Nimrod's Son
04-21-2003, 08:54 PM
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, no less..
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/thursday/sports_e3e9c35a15dbc0981062.html
INSIDE BALL: Yankees now wear 'America's Team' tag
Tim Tucker - Staff
Thursday, April 17, 2003
No, you can't blame this on the removal of Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren from the TBS telecasts.
But the Braves have been officially dethroned as "America's Team."
A new Harris Poll, conducted nationwide in the days before the start of the season and released Wednesday, found that the New York Yankees have replaced the Braves as the country's favorite baseball team.
"It's somewhat surprising," said Laura Light, a Harris senior research manager who was in charge of the poll, "in that the Braves had perenially been the favorite."
The Braves anointed themselves "America's Team" in the 1970s and gained standing as such in the '90s when the Harris Poll annually found them to be the nation's most popular team, usually by wide margins over the No. 2 Yankees.
But in the current poll --- the first one Harris has done on the topic since 1999 --- 17 percent of respondents said the Yankees are their favorite team, compared with 11 percent for the Braves. The Mets are next, named by 6 percent.
"We know that, at some point between 1999 and 2003, the Yankees have taken over the crown as being America's favorite team," Light said. She suggested the Braves slipped because the Yankees have had more postseason success and "have a bigger collection of stars right now."
The Braves began to build a national following in the 1970s, when Ted Turner beamed their games across the country on his fledgling Superstation and broadcasters Ernie Johnson Sr., Caray and Van Wieren convinced fans to adopt the then-inept team.
"We started getting letters from all the states, saying thanks for the games," Johnson, now retired, recalled Wednesday. "We'd be walking through the San Francisco airport, and someone would say, 'Watched the game last night.'
"So one night on the air, I casually said, 'We're like America's team.' The next day, I was down at the TV station, and somebody came up to me and said, 'Hey, Ernie, Ted heard and liked that 'America's team' remark. He's going to use it [in advertising and marketing].'
"That's how it all started."
In other words, no poll was required.
A little of this, little of that
We'll be brief . . .
> So the Walt Disney Co. has demonstrated it is possible to sell a baseball team in this economy. And it only took four years, one World Series championship and a 40 percent reduction in price to unload the Anaheim Angels.
> Disney put the Angels on the market for $300 million in 1999 and finally found a buyer this week, Phoenix businessman Arturo Moreno agreeing to pay around $180 million. Wonder how far the price would have fallen if the Angels, a last-place team when put on the market, weren't now the world champs.
> If Georgia Tech freshman Chris Bosh winds up in the NBA draft, he'll become the latest in a long line of players to turn pro after saying they would stay in school. In fact, if memory serves, every underclassmen ever to enter the NBA draft has said, at one point or another, that he would stay in school.
> The WNBA labor dispute takes us back to a simpler time in sports: The parties are arguing over whether the minimum salary for rookies should be $25,000 or $33,000, whether the minimum salary for veterans should be $41,200 or $48,000 and whether the salary cap per team should be $616,000 or $750,000. Arguments over such small change are almost refreshing, considering the billions that players and owners argue about in other leagues.
> Someone was asking Orlando Magic coach Doc Rivers the other day if his middling team would be better served long-term by being in the draft lottery than by being in the playoffs as a low seed. (His answer: No.) The question reminded me that we used to ask the same thing around here about the Hawks, back when they made the playoffs ever year. (And now we know the answer: No.)
> "This is my 40th anniversary with the Braves," Bill Bartholomay mentioned the other day. And this would have to be some sort of record, if it happens: being part of two groups that buy the same team, first in 1963 and again . . . 40 years later?
--- Tim Tucker's Inside Ball appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
[email protected]
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/thursday/sports_e3e9c35a15dbc0981062.html
INSIDE BALL: Yankees now wear 'America's Team' tag
Tim Tucker - Staff
Thursday, April 17, 2003
No, you can't blame this on the removal of Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren from the TBS telecasts.
But the Braves have been officially dethroned as "America's Team."
A new Harris Poll, conducted nationwide in the days before the start of the season and released Wednesday, found that the New York Yankees have replaced the Braves as the country's favorite baseball team.
"It's somewhat surprising," said Laura Light, a Harris senior research manager who was in charge of the poll, "in that the Braves had perenially been the favorite."
The Braves anointed themselves "America's Team" in the 1970s and gained standing as such in the '90s when the Harris Poll annually found them to be the nation's most popular team, usually by wide margins over the No. 2 Yankees.
But in the current poll --- the first one Harris has done on the topic since 1999 --- 17 percent of respondents said the Yankees are their favorite team, compared with 11 percent for the Braves. The Mets are next, named by 6 percent.
"We know that, at some point between 1999 and 2003, the Yankees have taken over the crown as being America's favorite team," Light said. She suggested the Braves slipped because the Yankees have had more postseason success and "have a bigger collection of stars right now."
The Braves began to build a national following in the 1970s, when Ted Turner beamed their games across the country on his fledgling Superstation and broadcasters Ernie Johnson Sr., Caray and Van Wieren convinced fans to adopt the then-inept team.
"We started getting letters from all the states, saying thanks for the games," Johnson, now retired, recalled Wednesday. "We'd be walking through the San Francisco airport, and someone would say, 'Watched the game last night.'
"So one night on the air, I casually said, 'We're like America's team.' The next day, I was down at the TV station, and somebody came up to me and said, 'Hey, Ernie, Ted heard and liked that 'America's team' remark. He's going to use it [in advertising and marketing].'
"That's how it all started."
In other words, no poll was required.
A little of this, little of that
We'll be brief . . .
> So the Walt Disney Co. has demonstrated it is possible to sell a baseball team in this economy. And it only took four years, one World Series championship and a 40 percent reduction in price to unload the Anaheim Angels.
> Disney put the Angels on the market for $300 million in 1999 and finally found a buyer this week, Phoenix businessman Arturo Moreno agreeing to pay around $180 million. Wonder how far the price would have fallen if the Angels, a last-place team when put on the market, weren't now the world champs.
> If Georgia Tech freshman Chris Bosh winds up in the NBA draft, he'll become the latest in a long line of players to turn pro after saying they would stay in school. In fact, if memory serves, every underclassmen ever to enter the NBA draft has said, at one point or another, that he would stay in school.
> The WNBA labor dispute takes us back to a simpler time in sports: The parties are arguing over whether the minimum salary for rookies should be $25,000 or $33,000, whether the minimum salary for veterans should be $41,200 or $48,000 and whether the salary cap per team should be $616,000 or $750,000. Arguments over such small change are almost refreshing, considering the billions that players and owners argue about in other leagues.
> Someone was asking Orlando Magic coach Doc Rivers the other day if his middling team would be better served long-term by being in the draft lottery than by being in the playoffs as a low seed. (His answer: No.) The question reminded me that we used to ask the same thing around here about the Hawks, back when they made the playoffs ever year. (And now we know the answer: No.)
> "This is my 40th anniversary with the Braves," Bill Bartholomay mentioned the other day. And this would have to be some sort of record, if it happens: being part of two groups that buy the same team, first in 1963 and again . . . 40 years later?
--- Tim Tucker's Inside Ball appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
[email protected]