Pirates fans cannot handle complaints from Yankees fans about playoff malfeasance

The New York Yankees are down 0-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS. To listen to their fans complaining on social media, though, you'd think that the team was a poverty franchise that hasn't even been relevant for more than three decades.

Oh, wait – that's the Pittsburgh Pirates.

What exactly makes being a Yankees fan so terrible? Making the playoffs every year? Having a massive payroll? Having Aaron Judge on your team? It all sounds like a real struggle.

Pirates fans see Yankees fans as complaining from a position of unimaginable privilege, while they’ve spent decades enduring mismanagement, tanking, and irrelevance. So when Yankees fans lament “struggles” that most small-market fanbases would kill to experience, it understandably doesn’t go over well.

Yankees fans define failure as anything short of a World Series. The Yankees have 27 championships, routinely field top-five payrolls, and almost never miss the postseason. A “bad” Yankees year is a 84–78 season or a Division Series loss.

Pirates fans, meanwhile, define success as relevance... at all. Pittsburgh has three winning seasons since 1992 – as in, they have only finished three of their last 33 seasons with a record above .500. They also have just one playoff series win in that span. Their ownership (Bob Nutting) has prioritized financial efficiency over competitiveness, and fans have had to spend more than three decades watching talented cores get broken up before they peak.

So, when Yankees fans complain about a few ALDS losses or a “drought” since 2009, Pirates fans hear:

“We haven’t won a title in 16 years,”
…and think:
“We haven’t even contended in 16 years.”

Then, there's the financial piece. The Yankees’ payroll in 2025 is over $280 million; the Pirates’ is under $90 million. That’s triple the spending power. The Yankees can afford to fix mistakes, and a bad free agent deal doesn’t cripple them.

The Yankees’ failures are largely executional (wrong roster mix, analytics imbalances, injuries). Meanwhile, the Pirates’ failures are structural (chronic underfunding, front office resets, no spending flexibility). So, to Pirates fans, Yankee fans' complaints sound like billionaires whining about champagne being too warm.

Yankees fans' complaints after ALDS losses ring hollow for Pirates fans simply begging for relevance

Yankees fandom is national and entitled by history. Their identity is dominance – “World Series or bust.” Pirates fandom is local and survivalist. Their identity is loyalty in the face of hopelessness – “We’re still here despite everything.” That’s why when Yankees fans boo a 90-win team, Pirates fans see it as spoiled behavior. They’d celebrate 90 wins for a decade.

Pirates fans have watched their team intentionally tank for draft picks while ownership pocketed revenue-sharing money. They've watched cornerstone players get traded away because of cost, not talent. They’ve lived through rebuild after rebuild with little payoff.

Sure, there's an element of envy to it. Every fanbase wants its team to spend and win like the Yankees.
But Pirates fans can point out – truthfully – that they never had the luxury to fail upward. They survive decades of austerity because of loyalty, not hope of reinvestment.

At its heart, the reason Pirates fans can’t handle Yankees fans’ complaints is this: Pittsburgh’s fans have endured real baseball misery, and they see New York’s as self-inflicted frustration.

For Yankees fans, “suffering” means no championships despite infinite resources. But for Pirates fans, suffering means no real attempt to win despite fan loyalty. When a fanbase that has known almost nothing but contention complains about “struggles,” it feels like a slap in the face to one that’s starved for relevance.

Pirates fans aren’t mad that Yankees fans are unhappy. They’re mad that Yankees fans think they have the right to be unhappy. To a Pittsburgh fan, New York’s version of pain is luxury; theirs is survival.