Cliff Lee is regarded as the best pitcher in baseball by most serious pundits and this winter will be the game's most prized free agent. As the jostling begins to court the signature of a player who almost single-handedly dragged the unfancied Texas Rangers to its first World Series appearance, the New York Yankees would appear to be at the front of the queue. The richest club has the deepest pockets and the most dire need for his services. In these circumstances, all they usually need is an audience with the player and the opportunity to dangle a very large cheque in front of his face.

If that's normally the point when a player takes the pen in hand and declares the pinstripes to be the team of his childhood dreams, this time it could be very different. During the recent play-offs, Lee's Texas Rangers defeated the Yankees in the American League Championships Series. For one of the games at Yankee Stadium, his wife Kristen was seated in the section of the stand reserved for the family members of the visiting team. As her husband's club began to get the better of the Yankees on the field, she had the unique pleasure of the local fans spitting down on her from on high, throwing paper cups of beer and hurling obscenities.

"The fans did not do good things in my heart," said Kristen Lee, showing a special gift for polite understatement. "When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it's hard not to take it personal."

Operating on the principle that hell hath no fury like a baseball wife scorned, the Yankees faithful (or those of them who weren't foaming at the mouth in her direction) are appalled that the club's chances of signing Lee (right) may now be jeopardised. The thinking is his wife will surely want to go anywhere but New York after that experience. Conversely, other bleacher creatures, as the most devout fans up in the Bronx are known, are so insulted by her comments that they would prefer the team not to bother going after the guy.

"I thought Yankee fans, frankly, were awful," said Chuck Greenberg, the CEO of the Texas Rangers, adding fuel to the fire earlier this week. "They were either violent or apathetic, neither of which is good. So I thought Yankee fans were by far the worst of any I've seen in the post-season. I thought they were an embarrassment."

Although Greenberg quickly rowed back from his comments, and some suspect was made to do so by the schoolmarmish baseball authorities, the charge of apathy isn't new and isn't outlandish. More than one New York columnist has made the same point in recent weeks. Since moving to the new Yankee stadium last season, the atmosphere at games has been more sedate than before and far less passionate. Some people put this change down to the increased corporate presence in the crowd following the club's decision to seriously ramp up the average price of tickets. More charge that the fanbase has become so complacent about their annual trip to the play-offs that they no longer are fired up for big games.

If the truth is probably somewhere in between, both views lent weight to Greenberg's accusation that a large portion of the supporters weren't as animated as they once were. Of course, not everybody in the greater New York area could see that kind of logic. For days, the Texan owner has been hauled over the coals on sportstalk radio in the city, an especially demented arena where the ability to speak loudly is sometimes prized over the ability to think clearly. At least part of the umbrage may be down to the fact the Rangers had the temerity to interrupt the Yankees' God-given right to march to another World Series.

The New Yorkers were entitled to argue that the vast majority of those who follow the Yankees are not violent but inevitably many of them refused to accept that, just like every other team, they do have a contingent of belligerent morons in their stadium. No sooner had the apologists began claiming the supporters were misunderstood angels than various websites began helpfully posting video footage of Yankee fans fighting each other during the aforementioned Texas series. The most ironic part of their indignation was the claim that maybe just one per cent of the supporters were bad apples. As was quickly pointed out, one per cent of 50,000 is 500. That's a lot of potential for idiotic behaviour.

"I brush that off as fans being fans," said Lee of the whole brouhaha. "You can't control 50,000 people and what they're going to do. There were some people that were spitting off the balcony on the family section and things like that, and that's kind of weak but what can you do? You can't control 50,000 people. Some people get a little alcohol in them and act inappropriate. But it is what it is."

A rather magnanimous take from the pitcher. Then again, this is a man who well knows the continued presence of the Yankees in the bidding war for his services will add $20m to the value of his next contract.

dhannigan@tribune.ie