Letter to the Editor: He Would Laugh as We Were Being Slaughtered

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
October 29, 2009

Dear Editor,

Thanks for the juxtaposition of Jeff Blair's piquant deconstruction of the New York Yankees' financial empire (The Great Yankee Cash Cow - Sports, Oct. 28), and Bob Levin's explanation of Why It's So Easy To Hate The Yankees (Sports, Oct. 28). Mr. Levin says "rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Goliath, for Wal-Mart, for global warming." He might add that, in these late days of gilded-age capitalism, it's also like rooting for Bernie Madoff and all the other Ponzi schemers and cheats.

I recall Gwen Verdon in the Broadway show Damn Yankees in 1955. In those days, the Yankees were merely great ballplayers; now they and their owners are the Croesus of what we call sport.

Obviously, those of us who think still hate them.

Geoff Smith
Kingston, Ont.