Tap-In Question: Who does Baltimore hate most: Steelers, Yankees or Red Sox? Why?

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• The Yankees have, in addition to their regular minor league system, about 20 major league clubs as auxilliary farm teams,. That's why they are my most hated team. And, it's not just the team. I see a personality flaw in every Yankee fan. They're the type to dunk on their 8 year-old nephew's nerf basket and then shout "in your face" to the little tyke.

  • Love your spirit. And explanation.

• Living in Connecticut it's hard to choose between either the Yankees or Red Sox. However, I think the Steelers may win because they are from Pittsburgh and the Pirates beat us twice in the World Series.

  • Connecticut really would be baseball hell for an Orioles fan.

• Dan, for me it has nothing to do with hating a team. It's more a dislike for the fans that support the team. Yankees fans can be as obnoxious as any. Same for Red Sox fans. Both can be quieted easily with a good old fashioned butt kicking by the O's. However, Steelers fans seem to have a way of being obnoxious and irritating no matter what happens on the field. And they seem to be everywhere. Football elicits a different kind of passion in its fans (fueled in large part by tailgating at 9am for a 1pm kickoff). A once per year appearance by the Steelers fires fans up to a fever pitch as opposed to 9 home games per year versus the Yankees or Red Sox.

  • I am curious about whether the nature of football and its fans tips the scale.

• When I still lived in the Baltimore area, it was hate the Skankees above all else. Now that I live in upstate NY, it remains hate the Skankees above all else. My oldest son is a Red Sox fan, and I rejoiced with him during their success earlier this millennium (especially since the O’s sucked so badly.)
  No hatred here for the Red Sox.

  NFL has been on my “who cares” list since the Colts snuck out of town. Too many cherished memories of going to the camp in Westminster as a kid and all those great games called by Chuck Thompson were crushed by the betrayal. I nominally follow the Patriots & Ravens. I might watch parts of 2 or 3 games in a typical season. I’m guessing Steeler hatred comes from “new” divisional rivalry and watching the higher level of “violence” in a game, which more likely elicits anger than watching a typical 4-hour O’s-Yankees snooze fest?

  • Well said. Drink chip.

• For me is the Evil Empire. Trolling again and again in social media, they are disgusting when they visit OPACY and they think they have the greastest franchise in the world,as well as constantly getting help from the umpires. So for me is the NYY. Of course I dislike the Steelers and enjoyed yesterday´s game and now I will be rooting against the Patriots....

  • I was curious to see if that Evil Empire disdain continues to percolates. It does.

• I think from a pure mathematical standpoint, it would be the Steelers, if only because you're splitting baseball fans between hatred of New York and Boston. As a fan, I think hating the Yankees makes much more sense, as they have given us a lot of reasons over the years to hate them. Just to name a few examples: Reggie Jackson signing with the Yankees after a season in Baltimore. Jeffrey Maier. Signing Mike Mussina. Mark Teixeira, and finally losing to them in the 5th game of the 2012 ALDS. The Yankees are the team that have punished us time and time again, so it seems - and I hate them for it.

  As for the Steelers, I think when it comes down to it, Raven's fans don't hate the Steelers as much as they just want them to lose. Not for any good reason I think. I personally respect the Steelers (though not their controversial QB) because they play us hard every time. So I don't hate them, I just don't like 'em much.

  • Solid reasonings as always

• Living in the middle of Yankee country, you can guess who I hate the most of those three choices. Though I will say that Boston fans are more full of themselves with the recent success of their teams. Though as a Browns fan, it's hard to dismiss the Steelers. Though overall, it's the Patriots for me.

  • Is it tough for a Browns fan to separate the Ravens and Orioles? I know when I was a kid I hated the whole state of Indiana because of Indianapolis.

• This was a tough one. Grew up in Baltimore, but lived in Upstate NY for 30 yrs. I always admired multiple individual Yankees, but hated the team & it’s obnoxious fans. Happy to be back in MD.
  That said, nothing gets my blood going more that the remembrance of a Steelers bus pulling in along the side of our beloved Colt Corral # 29 blue & white bus, in Memorial stadium. As soon as the bus parked next to us, a fan came out on the top step, looked at our beautiful letttered, Colt bus & promptly dropped his fly and “wizzed” all over Our front tire!!
  And the rumble ensued...
  And, for that reason, I hate the Steelers more!!

  • Great story. Great explanation. Drink chip.

• Sox.
  Because they have the most obnoxious fans in the world. I think it has something to do with them being born and raised in that insignificant tiny sliver of a state that they for some unknown reason, believe to be superior in every way to the rest us back woods colonies. Any non-native that has ever lived there knows exactly what I'm talking about.

