It was former Red Sox general manager Larry Lucchino that attached the nickname "The Evil Empire" to the New York Yankees following their signing of Jose Contreras out from under the Boston. It is a little ironic that it was Boston that made that claim considering how they have basically been doing the same thing as the Yankees all along...just not as well, but I digress. For the most part, I have agreed with the moniker of the Evil Empire, especially this year when the Yankees actually attempted to trademark the phrase Evil Empire. The force was definitely with them because they won that lawsuit and are now the only baseball team that can be referred to as the Evil Empire at least for marketing purposes. What started out as an insult to the Yankees has been turned into a very nice marketing strategy as the Yankees have fully embraced their role as villain in MLB. This sort of makes me like them just a little bit more. Not much more since they are still at #26, but I appreciate their embracing the role as villain. It's easy to fully hate a villain that sees themselves as purely good, but it's a lot more difficult to hate a villain that sees themselves as evil. Let's take a look at some trivia for baseball's only "Evil Empire."
YANKEES TEAM TRIVIA
# of players to play in a Yankees game (1993-2013) - 438
# of those players to have a Yankees card (as of today) - 325
% of Yankees players to appear on a Yankees card - 74.2%
Big names left out - Pete Incaviglia, Bob Ojeda, Chan Ho Park
# of new Yankees in 2013 - 28
Total # of Yankees in 2013 - 56
position on last year's list -- #27 = UP 1
Let's take a look at the first half of the 2013 New York Yankees with the team card leading the way.
I'll be back tomorrow with Part 2.
Thanx for reading.
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