Rap artist Jay-Z is a diehard New York Yankees fan and has been spotted taking in a game or two at Yankee Stadium.

Red Sox Nation can keep Stephen King.

Yankees Universe has more stars than the Milky Way. Yankees games are spectacles where luminaries show up to root on the home team (this fact doesn’t escape the wrath of satirists).

Yankees Universe

The Music World

Among the stars who are among the constellations of Yankees fans are legendary musicians Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, and Bruce Springsteen.

In fact, McCartney signed former Yankees center-fielder Bernie Williams to his music publishing company.

Top rap acts 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Nas, Puff Daddy, and Chuck D of Public Enemy sport their Yankees gear proudly. Jay-Z, from Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, even considered buying shares of the team.

Athletic All-Stars

New England quarterback Tom Brady has been photographed on the tough streets of Manhattan wearing his Yankees cap. He is also friends with third-baseman Alex Rodriguez.

One of the best basketball players on the planet, Cavaliers small forward LeBron James, rooted his Yankees on during a playoff game in Cleveland, drawing the ire of local fans in Ohio. He’s also released a Nike sneaker line inspired by the Yankees.

Movie Stars

Comedians Adam Sandler, Robin Williams, and Chris Rock are Yankees fans. None however, can brag like Billy Crystal, who was signed to a one-day contract by the Yankees during spring training (he struck out on his one at-bat).

Director and producer Spike Lee loves the Yankees and included the team’s ‘77 World Series run in the film, Summer of Sam.

Movie stars Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and James Gandolfini of The Sopranos are fellow pinstripers.

It’s been documented that Nicholson refused to wear a Red Sox cap during his role as a Boston gangster in The Departed, out of loyalty to the Yankees.

Politics

Politicians Henry Kissenger, Joe Lieberman, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton root for the Yankees. Although did Clinton by coincidence start attending Yankees games only during her election bid for New York senator? You decide for yourself.

Esquire named Giuliani the best mayor in America while he governed New York and reports that “when Giuliani was three and living in Brooklyn, his father made him wear a Yankees uniform around the neighborhood, a taunt to Dodgers fans, who’d periodically beat him up.”

Summary

The Yankees are the most revered and the most detested sports team in the universe. That is the price of an illustrious history of fame and success.

I can’t imagine that New York, one of the world’s most brilliant cities, and its variety of Yankees fans (satire), would expect any less from the home team and baseball’s best ever franchise.