  • The beauty of Boog. No punches pulled. Drink chip.

• Living in Connecticut I hate both the Yankees and Red Sox mailnly because of their fans. They are obnoxious and don't understand the game. The Steelers on the other hand I don't like and love to have the Ravens beat them but also respect them, as for now Go Jags !!

  • Again, Connecticut O’s fans deserve special props.

• It's seasonal... Squeelers in the fall/winter, Skankees in the spring/summer. Though there is plenty of spit for NE - Sox and LadyBradys too. The arrogance of the fans in the three markets is what pisses me off the most. They truly believe their teams will be in post-seasons every year. But what I cannot stand the most is how their teams get every "close call" from the umps/refs. Everyone knows Philly fans suck (I live in their market), but they are righteous compared to NY, Pitt, & NE.

  • So what you are saying is there is plenty of in-season hate to go around?

• Dan, I will try and be as succinct as possible.

  Do I hate the Steelers, the Yankees, or the Red Sox most?

  Yes.

  • That’s a cop out Ed. We don’t wish or wash here

• I'm a huge Michigan State fan, so my most hated team is the University of Michigan by far. For the purposes of this question, I'll say the Red Sox as for the last couple of years the Yankees have been less hateable (Until they spend $500 million next offseason). That Manny situation was total BS and their fans are just slightly more obnoxious than Yankees fans

  • The Red Sox definitely have skyrocketed in this category, at least from an observer’s point of view.

• In younger days it was the Green Bay packers who screwed the colts on that NO GOOD field goal. And The Tar Heels with that whining Dean Smith ( a freaking genius coach)
  Now I can’t stand the redskins, having worked in D.C. for many years and had to read the Washington Post who talked about the skins everyday all year long and didn’t cover my orioles or Colts. When Colts left people asked me who I root for now and i’d Say whoever the dead skins are playing
  Penn State with Joe Paterno I also to this day cant stand because Maryland can never beat them
  I consider the Red Sox and Yankees just a rival that I love to beat but never really hated them. Loved watching Mantle and Ted Williams and all the greats that I got to see

  • Appreciate the historical insight. Drink chip.

• The Stankees, if for no other reason than all those non-New Yorkers around the world wearing Stankee hats.

  • Don’t forget the faux jerseys with names on them.

• Howdy. My take for the Big Three involves the fan base for each one of the respective teams. Either one wins and you cannot escape the heckling at work. Our O’s win and they are quiet as a church mouse or attribute it to their team having a bad day. Even Steelers’ fans have the same air as Cowboys’ fans, we are number one and don’t you forget it.
  Just makes me root on the O’s and the Ravens that much more.

  • I’ve wondered if it is more about the fans than the teams.

• Skankees 1st, Patriots 2nd, Sux and Steelers 3rd.

  • I don’t want to count the Pats. That’s not regional. That’s America.

  • LOL. I guess so. In most cases, only people from the New England area are rooting for the Pats.

• Based on history, it has to be the Yankees. Going back to the start of the franchise, no team has tormented the Orioles like the Yankees have. Except for period from 1965 to 1975, the Yankees have won nearly every big game between the teams.
  The way they have done it hurts the most. In 1996, Jeffrey Maier turned the ALCS around.
  In 2012, a c.c. sabathia pitch ended Nick Markakis'season. In 1976, if Reggie Jackson showed up on time, the Orioles would have won the division. Then, Reggie took off for New York after the season. In 2001, Mike Mussina left for NY "because he wanted to pitch for a world champion." Oops.
  The Red Sox fans are more obnoxious than Yankees fans but that is a recent thing.
  As for the Steelers, that is a fierce rivalry but I don't despise them as much as the Bengals and Brown's.

  • Good points on the Yankee floggings. The Sabathia reference gets you a drink chip.

• Easy - it’s the Yankees. Their fans aren’t shy about reminding me how many championships they have.

  I moved to NJ 25 years ago (subsequently moved to Dallas), but when I did my dad said he’d disown me if I ever became a Yankees fan. I’ve taught the same to my kids.

  I used to take my family down to Camden Yards on weekends for games but quickly learned never to go when the Yankees were in town. Their fans loved going to Bal’mer and the noise in the hotel lobby’s after they beat us was gisgidtingb

  • Some of the hotels in the past have had “Welcome Yankee Fans” signs in the lobby. No one needs that much hospitality.

