with, are over. These fans, such as they are, need to be entertained by something other than the most successful franchise in the history of baseball. So the Yankee organization throws in the kitchen sink. The grounds crew dances to the song ''YMCA." In a videotaped spelling bee on the Jumbotron, a fan is asked -- and I'm not making this up -- how to spell Jeter. Every time the home team draws a walk, the scoreboard shows a caricature sashaying down to first base.

Between innings, they broadcast trivia games with individuals picked out of the stands. One guy was asked, ''Who's nicknamed the Chairman of the Board?" The entire stadium fell into shocked but appreciative silence when he got it right, on the second try.

But, hey, everybody, ''Make Some Noise!!!"

Compare that to Fenway Park, where we fill the scoreboard with statistics, not cartoons, and at any given time during any given game, most of the crowd is thinking, ''Millar needs to work the count, " or ''The humidity should help Wakefield's knuckler." A Yankee fan in the same situation is thinking, ''The humidity is making my hair frizzy," or ''Maybe they'll show Jack Nicholson again."

Yet they win, we lose, at least until now. How easy it must be to root for New York. You cheer when told, you guzzle $9 bottles of beer hawked at your seat, and usually you claim victory. The lesson learned is that you can buy your way into anything in life, whether it be Babe Ruth or Alex Rodriguez or too many World Series titles to relive here.

True story: I'm standing outside the stadium wearing a Red Sox cap at the end of Wednesday night's loss. A guy in full Yankee regalia sidles up and says: ''I know how you feel. I was a Mets fan until the 2000 World Series," the one where the Yankees beat the Mets as a nation slept. ''The next year, we switched over to the Yankees. Why make it hard on my young son?"

Why make it hard on him? There was a good answer in there somewhere about the lessons of undying loyalty, unfulfilled expectations, unending patience, and maybe loving the game for the sake of the game. But in the depths of a fresh defeat, I couldn't think of it.

And so we come home to Fenway, somehow superior, even when we're not.

[mary]

I've never been to Yankee Stadium, but there's something to be said about the "dumbed-down" environment at the AAC. I don't know if Cuban would ever consider toning things back at bit, but dumping Billy Hayes would be an immediate improvement.

[Chiwas]

Mavs, Magic and Yankee Fans are Stupid

Please, use apostrophes, or else.

[mary]

Originally posted by: Chiwas

Please, use apostrophes, or else.

What's wrong Chiwas....did Wakefield give you nightmares last night [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[Male30Dan]

I THINK he was referring to the grammer within the article and then the writer calling Yankee Fans stupid... Kinda like the pot calling the kettle black or some such...

Technically you need an apostrophe after the "s" in Mavs because the structure says Mavs fans, (i.e. Mavs' fans)...

I THINK!!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

[mary]

Originally posted by: Male23Dan
I THINK he was referring to the grammer within the article and then the writer calling Yankee Fans stupid... Kinda like the pot calling the kettle black or some such...

Technically you need an apostrophe after the "s" in Mavs because the structure says Mavs fans, (i.e. Mavs' fans)...

I THINK!!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

Heck if I know....I was merely posting an editorial I thought was interesting. You wouldn't write "Maverick's Fans", you would just say "Maverick Fans". "Mavs" is being used as an adjective to describe "Fans" and since adjectives are used to describe nouns and not to show "ownership", the apostrophe would be incorrectly used.

But sheesh...what do I know...I'm just a stupid MAVS Fan!!!!

[Male30Dan]

Right you are... Im so confused about Chiwas point now!!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[Chiwas]

Stop the presses.

I wanted to mean "quotation marks".

Let's start again.

Quote

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Mavs, Magic and Yankee Fans are Stupid
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Please, use quotation marks or else.

And yes, Ortiz and Fenway Park were an October kind of nightmare. But baseball is over, there, for this season.

[Male30Dan]

How is that possible Chiwas???

Surely Boston will get to play at home against Houston in the World Series at some point!

[mary]

Aha! That makes more sense now. Baseball over at Fenway? Most likely - but I'm willing to bet the Sox take it to a Game 7.

[NYCdog]

Compare that to Fenway Park, where we fill the scoreboard with statistics, not cartoons,

First off, I'm a bit surprised no one has popped off at this guy for dissing your own kind....

As for this quote above......

That's because anyone who's been to Fenway knows they only have one videoboard, which they have to leave open for live game feed and replays. The other half of the videoboard is made to support numerics.....i.e. stats. And when the little time there is permits between pitches, they show a mug shot of the batter and then quickly flip back to the live game feed. This obviously leaves no time or space at all for "cartoons."

So what's this asshole getting at with this point?

Maybe the fact that Yankee Stadium is light-years ahead in technology then Fenway will ever be.

Do I smell jealousy on the part of this lame minor league beat writer?

The lone videoboard at Fenway....half of it taken up by advertisements.


And in the outfield......The four videoboards of Yankee Stadium. Not shown.....the new LED Ribbon Boards along the facade of first and third base sides of the park.


So in essence. Fenway is a craphole and Boston beat writers continue to illustrate to the world just how brainless the people of New England can be.....nothing new there.

And to any of you who say "Nay" simply because of the belief that Fenway is a so-called classic beauty because of its age.....shut it up and look at Wrigley Field. Now that's a classic beauty that actually looks like a ballpark.