[Kuty] The Yankees sell their fans on glory and championships, on Babe Ruth, Derek Jeter and Joe Torre. But these days the concept of Yankees exceptionalism can be found more in the team store and in marketing than on the field.
October 10, 2025
22 comments
This is what’s at the root of Yankees fan madness.
It’s true that they haven’t been actually bad in a long time and that’s great. But that’s not how they sell themselves. It’s not the expectations they set. They market themselves as the class of the league, the team every other team wants to be, the team that intimidates everyone else. And that’s plainly no longer true. They’re just one in the mix of teams that are pretty good.
There are worse positions to be in but it can be maddening to see the team be fundamentally dishonest about where they stand.
r/NoShitSherlock
This article really hit as a Gen Z Yanks fan that hopped on in….2010 đ
wow you mean late stage capitalism, which has historically ruined everything good, is also ruining baseball?
I get it. But I grew up in the eighties. The Yankees went 18 years without a championship. Steinbrenner was the âbossâ during that time. Mattingly was the best player on the team, all star and MVPâŚand never saw a ring. Then it changed in 96. Derrick Jeter was a rookie. And suddenly their fortunes shifted.
Pretty sure that was confirmed when they started looking to Big Papi and the 04 Sox for guidance because they were getting smoked by Houston.
I donât understand why they just didnât score more runs or get more strikeouts
This guy has been reading our mail, obviously…
Jesus youâd think they werenât putting a decent team on the field. Everyone needs to fucking relax. When I was a kid the Yankees werenât winning shit and they actually sucked for a while. It wasnât until when I was 16 in 1995 when they made the playoffs and then started winning championships. Anyone younger than me grew up knowing them as just winning all the time and got spoiled. Take a step back and realize this shit isnât that bad. Theyâll continue to put out a winning team and contend for a championship. Nothing is easy or automatic.
I will mildly push back against the whole “Yankees just any other team” thing. Look at how the Blue Jays reacted to beating the Yankees. I think beating the Yankees, especially in New York, still means a lot to teams. Obviously it was a division rival but would they have been blasting Sweet Caroline if they beat Boston or whatever the hell they play in Baltimore if they beat the Orioles?
Change the names in the headline, and it sounds like what people have been saying about the Cowboys for the last 20+ years.
Theyâre kind of a metaphor for America.
Thatâs what itâs about now. The Yankees are a brand first, a baseball team second. Itâs about selling merch to people who have never watched a baseball game and hooking fans with legacy and history and selling them on it
Hal is not his father. Heâs not a baseball fan. He does not have the competitive fire to win. To him, the only thing that matters is brand profit. He might worry about brand damage related to the on field product at some point but that hasnât even been an issue because fans keep buying the $300 tickets and $50 meals and $250 jerseys.
People act like this team finished in last place. We went to the world series last yr. 5 teams have never even won one and Seattle has never even won the pennant. The playoffs are longer with more variance due to all the Wild card teams. 16 yrs just isn’t that long a championship drought. Ask a Knicks fan
Hal says make a lot of money and finish every season over .500 = All is great in Hal’s little world. Oh, and I can care less how many championships my team wins.
I’ve been saying for years that the Yankees are like Ferrari.
Massive name recognition, past glory in racing and building incredible road cars but all they can do now is treat the people who buy their cars like assholes.
The current Yanks are the same. Massive name recognition, past championship glory and treat the fans like assholes.
They are slaves to tradition.
The Yankees remind me of WWE where it went full corporate, “no one is bigger than the brand.” As long as they are running a profit and meeting a base level of success, all is fine and dandy for the owners and executives.
…has Spring Training started yet?
Itâs absolutely an old school mindset. They just should market themselves as underachievers who have a really nice manager and zero expectations to win anything. Itâs only been 16 years of failures
How many errors, counted or not, did the team commit on the field just in the 2024 and 2025 postseason? How come baseball fundamentals are so hard for this team? Homeruns are only one part of the complex nature of baseball. Yes they are fun, but getting a double play at a critical point was one of Derek Jeterâs best traits aside from his offense.
Yankee Stadium is a tourist trap like the Empire State Building and Katzâs Deli, itâs something you do when youâre in NY. Theyâre going to make money no matter what, game has changed.
Select quotes from this piece that had me nodding my head:
“Yet when spring training rolls back around next year, the Yankeesâ promise to fans will begin anew and recent shortcomings will be ignored. They will be sold on the premise that the Yankees are in a class of their own, even though the years since their last title in 2009 have largely been marked by overpromising and underdelivering.”
“Really, what have the Yankees done of late to instill confidence that things will be different next year? Or the year after that?”
