Yankees want to be titled "Baseball's Evil Empire"

In all of sports, it's common that fans of a team view their own club as the good guys and their rivals as the bad guys. For any Red Sox fan, the New York Yankees have always been seen as the 'bad guys' and also even dubbed the 'Evil Empire'. Well, after 27 World Series victories the Yankees are widely considered one of the most hated teams in the history of sports, with a majority of sports fans putting them at number 1 on the list. So, what does the most hated team ever decide to do? EMBRACE IT!

The Yankees were recently denied access to the trademark "Baseball's Evil Empire". According to The Wall Street Journal, the team was not granted their request for this trademark, as the entrepreneur company Evil Enterprises wanted to keep exclusive rights to the phrase. The reference was first coined in 2002 by Sox president Larry Lucchino when the Yankees came to a contract agreement with the young Cuban star pitcher Jose Contreras. Lucchino was quoted saying:

"The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America."

At this point, the team tried to make the argument in court that since they are almost universally known as the 'Evil Empire' that they should be granted the right. Here's a piece from the article on The Wall Street Journal's website:

Part of the Yankees' argument: a concession that in the baseball world, they are, in fact, the "Evil Empire." In its legal papers, the team referenced a number of articles from the past decade using the term in connection with the Yankees, and conceded that the team has "implicitly embraced" the "Evil Empire" theme by playing music from Star Wars during their home games.

Although the Yankees were not granted the rights to 'Baseball's Evil Empire', I personally think it is hysterical that they even tried. In all honesty, it would have been very cool to see a team refer to themselves as the bad guys. This shows that they enjoy the idea of being the most hated team in baseball, and possibly all of sports, as it is mostly a result of their historical winning ways (in addition to ridiculous spending sprees). Lucchino even took this stunt as an all-in-good-fun effort by the Yankees:

"I give them credit. Their embracing it is clever indeed."

Anthony Aidonidis
@aidonidis18