Sunday, June 28, 2009

How Dumb Are Non-New York Fans?

During the broadcast of the second game of the Mets series, Leiter and Kay spoke at length about how much more knowledgeable New York fans are (whether Mets or Yankees) than those in other markets. I, however, am not so convinced. I just spent the last two years living in New York, and I listened to a lot of sports radio (better than studying). Here's your average sample of calls to the FAN, with the reason they're calling bracketed:

[A-Rod goes 0-4 in a spring training game]

Ave. Fan 1: Hey Mike, thanks for taking my call. A-Rod is washed up. What do you think of this trade? A-Rod and cash for Johan Santana, Albert Pujols, and Peavey? Also, the Giants will never win a championship with Eli at the helm.

[Sabathia gives up four runs in eight innings in a game the Yankees win]

Ave. Fan 2: Hey Mike, first time long time. First, let me just say that Eli Manning is the worst quarter back in the league, and it is impossible for him to win a Super Bowl, he has no fire. Second, why did the Yanks sign Sabathia? He's killing them. What do you think about this trade? CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes for Evan Longoria and season tickets at the Trop?

As you can see, not only do New York fans completely overreact all the time, they come up with the most insane trade ideas for players that are not only good, they're essential for their team's success. So my question is, how stupid are non-New York sports fans? Like in Kansas City, do people call the local sports station and go, "Hey, where does Grienke get off spelling his name with a 'G'? What an @$$hole!"? I'm just not convinced.

14 comments:

JWagg said...

It's rediculous. I live in North Dakota and I'll bet that fans here are at least as intelligent and knowledgeable about baseball as the fans in New York.


BTW, how 'bout this trade: Ian Kennedy and Derek Jeter for the Ramirez brothers (Hanley and Manny)?

JWagg said...

I would like to point out that I didn't misspell "ridiculous." That's how we spell it here.

BTW: Ill Will, Gallo, Lee and Hill for Rubio?

Ruthie J said...

Yo, WFAN has the worst callers.. and mike just rips them..if this was a live audience, the bench clearing brawl that would insue would be "priceless".

Steve said...

I hate to have to say this but the boston fans are good. For examble, last day of the 1986 season, Yankee/Red Sox at Fenway. The Sox are on their way to the playoffs and the Yanks are on their way home. The only excitement in the game is the AL batting title. Boggs leads and sits out the game with "a sore hamy" while Don Mattingly is put in the lead off spot to get as many ab's as possable. Donny baseball needs to go 6 for 6 to overtake Boggs. After going two for two, Mattingly grounds out and the Boston faithfull give him a standing ovation for his attempt. Bogg's hamstring? Next day, game 1 of the playoffs, first at bat legs out a triple.

Fernando Alejandro said...

JWagg, welcome to the site! What's the baseball scene like in North Dakota? What team do people typically follow up there?

Ruthie, its true. I love it when Mike talks some sense into overreacting fans.

Steve, I had read that on the last game of the season where Ted Williams hit .400 the team wanted to bench him since he was right at .400 and they didn't want to risk him losing it. He told them that he wanted to play, and had a monster game bringing his season average up to .406. Ted Williams was a beast.

Quinn said...

Jwagg you can use itunes to listen to ny sports talk radio. be careful it might just might lower your iq

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

The FAN also streams their shows live, at www.wfan.com.

JWagg said...

The sports scene in general is pretty sad here. I live near Fargo and most people are Minnesota Twins fans. They're the closest franchise and they're about 5 hours away. Other than that NDSU has been worth following in football and basketball recently, but probably won't be again for a while as everybody graduated. (I'll be starting school there this fall) The baseball team is rarely any good and many games are cancelled because of snow and rain.

Thankfully I have MLB.tv so I can watch all the Yankee games otherwise I'd only be able to see them on ESPN or when they play the Twins.

Thanks for the tip about the NY talk radio, I'll definitely have to check it out. I've heard quite a lot about it on the blogs

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

Congratulations on commencing at NDSU, JWagg. The sports radio in New York is very good, despite the insanity of the callers at times.

Anonymous said...

Having grown up near Boston, I have to respectfully disagree with Steve about Boston fans being 'good' in any way. Red Sox fans don't propose stupid/unrealistic trades because they pay no attention to the game and can rarely even name the players on their own team, let alone other teams, making it difficult to propose trades for said players. This 1986 game sounds like an aberration.

Anonymous said...

It's a sad day when there's no game and no new posts from the RJG.

She-Fan said...

I don't think NY fans are dumb! And of course we overreact. I'm always ready to throw myself out the window after a loss. Nothing strange about that. :)

Fred Trigger said...

@first anonymous

Red Sox fans dont propose stupid trades? Really? I guess I imagined that caller proposing buchholz for Hanley stright up, or trading Penny for Adrian Gonzalez.

I like how you just lump all red sox fans together like they are all idiots. Like the yankees dont have fans the same way. I cant tell you the amount of the "real" fans that try to tell me Mariano Rivera closed out the 96 World Series for them. Every sports team has their fair share of fans with little to no knowledge of the game or their team. Except the Nationals, they have no fans.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Actually, I'm a huge Nationals fan.