Bleachers Other Sports Top 7: MLB's Most Annoying Fan Bases
| 13 April 2009
With the 2009 season a week old now, it is time to look at some of the most annoying fan bases in all the land. America's past time certainly has some douchey supporters. There are a lot of ways to consider a legion of followers as shitty. Perhaps the fans are annoying at the game or at a bar. Maybe the fans don't go to games. Sometimes there are too many "bandwagon" fans. Here's the list:
7. LA Dodgers
Why: The Dodgers are a franchise that is valued at $694 million has an annoying fan base that refuses to get to games on time. Generally, the ball park is almost empty until the 2nd or 3rd inning, even though they have made the playoffs eight times since 1988, have seven World Series pennants. To make matters worse, most fans hit the road around the 7th inning just to ensure they don't have to watch a full game. Boo hiss. This all happens while people in Brooklyn will offer up their first born to get the team back to New York.
Biggest Annoyance: Fair weather fans
6. NY Mets
Why: Is there anything more frustrating than being the number two baseball franchise in your own city? Mets fans wear their anger on their sleeves. They complained incessantly about the shitty design of Shea Stadium and now they are rewarded with a venue called Citibank Stadium just to remind them of their 401k losses. Also the constant hatred of the Yankees makes little sense because they rarely play each other. But they will always make sure to tell you about the 1969 team!
Biggest Annoyance: Giant chip on shoulder.
5. Atlanta Braves
Why: Can any other MLB city outside of New York boast the winning record Atlanta has had in recent years? Negative. The Braves went to the playoffs in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. They also got a new stadium, yet they have one of the most wishy-washy fan bases in the Majors. Turner Field, their home since 1997 has a capacity of 50,096 fans yet the Braves average attendance during that time has been 37,633. That's 12,463 open seats per game during most of that playoff run. Additionally, the Braves were the only southern team until the Marlins entered the league in 1993, giving them 37 years to build an ample fan base. For shame Braves fans, for shame.
Biggest Annoyance: They don't even have fair weather fans to fill seats.
4. Philadelphia Phillies
Why: Ever been to Philadelphia? These are the same people who root for the Eagles.
Exhibit A: Matt Millen look-a-like eats fishsticks
Exhibit C: This is while the World Series flag is going up.
Biggest Annoyance: Lack of tact, playing the "hardscrabble city" card too often.
3. Chicago Cubs
Why: This may get some ire, but the lovable losers from Wrigley field have a growing legion of annoying fans that cannot be quelled. It's
now cool to support the Cubs the same way its cool to be a USC fan in Los Angeles and the plague is spreading through out the Midwest. When living in Indianapolis, I continued to ask girls why they wore Cubs shit out to bars and would engage them in baseball related conversations......because they were.......WEARING CUBS SHIT. To my surprise, 80-90 percent of the time the broads knew zero about baseball.....Zip. Zilch. But they liked wearing Cubs attire because their friends did, and "it's cute."
URGE TO KILL....RISING!
These bandwagoners are ruining the aura of the Cubs, and are driving a spike between some of the actual fans. Some of my friends from Chicago are becoming increasingly angered by the fact that they cannot simply walk up to the gate and buy tickets because all the fake fan assholes are taking those seats. The Cubs are still way behind other teams regarding their payroll, but they now have the third highest payroll in the bigs at approximately $135 million. Also, the whole "wait 'til next year" thing is getting as old as "the curse" was. As recently as four years ago Chicago would have not even been in consideration for this list.
Biggest Annoyance: The rise of the bandwagon
2. New York Yankees
Why: Let me start by saying that I am, and always have been a fan of the Yankees. Unfortunately, their fans have a stupid sense of entitlement since 1996. You see prior to this season it was okay to be a Yankees fan, you weren't ostracized as if you had some communicable disease once you got outside a 120 mile radius of the Bronx. That all changed once the Yankees started bloating payrolls, and assholes from all four corners of the United States and beyond became "fans," giving the actual fan a bad name. They became the Dallas Cowboys of the MLB, which is a title that should not be bestowed upon anyone. Think about it this way. It's like going to a bar with one of your friends who gets fucking smashed drunk and begins trying to start fights through out the bar without reason. That's what being a Yankee fan has been like since they started winning.
When they won the World Series things got worse, when they didn't the team simply acquired more high priced talent, raised ticket prices and the bandwagon continued to feast on it like buzzards to a carcass. Evey time the Yankees signed or traded for another asshole, it would piss me off because they were ruining their farm system (a problem which is finally rearing its ugly head).
Each time the Yankees made a big splash in the off season, detractors would say, "great you are just buying another World Series." The bandwagoner would respond with some asinine comment like, "WE are the Yankees, WE are winners, why doesn't your team do the same thing?" Sayings like this infuriate me.
Finally, a year after missing the playoffs some of the unwarranted love has subsided, and the Yankees business model is spreading around the majors, which for some reason makes the fan bases of those teams significantly more annoying.
Biggest Annoyance: Arrogance, bandwagon fans.
1. Boston Red Sox
Why: Remember everything I just said about the Yankees? Well the bandwagon left New York and made a move up I-95 to Boston sometime
around 2004. Since then the amount of Red Sox gear has exploded. It's everywhere, and it is more annoying than the Yankees. While Yankee fans have been somewhat humbled (I said somewhat), Red Sox nation continues to grow and is feasting upon its own ego. Due to their recent post season successes, their bloated payroll, and offense that can only score if they hit home runs- the Boston Red Sox have become the New York Yankees and their fan base is now officially more annoying.
Read Dustin Pedroia's interview if you think I am lying. This is a perfect comparison to what the Red Sox have become. They, like the reigning AL MVP were a plucky, little guy, underdog story. They have now become pompous assholes who cannot be stopped until they hit rock bottom. Plus, while the New York accent is annoying, try listening to someone from Boston drone on and on about their team. It makes me want to pull a Van Gough and slice off an ear.
Oh, you are okay with the Pedroia story, how about Curt Schilling? Isn't he the most annoying athlete of all time? I want to know his opinions as much as I want to hear Madonna's. The worst part is Schilling won't go away even though he is retired.
Schilling isn't bad enough? How about Bill Simmons, one of the great sportswriters of our time, a voice of an Internet generation cannot even look at the Red Sox impartially. What does this mean? It means that no matter what, we as sports fans are forced to hear about the Boston Red Sox ALL THE TIME. Welcome to the top spot, Boston. See you in hell.
Biggest Annoyance: Bandwagon, pink jerseys, annoying accent, uber arrogance
yankees suck
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