Quote:
Originally Posted by why?
i don't know how you can have any respect for the yankees. especially george steinbrenner, who single handedly drove up salary prices into the stratosphere. If it wasn't for him trying to destroy the game of baseball, MLB might have a chance of actually being competitive and worth watching, instead of having a handful of big market teams win the World Series every year.
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I think you can respect certain things that a person did without ultimately respecting the person. I don't have much respect for Steinbrenner as a human being, but I have respect for how he feels about the game of baseball and the soft spot he had for kids who want to play it. I'm very cynical, but I don't think he looked at all kids in Tampa who want to play as future Yankee prospects that he could influence....I think he just wanted some poor kids to be able to enjoy playing baseball. I don't agree with some of the things he did (and I think his sons are useless), but I think the legacy of the Yankees as a team was important to him. On the A's World Championship teams in 1972, 1973, and 1974 some of the players made so little money that they took second jobs in the off-season to make ends meet.
A few teams, especially the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Cardinals, the Dodgers, have really reached almost mythical proportions within the history of baseball, and this was true of the Yankees BEFORE Steinbrenner bought the team.
There is only one Fenway Park. You can easily drive there. Many of us cannot and being FAIRLY close to a 'retro' stadium can help give us an 'old school fix'. I don't have a problem with the state of economics in baseball. If I lived in your market, or in New York, I might. I can drive to downtown Houston and park on the east side of I-45 a few blocks from the main police station and only pay $5 in any of a number of places to park. There used to be one place that only charged $3, but that property is being redeveloped. I can buy a same day Astros ticket with a seat for $10-12 and sometimes on sale for $7.00. In 2010 I paid $50.00 to stand at Yankee Stadium and $36.00 to park. The Astros aren't burning up the standings, but great teams still must come in to play them.