Kansas City fans long schooled in booing, blaming, and staging walkouts against the Yankees as it makes life easier for Bud Selig and David Glass

• 7/10/12, "Fans go too far with Cano reaction," FoxSports, Morosi

"1999: On April 30th during a game against the World Champion New York Yankees a group of frustrated Royals fans stage a protest over the economic state of baseball. The fans bring signs to the ballpark blaming the Yankees spending and the economic of baseball for ruining the Royals chances of competing. The fans also throw fake dollar bills on the field, and turn their backs away from the field when the Yankees take their turn at-bats. The group would make one more clear statement by staging a mass walkout after the fifth inning. However, it would have little effect on the season as the Royals suffered an awful 64-97 season, and the Yankees won another World Championship. One star Kansas City fans could enjoy was Carlos Beltran who won the Rookie of the Year with 22 homers and 108 RBI."

• Historical Moments, Kansas City Royals, Sports Encyclopedia.com

The Royals receive revenue sharing from teams like the Yankees. For example in 2006, they received $32 million.

• Joel Sherman finds the Commissioner's office to be the source of much anti Yankee negativity.

From page 311 of his 2006 book about the 1996 Yankees, "Birth of a Dynasty:"

• "Unfortunately for the legacy of this group, the success of these Yankees (1996 team) coincided with

a powerful push by central baseball to convince fans that the disparity between the financial "haves" and "have-nots" was destroying the competitive balance of the sport. The Yankees came to embody the big-market superpowers. They were demonized for buying championships.

• They were cast as villains by a Commissioner's Office that saw the advantages of portraying them as a prop in a strategy to win salary concessions from the players in collective bargaining,

• Thus the Yankees of this era do not receive near the amount of credit they deserve for what they accomplished."...

Page 311 from Joel Sherman in his 2006 book, "Birth of a Dynasty," about the 1996 Yankees.

• Bud Selig makes $22 million a year plus jet for running a legal monopoly but he prefers you focus on the Yankees.

1/11/2012, "Bud Selig: The $22 million commish," David Schoenfield, ESPN

• 5/7/07, "A Royal Mess," Forbes, Nathan Vardi, photo above, Royals owner David Glass from Forbes
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Ed. note: I was listening in 1999 when Royals fans staged their protest against what they had been taught was their enemy.

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