From: http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=59511 An interview with Ron Gardenhire, manager of the Twins.
**********************************

Q. Joe Girardi described your club as scrappy. Particularly the walk-off wins. But also these recent games here now, do you think your players relish this role? They come and see this 1.5 billion palace, the $200 million Yankees. Is there a certain role they want to play here, David versus Goliath?

RON GARDENHIRE: I think once you get out on the field, no one plays with a bill fold in their pocket. It's all baseball players….

You know what, the Yankees are the most professional team you'll ever see. They do their work. They play the game the right way. They don't get enough credit for that. They get always talked about high payroll and everything. But that's professional baseball players over there. Those guys are really good. And they take pride in everything they do. So we know that we've got a big battle here. Because these guys are a great baseball team. They've proved it all year long.

________________________________________________________________________________

It might occur to most of us who don't blindly hate the Yanks or who claim that the Yanks buy Championships that if the opinion of a respected big-league manager is that the Yanks honor the city they play in and the game they play enough to put it enough hard work to get the most out of their abilities that the argument that the Yanks simply cut checks to the best free agents and let the mercenaries mercilessly destroy everyone is BS.  Didn't the Yankees go like 17 games without an error in mid-May?  They did.  And that's not cause the players are the best paid.  It's because they've worked hard at their trade and take pride in what they do.  In laymens terms that's called hard work.  If you work hard you get rewarded.  If you look to improve on already prodigious talent that means you're hungry to succeed and revel in the glory of success.  In professional sports one thing counts:  winning. You play to have fun and to win.  If you're a company who has inherent resources to consistently improve the product that you put out it means you care about your brand and don't want to shortchange the paying public.  That's called a sense of obligation.  I'd like to see how many of the teams in the AL got their best home attendances in the games where the Yanks visited their city.  I already know the answer.  All of them.  More fans, more parking money, more money on concessions, merchandise.  More business in the bars around the stadiums. 

 

Everyone baseball fan that dislikes the Yanks for what they aspire to do WOULD WANT their team to do the same thing if their team had the resources.  The argument about how immoral and what an outrage the Yanks are would be valid if those same detractors stopped rooting for their team if management had such resources and decided to put them to work to build a winner.  But of course they would not.  They'd be clamoring for their teams front office to spend and try to achieve glory.  In the end it's envy.  It 's those people who wish they could be like us.  I wish I were successful professionally but I'm not.  But I don't hate those who are.  In fact I admire them and wish that in that respect I was more like them.  That comparison is just as applicable to those fans who beat on the Yanks and New York.  They want to be where we are.  Their envy and hatred is the greatest flattery, admiration and respect they could pay to us.