Rooting for the Yankees is like...

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Noted on a blog...

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http://www.tomatonation.com/yanks05.shtml
We've all heard the expression that rooting for the Yankees is like
rooting for the phone company, but until about a week ago, rooting for the
Yankees had started to feel like rooting for...I don't even know. Enron?
An internet start-up that spent all their venture capital on beanbag
chairs and overpaying the Flaming Lips to play the launch party instead of
working on a business plan and beta-testing the search engine? Even now,
it's like rooting for Donald Trump, who looks like a rich guy and who
certainly acts like a rich guy but who, when you look more closely at the
figures, is actually not nearly as good at getting rich as he's led you to
believe.
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Usually rooting for the Yankees is equated with "rooting for U.S. Steel"
("General Motors" and "IBM" are popular alternatives).  The comparison
apparently originated in a 1950 article in _Life_ by sports columnist Jim
Murray, but the pithier version has been variously attributed to Red
Smith, Bill Veeck, Bennett Cerf, John Drebinger, and Joe E. Lewis.

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Los Angeles Times, Feb 23, 1966, p. B1
"The Old Breed" by Jim Murray
I guess I'm getting sensitive in my old age. Getting the feeling people
don't appreciate me.
It all began when I heard the guy on television say, "Well, it was Bennett
Cerf who once said, 'Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S.
Steel.'"
Then, Bill Veeck, in his latest book, "The Hustler's Handbook," notes "The
Yankees should sue the guy who first said that 'Rooting for the Yankees is
like rooting for U.S. Steel' because he articulated for so many people
what they had already come to feel."
Ok, now, you want to know who said it first? You're looking at him. Old
numero uno. James Patrick Murray.
You don't believe it? All right. Do you happen to have a copy of Life for
April 17, 1950 around the house? Gen. Eisenhower is on the cover. He
always was in those days. Open to Page 25 and you'll find a story titled,
"I Hate The Yankees" by a guy identified as "James Murray, Time-Life
correspondent in Los Angeles."
On Page 28, you will find the tell-tale phrase: "For my money the Yankees
were and are super-champions for the same reasons General Motors or U.S.
Steel or Standard Oil are super businesses. They have more fans paying
more money than any other club in the history of the game."
On Page 32, you will find the sentence: "Anyone who wouldn't root for them
(The Yankees) must have interred sentiment. Sentiment indeed. I would as
soon feel sorry for Standard Oil because it was getting slightly the worst
of it in a marketing fight with an independent gas station in East
Podunk."
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Other early cites:

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New York Times, Jun 27, 1954 (Magazine) p. 17
What can a guy get out of rooting for the Yankees? It's like rooting for
J.P. Morgan to close that Commonwealth and Southern deal.
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New York Times, May 4, 1958 (Book Review), p. 23
[ad for _Casey Stengel: His Half-Century in Baseball_ by Frank Graham, Jr.]
Like a Dodger fan once said rootin for the Yankees is like rootin for U.S.
Steel on account of Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel which quite a lot of
people think he is the greatest manager in baseball history today.
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Washington Post, May 21, 1958, p. D1
Cheering for Calumet [sc. a racehorse] is something like rooting for U.S.
Steel.
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New York Times, Jun 29, 1958 (Magazine), p. 18
Although it is sometimes said that rooting for the Yankees is like rooting
for U.S. Steel, those fans who have remained faithful to the Yankees this
season are a special, happy breed.
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New York Times, Aug 3, 1958, p. S2
He [sc. Eddie Brannick] calls the Yankees "General Motors in short pants."
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Salisbury Times (Md.), May 25, 1962, p. 17
John Drebinger, longtime writer of the New York Times, says rooting for
the Yankees "is like rooting for U.S. Steel. I like to pull for the
underdog."
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--Ben Zimmer