The New York Yankees are without a doubt the most popular team in American professional sports, if you count the people who hate them along with those who love them. Even people who know nothing about sport and care less relish a hatred for the Yankees. Many who love baseball express that love with an almost obsessive devotion to the Bronx Bombers. No team generates more passion than the Yankees.

The New York Yankees set Major League Baseball’s single season attendance record in 2008 when 4.3 million fans pushed through the turn styles. It was the fourth season in a row that more than four million fans attended their games in Yankee Stadium. It was also the last year for the 85-year-old stadium, the most famous venue in all of sport. In those years, more than 152 million fans watched the Yankees play in their home park. The new Yankee Stadium will open in the 2009 season.

Statistics are only a small part of the story of Yankee popularity. While the team set and then broke their own records for championships in the 1950s, Yankee hatred became a cultural phenomenon. First came the best selling novel, "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant." It told the story of a man who sold his soul to the devil to play on a Washington Senators team that beat the Yankees for the American League pennant. The book was then adapted into a hit Broadway musical comedy called "Damn Yankees." The musical packed the seats with Yankee haters and lovers alike for more than a thousand performances. Love to hate them or hate to love them, they are a very popular team.