• "The Red Sox have come a long way." True enough! The difference is the O's have had owners unwilling to keep up with the winning teams financially speaking. It's that simple. Currently MASN television rakes in millions and attendance is great for what is on the field. So, now the team sits the middle of January about a month from ST and we have no starters, need bullpen help and a good avg. left handed hitter is no where in sight. There you have it.

  • I’ve often played devil’s advocate on this one. The Os don’t compete with NYY/Bos financially but almost no team does. In the recent past Is have spent plenty (Top 10) to be a champion. It’s more about spending wisely. That said, hard to argue with your last point and 2018.

• 100% true story. I am walking into church, in Gaithersburg MD, with my five year old son. It is just before Christmas so my son is wearing a Ravens Santa hat. My son is stopped on the way in so he could be told Santa is Steeler fan and no gifts for Ravens fans. He is devastated. I have to explain the man was being silly. No less than four more times, at church, Steeler fans gave my five year old son a hard time for wearing the colors of the local team. My wife thanked me for biting my tongue when we got home. Steeler fans take the cake in my book. They take obnoxious to an elite level.

  • I’m not sure I can believe that story. Steelers fans go to church? (I kid, Pittsburgh, I kid). Drink chip.

• My point of view it’s the Steelers, because of how annoying their fan base is. They always want to point out the number of Lombardi Trophies their team has won, (6) as if it’s a badge of honor even though it’s past history that these fans did not personally “win”.

  I never hear Yankee fans bring up their 27 World Series wins, because they are too busy rooting their team in the present.

  Red Sox fans meanwhile went from being likeable folks you felt sorry for to somewhat jerks in the past 15 years (since odds are Sox fans and Patriots fans are one and the same) because they were never use to winning anything in either sport. At least they have something recent to hang their hats on.

  FSB

  • FSB, I have “friends” who ALWAYS bring up the number of Yankees’ rings, even though said fans are in their 40’s and know nothing about any Yankees squad before the 1980’s besides what they’ve read about. Same thing with the Steelers’ fans all excited about 6 rings, even though anyone in my age bracket can only relate to the last two. And while I’ll admit that the Red Sox fans who invade Camden Yards are more obnoxious than either Steelers or Yankees fans, my son and I were treated wonderfully when we saw the O’s kick the crap out of Boston the last weekend in August this past season.

    So all that said, I vote the Yankees as my most hated team slightly above the Steelers. Take Jeffrey Maier, sprinkle in some 2014 postseason, take some Mike Mussina, and a pinch of Mark Texeira “growing up a Yankees fan” and it puts the Yankees on top.

  • Hey EE- I guess my Yankee fan friends aren’t as annoying as yours then. Can appreciate the Maier, Moose and Tex references too.

  • My Yankee fan friends can outannoy ...

• Red Sox. No question. ... No one wants to see their fans (who often usually cheer for the Patriots too) get a chance to gloat. They give “Nation” a bad name.

  • Drink chip for the last line. I laughed.

• I can't stand either of those teams, but I don't hate the Steelers as much now that they don't have Hines Ward and Palamalu. I can't stand the Yankees how they can pretty much get whatever they want, but I also can admire how they make great moves. So my most hated is definitely the Sox. the only thing I like about them is their ballpark. I can't stand the fans that they used to take over Camden Yards and they act like a-holes. And the team pisses me off too

  • The perception of the Red Sox fans certainly has changed here in the past couple decades.

• Red Sox!! Classless fans who chant Orioles suck at OPACY!!! Racially mock our players...whine incessantly...I think utter disdain is a better word than they loudly booed him after he gave them his best years...classless, I was at Fenway when Cheater Clemens returned with Toronto and entitled, like the Patriots, seem to have officials on their side consistently as well...

  • We’re on a Red Sox hating roll here.

• I respect the Steelers but wanted them to lose because of so many obnoxious Steeler fans around Baltimore. I hate the Yankees and Red Sox as they use market riches to buy talent and other division teams have to rely on draft, development, and shrewd trades to have quality teams.

• Not to mention that my experiences around both Red Sox and Yankee fans are not good memories. Both can be VERY vulgar even around kids when they visit OPACY. Often I have asked them to curtail vulgarities and more than once I was physically threatened for my requests.

  • Ok Ben. I understand the depth of your vitriol. Now, is there one above all?

  • Ok... Boston Fans are worse and more importantly ot earned. At least the dreaded Yankees have a long history of championships while Red Sox went a life time choking every September.

• I hate the Yankees, but I respect them. The history of the New York Yankees is the spinal cord of the history of baseball. And as much as I despise Pittsburgh and their fans, I also respect what the Steelers have done and it's always seemed like the respect was largely mutual.

