Why I Have Hated the New York Yankees My Whole Life (Part 1)

[El Supremo]

Why I Have Hated the New York Yankees My Whole Life (Part 1)

I was born in 1951 - in Kansas City.

It was not important that the nickname of The Most Hated Team was not well liked by people in many southern regions of the country, including Missourians. The Yankees were respected for their past 10 World Series victories and 14 pennants. Also, Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio were household names and liked by everyone in the country. But they were starting to get really tiresome when they won an incredible five World Series in a row from 1949 to 1953.

Kansas City had been excited about the Yankees. The Kansas City Blues were the Yanks' AAA farm club. The fans had seen many of the famous players pass through on their way to New York. KC also had the popular Negro League Monarchs but, tragically, not many of them were allowed in the majors. I'm not old enough to remember the Blues. They moved to Denver when the Philadelphia Athletics became the first major league team to move west in 1955 - to KC.



So now we had a real major league team for the first time, even if they were the pitiful Athletics. Little did we know that they were still going to be a farm club of the Yankees.

I remember many of the A's players. I'll never forget Bill Tuttle, Vic "Pop Up" Power, Cletus Boyer, Hector Lopez, Jerry Lumpe, Dick Williams, Whitey Herzog and, of course, Roger Maris.

The A's traded many of the former Philadelphia players to the Yankees who proceeded to again win World Series with them in 1956 and 1958. Even their manager, Casey Stengel, was from Kansas City (that's how he got his nickname). The A's got older Yankee discards in return. The Kansas City Athletics never could muster a winning season.

But the absolutely worst trade in baseball history occurred in 1959 when the A's sent Roger Maris and two others to the Yanks in exchange for: Hank Bauer (who only played two seasons before becoming the A's player/manager), Don Larsen (who pitched the Perfect World Series Game, but in a little over one season went only 2-10), Norm Siebern (who became a descent outfielder for the next four years), and Marvelous Marv Throneberry (who only played 144 games in one and half seasons with the A's). Roger Maris went on to break Babe Ruth's single season home run record in 1961.

All this was bad enough, but I had a developmentally shocking experience one day at Municipal Stadium in about 1958. My family took me early to the game against the Yankees so we could meet some of the players. Mickey Mantle was then about the most famous ballplayer in America and he was there signing autographs in the third base stands. I got in line and was as excited as any baseball loving kid could possibly be. Suddenly. Mickey shouts at the next kid saying, "I've already given you my autograph!" The boy burst into tears and Mickey walked away without signing any more autographs. The boy hadn't gotten an autograph before. The Mik was just being an asshole, as usual. From that point on to me, the Yankees were not merely the hated rival. They were evil incarnate.


This is a photo of a Space Satellite crystal radio like the one I used to hide under my pillow to listen to A's night games when I was supposed to be asleep.

[Condem]

1. Awesome story about Mantle, El.

I bet he was hungover. Damn. I had no idea you were such an old fuck. My radio that I listened to when I was a kid in Detroit (1968) was a tad more modern. I'm currently reading Philip Norman's biography of John Lennon. It touches on the negotiations between Lennon and Charles O. Finley to play an extra five minutes at Municipal Stadium. John turned him down at $5,000 and never relinquished even when it reached $50,000.
All this after spending $150,000 just to get The Beatles to play KC in '64. Money couldn't buy ol' Chuck any love. Good post, El!!

[El Supremo]

2. I left out the part where I met Roger Maris at the Save Way...

grocery store. He was giving out autographs the year before he was traded to the Yanks. I'll always remember that. That was not long after I also met Robby the Robot at the same store.



It's now called The Hen House Grocery Store.

Oh, thanks for the compliment. I started working on this little piece last year, but thought that this would be a good time to finish it and post it.

Lord almighty! How I absolutely despise the Yankees. More than anyone or anything else in the world.