Opinion > December 6, 2007

By Hannah Werthan | Old Gold & Black columnist

In eighth grade, my class went on a field trip to Washington, D.C., and New York City. My teacher informed us that we were going to a baseball game.

For some reason, I assumed that we were going to see the Mets, and I was extremely excited. When I was told that we were actually going to go to Yankee Stadium, my heart sank. We sat up at the very top of the third deck, and I couldn’t see a thing, not that I wanted to. The place reeked of corruption and rich old men. It was not a fun experience to say the least.

I hate the New York Yankees. There is no other professional sports team that I despise more. Some say that either you love the Yankees or you hate them. I think this is true; however, I would like to believe that my hatred is at least somewhat justified.

First of all, the Yankees are overflowing with money. It’s hard to root for a team that has everything handed to it on a platter. Because of this surplus, everyone on the team is greedy and has a huge ego. As much as I don’t like the San Francisco Giants because I am an Oakland A’s fan, I will admit that they do beat the Yankees. While they have one Barry Bonds, the Yankees is full of them. They are typically older players who are lured into playing for the prestige perhaps but, more importantly, the money.

What the Yankees do is spend relatively little money on their farm teams, because they don’t want to bother actually producing their own players. Therefore, they wait for other teams, such as the A’s, to breed good players. It is only a matter of time before they snatch up some poor team’s pride and joy.

Because of this, you would expect the Yankees to win the World Series every single year.

However, this is not the case. They can’t even use their evil ways correctly. There are two main reasons for this.

One is they mess up from time to time and choose the wrong player. It was quite convenient when the Yankees stole Jason Giambi from the A’s because he turned out to be a steroids-using burnout. Nice work, guys.

I think the bigger problem though is that the Yankees are putting the best of the best together. They are not going to want to work together as a team because they are all used to being a stars. You can see from the Giants what happens when one player thinks he’s better than the rest, but a whole team full of them is so much worse.

What it really all comes down to is the feel of the stadium, the experience you have when you go to a team’s game. Going to a Yankees game was so impersonal. The A’s and all the other teams I have seen play are far more eager to connect with their fans. They play for not just money but a love for the game. I think the Yankees take the fun away from baseball.

Hannah Werthan is a freshman from Nashville, Tenn.