Wear the shirts - the Yankees DO suck!!

Texas Rangers fan asked to remove 'Yankees Suck' T-shirt
09:01 AM CDT on Saturday, May 30, 2009
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
sjacobson@dallasnews.com

Kristen Knapp-Webb wasn't crazy about her husband's idea to celebrate their wedding anniversary at a Rangers-Yankees game in Arlington this week.
She hated the Yankees, so she wore her "Yankees Suck" T-shirt to prove it the one that her husband gave to her as part of their 19th anniversary outing.

"Everyone we saw thought the T-shirt was funny," Knapp-Webb would recall later in an e-mail message to local media.



But the people who enforce the rules at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington weren't laughing a bit.
Once inside the ballpark's Diamond Club for a pregame dinner, Knapp-Webb was informed that the anti-Yankees message on her shirt was a violation of the Rangers' code of conduct for fans. At the least, she had to turn it inside out.

"A lady from the ballpark tapped me on the shoulder and told me that security was going to make me change my shirt," Knapp-Webb recalled. "They don't let people wear that kind of shirt in the ballpark."
In fact, the Rangers organization imposes a dozen rules of conduct on fans who attend games in Arlington. Once inside the ballpark, they are not allowed to throw things, use obscene or profane language, enter the playing field or consume alcohol if they are underage.

Rule 11 states: "Any person wearing clothing with language, graphics or revealing parts of their body that may be offensive to another guest may be denied entry into the stadium or ejected from the stadium without refund."
Knapp-Webb made it inside the ballpark Tuesday night, wearing the white T-shirt with the big blue letters, but only for a couple of minutes. The shirt had to go, even if no other fan complained about it.

"We put in a rule based on fan complaints over the years," explained Rangers spokesman John Blake. "We feel like we have to respond to the needs and requests of our fans. Maybe in this case, nobody said anything around her."
At first, Knapp-Webb wasn't sure the organization's staff was serious about making her remove the shirt. The more she thought about it, the madder she got.

"My shirt is not profane," she reasoned. "I am not acting improperly, inciting anyone to riot."
Besides, the whole thing was starting to feel un-American. "I feel like my right to freedom of speech was being threatened," she said.

Knapp-Webb rebuffed the efforts of a security guard to make her change the shirt by asking to talk to his boss.
About then, her husband, Walter, started worrying that they would be thrown out of the ballpark, and he asked her not to take it too far.

"OK," she told him. "But I am really getting [expletive] off about this."

When the guard's boss showed up, things got a little testy. According to Knapp-Webb, the man was emphatic that she must preserve the ballpark's "family atmosphere" by buying another shirt or turning her shirt inside out.
She gave in, went to the restroom and turned the shirt around. But she was livid.
"I am shaking with anger and frustration," Knapp-Webb recalled. "I don't want to cry in front of everyone; that's how angry I am."

Similar incidents involving the forced removal of anti-Yankee T-shirts have been reported at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, and Safeco Field, where the Seattle Mariners play.

An official with the Yankees organization said Friday that the team "was aware of the shirts." But he declined to comment on these shirt-removal incidents or whether the team wanted to see the shirts banned altogether.
In 2005, Boston Red Sox fans who wore "Yankees Suck" T-shirts at Fenway Park were asked to turn them inside out, according to USA Today. The temporary ban could not, however, stop Red Sox fans from chanting the phrase throughout the series.

Anti-Yankees sentiment seems to have grown into a minor baseball industry. Numerous Web sites offer T-shirts and other memorabilia for people who want to make an outward expression of their dislike of the Bronx Bombers.
"YankeesSuck.com's mission is to build a national community who want to reclaim America's game from a culture of greed, power and arrogance that the Evil Empire epitomizes," explained one Web site.

For Knapp-Webb, the night at Rangers Ballpark was ruined by having to turn her T-shirt inside out. She tried to drink a beer with her husband but was too upset to continue the evening.

"I am so unendingly offended," she said about leaving the ballpark before the game started.
The Rangers beat the Yankees, 7-3, that night.

It was one night, for certain, that the Yankees sucked.