“At the trade deadline, the Yankees were lauded for bringing in seven new players, but it was more patchwork. It signaled that they werenât sold on the teamâs ability to compete for a title, despite a fan base that expects rings.”
22 comments
This is what’s at the root of Yankees fan madness.
It’s true that they haven’t been actually bad in a long time and that’s great. But that’s not how they sell themselves. It’s not the expectations they set. They market themselves as the class of the league, the team every other team wants to be, the team that intimidates everyone else. And that’s plainly no longer true. They’re just one in the mix of teams that are pretty good.
There are worse positions to be in but it can be maddening to see the team be fundamentally dishonest about where they stand.
r/NoShitSherlock
This article really hit as a Gen Z Yanks fan that hopped on in….2010 đ
wow you mean late stage capitalism, which has historically ruined everything good, is also ruining baseball?
I get it. But I grew up in the eighties. The Yankees went 18 years without a championship. Steinbrenner was the âbossâ during that time. Mattingly was the best player on the team, all star and MVPâŚand never saw a ring. Then it changed in 96. Derrick Jeter was a rookie. And suddenly their fortunes shifted.
Pretty sure that was confirmed when they started looking to Big Papi and the 04 Sox for guidance because they were getting smoked by Houston.
I donât understand why they just didnât score more runs or get more strikeouts
This guy has been reading our mail, obviously…
Jesus youâd think they werenât putting a decent team on the field. Everyone needs to fucking relax. When I was a kid the Yankees werenât winning shit and they actually sucked for a while. It wasnât until when I was 16 in 1995 when they made the playoffs and then started winning championships. Anyone younger than me grew up knowing them as just winning all the time and got spoiled. Take a step back and realize this shit isnât that bad. Theyâll continue to put out a winning team and contend for a championship. Nothing is easy or automatic.
I will mildly push back against the whole “Yankees just any other team” thing. Look at how the Blue Jays reacted to beating the Yankees. I think beating the Yankees, especially in New York, still means a lot to teams. Obviously it was a division rival but would they have been blasting Sweet Caroline if they beat Boston or whatever the hell they play in Baltimore if they beat the Orioles?
Change the names in the headline, and it sounds like what people have been saying about the Cowboys for the last 20+ years.
Theyâre kind of a metaphor for America.
Thatâs what itâs about now. The Yankees are a brand first, a baseball team second. Itâs about selling merch to people who have never watched a baseball game and hooking fans with legacy and history and selling them on it
Hal is not his father. Heâs not a baseball fan. He does not have the competitive fire to win. To him, the only thing that matters is brand profit. He might worry about brand damage related to the on field product at some point but that hasnât even been an issue because fans keep buying the $300 tickets and $50 meals and $250 jerseys.
People act like this team finished in last place. We went to the world series last yr. 5 teams have never even won one and Seattle has never even won the pennant. The playoffs are longer with more variance due to all the Wild card teams. 16 yrs just isn’t that long a championship drought. Ask a Knicks fan
Hal says make a lot of money and finish every season over .500 = All is great in Hal’s little world. Oh, and I can care less how many championships my team wins.
I’ve been saying for years that the Yankees are like Ferrari.
Massive name recognition, past glory in racing and building incredible road cars but all they can do now is treat the people who buy their cars like assholes.
The current Yanks are the same. Massive name recognition, past championship glory and treat the fans like assholes.
They are slaves to tradition.
The Yankees remind me of WWE where it went full corporate, “no one is bigger than the brand.” As long as they are running a profit and meeting a base level of success, all is fine and dandy for the owners and executives.
…has Spring Training started yet?
Itâs absolutely an old school mindset. They just should market themselves as underachievers who have a really nice manager and zero expectations to win anything. Itâs only been 16 years of failures
How many errors, counted or not, did the team commit on the field just in the 2024 and 2025 postseason? How come baseball fundamentals are so hard for this team? Homeruns are only one part of the complex nature of baseball. Yes they are fun, but getting a double play at a critical point was one of Derek Jeterâs best traits aside from his offense.
Yankee Stadium is a tourist trap like the Empire State Building and Katzâs Deli, itâs something you do when youâre in NY. Theyâre going to make money no matter what, game has changed.
Select quotes from this piece that had me nodding my head:
“Yet when spring training rolls back around next year, the Yankeesâ promise to fans will begin anew and recent shortcomings will be ignored. They will be sold on the premise that the Yankees are in a class of their own, even though the years since their last title in 2009 have largely been marked by overpromising and underdelivering.”
“Really, what have the Yankees done of late to instill confidence that things will be different next year? Or the year after that?”
“At the trade deadline, the Yankees were lauded for bringing in seven new players, but it was more patchwork. It signaled that they werenât sold on the teamâs ability to compete for a title, despite a fan base that expects rings.”