  I have none of these feeling for the Boston Red Sox, who are a bunch of Johnny come lately jackasses who pretend they weren't a joke for 80 plus years. The Red Sox are your obnoxious nephew who comes home from one semester at Towson and thinks he's smarter than everyone else. They proclaim thems elves the equals of the Yankees (ludicrous) and the superiors of the Orioles (if you compare from 1954 onward, equally absurd). They insist that Fenway Park is some hallowed temple of sport, when it's really just sold to them as that to convince them to pay premium bucks to sit in a cramped turn of the century dump. The Boston Red Sox suck, no matter how many Harvard-educated authors Ken Burns gets to tell schmaltzy stories about their mystique. I hate the Boston Red Sox. And so should you.

  • The depth of your hilarity knows no bounds. The Towson freshman analogy is golden. Drink chip.

• The Yankees hands down, I have to sit near the Yankee fans 8 or 9 times a year and they' are brutal. Steelers and Red Sox are 2 and 2a.

  • Good for you for breaking the Red Sox hating streak.

• Out of the three, I'd say my hatred goes toward the Yankees. It's their fans that anger me- just loud, obnoxious, and borish in general. Then throw in the whole New York attitude of there's New York, and nowhere else on the planet, and it just turns me off in general. The past 10 years have been great watching the Spanks fail in or not even make the playoffs. I've never had a problem with Red Sox fans in all of the Red Sox- O's games I've gone to, both in Boston and Baltimore.

  As for Pittsburgh, what raises my ire is the way we have a rivalry with them, yet the NFL tries it's darnedest to make it tilt towards Pittsburgh. They seem to always get the close calls and why does it seem like the Sunday Night Football matchup between the two teams is now always in Pittsburgh, when they can march out their team hall of famers at halftime? Why does Baltimore always get a random 1PM game without much of the fanfare that goes with this top rivalry? The lack of B'more love from the media and nation is what angers me more than anything with this rivalry considering the Ravens organization has proven themselves a worthy rival/foe.

  • Solid points

• As you & a few others have mentioned, it's about the fans as much as (or more than) the teams themselves. Yankees -- yes they often are comprised of mercenaries and often outbid all others. And many of their "diehard Yankee" fans know Jeter, Mo Rivera, but haven't a clue who Guidry or Munson were.
  But they've always been that way.

  Bosox fans, on the other hand, are relatively new to that same game. Prior to their relatively recent success, Sawx fans I knew were true fans. They knew the Pesky Pole and Teddy Ballgame, Rice and Freddy Lynn. Then they got good and all of a sudden Sawx Nation is everywhere. And they're obnoxious as crap and if you ask them the greatest Sox of all time they think Nomar or Damon. They can't name anyone prior to those guys!

  And the team itself? That crap last year with Manny? Disgraceful. Lil' Papi and the phone? That probably made Ted Williams spin in his cryogenic chamber. So Bosox get my vote.

  Steeler fans I know are a little obnoxious but knowledgeable of the game, know their history, and aren't bandwagon. Like someone else said, I really dislike them and want to beat them but it's not a solid "hate."

  • I will say this. I think Yankee fans are super knowledgeable. At least the ones I’ve encountered. They do their history homework. Maybe so they can throw it in your face. But they do it.

• Depends on the age of the Balmur Fan per say, in my opinion.
  If over 40 and still clinging to the sad sack O’s who long ago (see: not paying Musina) or any #1 pitching talent since, and have done less than 3/4ths of the league, year in & year out (ooh can’t wait to see what garbage Duquette plucks from the early March trash bin) these die hard type fans most likely hate the Yanks most. Yankee visitors get wasted and start fights in the parking lots more than NE Bosos’. Maybe it’s the longer train ride for Sox fans, or flights. Now, Sox fans ain’t much better but there’s just a little more goon in the typical Bronx Bum.
  Anyone under 40 is more inclined to have no deep connection to the pre Angelos era aka the winning age of Oriole ball. When pitching & defense carried the team, along w clutch hitting (see: 3 Run Dinger) and thus more inclined to cling closer to the twice SB Champion Ravens, and til just recently, always Uber competitive footballers, in a football town

  • I’m still not convinced it’s a football town solely. Give these fans consistent winners and it’s a baseball town. Maybe it’s both, frankly. But I spent a lot of time here when there was no football and it’s hard for me to say baseball isn’t still huge here. Then again, my website kinda depends on me being right, eh?

• It’s the Yankees for me.

  Does the Ravens/Steelers rivalry stem from when the Ravens were still in Cleveland? If I remember right, the Browns and Steelers were hated foes before they moved to Baltimore.