That was an interesting series

[sportsfan8703]

We’re just a couple of bats short right now. I loved the crying from Judge about the ballpark. The team is playing hard for Hyde. We just need to be healthy and to have AR up. 

[DrungoHazewood]

25 minutes ago, InsideCoroner said:

Red Sox fans remind me of RB Leipzig fans in the Bundesliga. You might well know the story, Drungo, but for anyone who doesn't, in 2009 Red Bull bought RB Leipzig, a floundering team in the fifth league, which is the soccer equivalent of single-A ball, and pumped ridiculous money into the team. In the German football league, the major-league clubs don't own the lower teams or their players, each team is separate. At the end of the year the top 2 or 3 teams in a division move up a level, and the bottom 2 or 3 move down, which makes it pretty interesting. RB Leipzig went from their lowly division, drawing a little over 2,000 fans per game, and within eight years they had made the "majors" and have never had a losing season since their purchase, now drawing about 40,000 fans per game (pre-pandemic). Their fans can be absolutely insufferable because after years of being a joke, they now act entitled (Red Sox style) and are therefore among the most hated fans in football. 

That said, would I mind if Warren Buffett bought the O's and brought them back to greatness simply because he liked the way the World Series rings looked on display in his office? Not really, if he didn't mess with the integrity of the team. Would I then act entitled after so many years of suffering? I sincerely hope not.

German football is a funny thing.  They have the 50+1 rule where the supporters have to have 50% plus one of the voting shares of the club so nobody can come in and just buy a team and pump $billions in and remake the whole thing in their own image. Like happens every 20 minutes in the Premier League. The Saudi soverign wealth fund just bought Newcastle; that would never happen in Germany.  The Germans love that, it's a big part of their core identity as Fußball fans.  But somehow Bayern Munich gets around that, they have some kind of setup where they still make ungodly amounts of money and dominate the Bundesliga in a way the Yanks or Sox are jealous of, and it seems like even fans of other teams will root for Bayern in European competitions. Bayern is mostly loved (I loathe them, and I'm a fan of their traditional rival 1860 Munich, sadly long-since relegated to the 3. Liga).

But by God if anyone else tries to get around 50+1 they're immediately pariahs.  I'm not sure how Red Bull was able to do what they did, I assume they have 50-1% of the votes on the board but everyone else is okay with their money.  But if you ran a poll of Most Hated Team in Germany Leipzig would win going away. The German people see them as exploiting some kind of loophole in 50+1 and cheating their way to the top with outside money.

I guess it would be like some super-controversial billionaire like Buffett or Elon Musk or Bill Gates buying the Marlins and immediately boosting them to a $350M payroll.  

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'm content with the knowledge that if the Orioles ever win it'll be truly satisfying and unexpected and joyful in a way that can never happen for fans of teams for whom 92 wins is disappointment.  The Yanks winning the Series is like Jeff Bezos winning the lottery.

That's right.  That's exactly right.

[interloper]

3 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'm content with the knowledge that if the Orioles ever win it'll be truly satisfying and unexpected and joyful in a way that can never happen for fans of teams for whom 92 wins is disappointment.  The Yanks winning the Series is like Jeff Bezos winning the lottery.

Great post - well said. 

[MCO'sFan]

7 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'm content with the knowledge that if the Orioles ever win it'll be truly satisfying and unexpected and joyful in a way that can never happen for fans of teams for whom 92 wins is disappointment.  The Yanks winning the Series is like Jeff Bezos winning the lottery.

One of the best posts in the history of the Hangout.