All week we have been bringing you a breakdown of the opinions of residents of the Bronx. In our final installment, we look at what sports are winning over Bronxites. Not surprisingly, these residents have soft spot for their hometown team. NY1’s Courtney Gross filed this report.
If you live in the Bronx, you’re probably a Yankee fan.
“They bring a message to the people of the Bronx,” says one resident. “It’s comrarderie. It’s team. It’s team building. It’s just an art to it.”
“They are my favorite team,” says another resident. “I love the Yankees.”
"It’s a time where everybody feels like family and everybody knows one another," another resident says.
They've been descending the Grand Concourse for some 80 games a year to The House That Ruth Built.
According to our new exclusive NY1 Baruch College City Poll, 57 percent of Bronx residents are loyal to the Bronx bombers. Only 12 percent root for the Mets; less than half of the people who say they don’t have any interest in baseball at all.
America’s pastime was the top choice of sport for Bronxites.
Twenty-seven percent say it’s their favorite sport to watch. Twenty-six percent picked basketball and 13 percent selected football.
Even though Yankee stadium is now home to New York’s soccer league, it’s not converting anyone just yet. Only eight perfect of Bronx residents selected soccer as their favorite sport to watch.
"Baseball is their first love and the Yankees, the Yankees are their team," says Baruch College Pollster Mickey Blum.
How about their favorite Yankee?
“You've got to go with tradition, the original man, but Jeter’s still the man. Still the man. Hands down best Yankee representative out there," one resident says.
"The babe is one of the greatest cause—as we say, 'The House That Ruth Built.' But I am standing outside of the house that Jeter built,” another says.
They were practically tied. Twenty-eight percent said Babe Ruth was the greatest Yankee of all time. Twenty-seven percent said Derek Jeter. No one else was close.