Friday, December 10, 2021

Are the two sides even talking? How can ardent fans follow baseball without supporting this rancid system?

This week's hot Yankee news involved a few farewell tweets by Clint Frazier and his girlfriend. (Well, there was the minor league Rule 5 draft, but who ever cared about that?) Frankly, I could do with less Clint and more of the girlfriend.

We'll soon enter the Xmas news vortex, a time when MLB traditionally assumes radio silence. Barring an unforeseen tragedy or scandal, the next several weeks will generate almost no ink. You can hang the stockings, but we won't get a SS for Christmas. 

That vaults us into January, when hot stoves normally explode with signings and trades. I suspect real talks won't start until mid-February, when camps are set to reopen. Considering the polarized state of America, why wouldn't we expect this impasse to last until opening day - forcing the second collapsed season in three years? 

Make no mistake: I stand with the players. Yeah, they're overpaid and overpampered, but no owner ever took a 99-mph ball to the ribs. In a war between millionaires and billionaires, I'll back the hired help - even if they're sure to lose in the recount. (The owners have the most expensive lawyers in the world; the players have Tony Clark.)

But I will never again buy another item of Yankee merch, and I challenge everyone at this blog to help us come up with a strategy to follow the Yankees - our childhood obsessions - without paying one thin dime into this fucked-up, greedy system of exploitation. There needs to be a way for fans to register our anger. 

Let's start it, right here. 

7 comments:

Dantes said...

Best way to follow the yanks without paying into the scam? Cut the cable cord, only listen to games on the radio. Yes they’ll still make some ad revenue but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the yes network

The Archangel said...

I steal cable from my next-door neighbor. That makes the YES network extremely cheap

The Archangel said...

I think that anyone who is caught spending any money, in any form, on the Yanks and MLB should be subjected to the "Malcolm McDowell" treatment in The Clockwork Orange.
That should certainly curb your enthusiasm .
Now, what would that endless loop consist of? The Kraken's history of swings and misses? Hicks clutching at a body part after an enormous swing? Torres' throws from short? Film of Severino pitching from a raised mound during rehab?
Any better examples, or should we just settle for a multi-year presentation, brought to you by Bigelow Tea, of all of Boonie's postgame pressers since the beginning of his tour.

JM said...

If you listen to the games on the radio, you not only minimize Yankees revenue, you can do other things. Bake bread. Shave. Dust your furniture.

You can't vacuum, though. Unless the volume is turned way, way up.

BTR999 said...

Count me in. Disgusted with the leadership of the game in general and “our” team in particular.

el duque said...

I am intrigued by the prospect of a simultaneous hate broadcast during Yankee games.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Agreed, Duque. Hence my "Defund the Yankees!" rant.

They've fucked with us one time too many.