Sport

Some teams I hate

THERE ARE CERTAIN sport teams I simply just don't like.

Starting from way back when it was the Glenelg Tigers in the South Australian Aussie Rules league.

About 80 per cent of my schoolmates supported the 'Bays' while I was one of a few Port Adelaide fans. Heck, if Glenelg should beat my Magpies at the weekend, there was hell to pay on the following Monday.

Hate remains

When I moved from South Australia to Victoria it was logical that I followed the Victorian Magpies, Collingwood, and loathe anything associated with arch-rivals Carlton. You could drive from one ground to the other in less than ten minutes but the clubs were light years apart demographically; Collingwood was pure poor working-class in the olden days while the Blues were regarded as toffs. That has changed nowadays but the hate remains - there are two AFL games Collingwood are not allowed to lose each year: Carlton at home and Carlton away.

Then there's another set of Magpies, Newcastle United in the English Premier League, and their foes from the north, Sunderland (although I don't particularly care much for Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal either).

You get a rival and they are a rival for life, through thick and thin, sickness and health, relegation or promotion.

Travelling across the Big Pond to the US, I really can't stand the glitzy, pretty boy LA Lakers as I am Boston Celtic green through and through. That goes way back to the early '80s when it was my man Larry Bird against Magic Johnson in some of the greatest clashes the game has seen.

The clashes don't mean so much nowadays because, for want of a better word, the Celts suck and the Lakers look like they have bought a championship team with the additions of future Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton to the All-Star core of Shaq and Kobe.

However, there's no more team I despise right now than the New York Yankees. Talk about buying a championship!

Their owner, George Steinbrenner, is a megolamaniac who will do anything to win baseball's World Series. The season is soon to start and Georgie Porgie has bought a whole new team including the world's most expensive player, Alex Rodriguez, and star outfielder Gary Sheffield.

It's his money; there's no salary cap; and he can do what he wants, but it is also like a vaccuum cleaner - it too sucks. Big time.

His team's payroll is going to be about US$200 million this year while some others are operating at about the US$30 million mark.

I'm a Red Sox fan so it is by birthright that I have to hate the Yanks but championships should not be bought (although, I must admit, the BoSox payroll is the second highest in the league at about US$120 million).

The Sawx play the Yanx 19 times in the regular season and each encounter will be more intense than the previous one.

I hope to get up there for a few of those 'meetings'.

There are some teams you hate and then there are the Yankees.

The 'Evil Empire' is going down this year (I hope).

Later ...