Thursday, November 18, 2010

I Hate New York

By Aimless Rambler












Like most things in my life, I have given this very little thought.

Living in the New York area for coming up on eleven years, its finally time to get it out. New York, I hate your teams. I LOATHE them. I am so sick of the radio programs, the newspapers, making small talk on whether the Giants are Superbowl contenders. I don’t care. The nicest thing I can actually say about the Giants is compared to all the teams in the NFC East, they are all pretty dislikeable.

So I’ve been thinking. Why? Why this anger directed toward New York? What has New York ever done to me? Well, a lot as it turns out. Yes, growing up in Chicago, with the ‘second city’ moniker probably put a little chip on my shoulder against all things New York. But I don’t hold the same animosity towards LA, which painfully overtook Chicago as the second largest city sometime in the 80’s (hurtful). Shouldn’t I dislike their teams with equal vigor.

The answer is no. Only New York teams. And I think I’ve figured it out. At formative times in my life New York teams played a pretty big role in my sports watching – and the fact is the teams were just not very likable.

I think New York is the champion of the All Unlikeable All-Stars:

1. The 1986 New York Mets. So much talent, it’s almost a crime they only one one World Series.























 

2. The 1986 – 1991 New York Giants. You have to recall that this was a period the Bears should have won winning multiple Super Bowls. And while a bunch of those playoff losses were to the Redskins – it was the Giants that won two during that time and were much more arrogant and dislikeable than both the Redskins or the Niners (remember when San Francisco had a football team?)

















3. The 1992 – 1998 New York Knicks. Thank you Pat Riley (and Jeff van Gundy) for single handedly trying to destroy basketball. While the Pistons invented modern thuggery – the Knicks really embraced it and took it to the next level (well done!) Here’s a thought – how about trying to beat a team at basketball rather than just beating them up.






















4. 1998 – present New York Yankees. I’m a little late to the Yankee hating party. I was actually always sort of indifferent to them, until they signed Chuck Knoblauch. First, he came from the Twins, who I already couldn’t stand and signed with the Yankees. If I recall correctly the Yankees had finally won the World Series the year prior (I suppose I could have looked that up) and they go out and sign the best 2nd baseman in the league. While I’ll defend their right to sign whoever they like, it doesn’t mean I have to like them, and I don’t. The evil part of me really enjoyed watching Knoblauch lose it. I know that’s not nice, bad…bad rambler – this guy is a person, a real human being – show some compassion. I mean it’s not like he choked his wife or something. Oh, my bad. And A-rod. Well that’s just too easy, it’s not even worth the effort.






















So that’s pretty much it. For me the interesting thing is that for all these New York teams, the players that are so unlikeable, it’s not like they are some obscure player that played a bit part. No, New York teams choose these people to be the face of the franchise; Holy Bad Judgment Batman

2 comments:

  1. Ahh! Those were the days; The Giants that is. I'd gladly join you for some good 'ol Yankee Hating. And the Mets did underachieve. Let's Go Rangers! WooHoo.

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  2. You speak the truth...Really nothing to like here. You are the voice of a new generation.

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