When the Yankees showed up at the White House earlier this week, they presented President Obama with a pinstriped jersey emblazoned with the No. 27. Why 27? That’s the number of World Series titles the Yankees have won.
The Yankees have never been shy about their greatness.
“That attitude, that success, has always made the Yankees easy to love, and — let’s face it — easy to hate as well,” Obama quipped.
So it might come as a surprise to you, as it did to me, that the Yankees are not America’s most-despised baseball team. That dubious achievement goes to … drum roll, please … the Cleveland Indians.
The Indians? Really? I didn’t think they mattered enough to generate much feeling.
Yet according to an while the Bronx Bombers are only the fifth-most despised team in the majors.
The findings come from a “scientific” system designed by Nielsen Co. According to the WSJ, Nielsen’s system uses an Internet algorithm that analyzes how people feel about certain things. It uses keywords to discover people’s positive, negative or neutral reactions to different brands and products.
Using Nielson’s ratings, the Indians had a major-league worst rating of 0.9. The Yankees’ score was 1.8. The San Francisco Giants (4.5) and Oakland Athletics (4.2) were the most-liked teams on this scale, leading to speculation that laid-back Northern California fans are the most accepting and forgiving.
Anyway, while the study says the Yankees are not the most-hated team in baseball, my gut tells me otherwise.
Add Yankees
The WSJ has even more Yankees fodder to sink your teeth in today.
Using a complex formula, The categories used included postseason batting, fielding range and on-base/slugging percentage. It also included less conventional measures, such as the player’s impact on team attendance and his effect on the value of the franchise. To give a more rounded portrait, each candidate was scored on their relevance in popular culture, upstandingness and earning power in the collectibles market.
Babe Ruth, of course, was the clear No. 1, followed by Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Derek Jeter. Yep, Jeter edged out both Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra.
Trivia time
Which Yankees player won more World Series titles than any other? (Answer below)
Polling
Wednesday’s “Lunch Special” poll asked readers if they like the idea of the Kentucky Derby being run under the lights so that the event can be held in primetime. More than 82 percent didn’t like the idea, saying Derby Day is a tradition that should not be changed.
Quotable
“They’re probably sitting there thinking, ‘All we’ve got to do is steal this one and it’s a whole new series.’ It’s very important to get this over with on Friday, but it’s not going to be easy.” — Jazz point guard after the Jazz lost Game 5 to the Nuggets Wednesday night.
In case you missed it
Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez has officially made the big time. Among the gems from “America’s Finest News Source:
Be warned, however, that the graphic does include some offensive language.
This day in sports
Former Broncos quarterback and current Chicago Bear Jay Cutler was born on April 29, 1983. He shares a birthday with Rockies setup man Rafael Betancourt, who was born in 1975.
Trivia answer
Yogi Berra, who won 10 World Series titles with the Yankees.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
