Unfair to say Yankees fans are spoiled

The Yankees host the Boston Red Sox for a three-game weekend series on Friday night. They took an 8-3 loss to their ancient rivals to go to a season-worst 60-62. They have lost a season-worst six in a row, and they have scored a total of six runs in their past four games.

There’s quite an irony about this with The Old Towne Team in town. For a long time, they would be looking up to the Yanks. This ended for good in 2004 when they overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat their tormentors in the American League Championship Series. In the process, they also took away the mystique and aura of the team in the Bronx for good.

Since 2004, the Yankees have been nothing more than a mediocre team at best. They finally won a World Series championship in 2009 after an eight-year drought, and that’s mainly because they spent money on free agents such as CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, so that George Steinbrenner can see his team win a championship for the last time before he would pass away in 2010.

Smart money says not only the Bronx Bombers will extend their championship drought to 13 years after this season, but they will miss the playoffs altogether.

No one knows when the championship drought will end. Yankees fans are obviously frustrated with everything that has gone on with their team.

Hal Steinbrenner, son of George, seems inclined not to fire Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and Yankees manager Aaron Boone. He doesn’t want the headache of doing a hiring process; so he’d rather stay with those he knows since he’s comfortable with them.

This has frustrated Yankees fans since they know the product is stale and the guys are not developing into Major League players. Young players such as Gleyber Torres, Luis Severino and Domingo German regressed, and Anthony Volpe has not been the star that Corbin Carroll and Elly De La Cruz have been. The team has not been fundamentally sound for years. They feature many old players who saw their best days. They failed to apply analytics well.

When critics accuse Yankees fans of being spoiled, that’s not right. They should be entitled to watch a better product. From knowing them, that’s the case. They can live with their team not winning a championship. It’s watching this type of team they have seen in recent years that has been bugging them, and understandably so.

Look, we all have yuks at their expense after being so haughty and arrogant. That’s okay, but they shouldn’t be questioned for demanding more, especially when they are paying out of their mortgage to attend a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium or on the road and when they are paying an exorbitant cost of their cable bill. They should be no different than any other 29 fanbases in baseball.

The Yankees trended the wrong way for a while now. Since June 4 after going 36-25 on the day Aaron Judge tore a ligament in his big right toe at Dodger Stadium, they have gone 24-37. Since July 8, 2022 after going 61-23, they have gone 100-108. They have gone 1-9-3 over their last 13 series, the lone series win coming in a three-game sweep of the Royals last month.

You can bet Yankees fans took notice of that.

There’s nothing to like about the Yankees at all. This is a team that doesn’t seem to care about the way they go about their business. This is a team that looks old and lifeless every game. This is a team that has players be happy to cash their checks with no consequences. It sure seems like they are playing like they want this season to be over and painless from the way they went about Friday night’s game against the Red Sox. Here's the ultimate insult about them: they are boring.

The Yankees are on track to waste great careers out of Gerrit Cole and Judge. There’s no way this team is in a position to win a championship in the next two seasons. It could get even worse if things are more the same with the general manager and manager staying for a long time.

We always wondered how committed Hal Steinbrenner is to the Yankees. He never wanted to be the owner of the team in the first place. He did it to make sure the team is still in the family, but his actions tell you a lot differently. Any owner who cares would be embarrassed and feel compelled to make a change no matter what.

This Steinbrenner doesn’t seem to want to do that. He will tell you that he is not the reactionary type, and he doesn’t want to be what his father was. It’s one thing not to make a change when the team has been going well, but that hasn’t been the case for two decades.

This is why the Yankees fanbase have been upset. If the owner doesn’t care, it’s not going to get better anytime soon.

The Yankees only exist in brand only as in what they have done in the past with their 27 championships. It has nothing to do with excellence anymore. This is not what this franchise used to be.

This season has not been any fun. There are not many bright spots to look at with this team.

Not only this is not a championship team, but they are not even a functional baseball team worth anyone’s time anymore.

Even anyone that hates the Yankees should be bothered since being bad would ruin the baseball experience for a fan that wants to see his or her team beat the Yankees when they are great rather than when they are what they are now.

It’s really hard to go after Yankees fans for resenting their team when watching what they have done this season, especially when Cashman and Boone seem to insult their intelligence when they address the fans through the media.

You can read Leslie's Jersey Sporting News columns on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.