If you watch a lot of baseball -- or a lot of sports in general -- then you already know: Erectile dysfunction drugs are everywhere. The ads are ubiquitous. It is literally impossible to watch a baseball game and not get at least one television ad, or one outfield sign, and usually more, about the reasons you need to buy a drug to help make your penis erect when that "special moment" arrives.
The Yankees are not immune to this trend, apparently: On the heels of an awkward ED-commercial-related conversation with his son during a Yankees game, Atlantic blogger Jeffrey Goldberg asked if so many Yankee fans really had a problem with soft penis syndrome, which is totally its medical term. Derek Thompson answered ... with math. Yankee fans, get ready to flinch:
It's not just the stressing, it's the smoking. Secondhand smoke exposure is insanely high for New Yorkers, according to this very recent study that found up to 57% of nonsmoking New Yorkers had internalized significant levels of residual secondhand smoke. Smoke - even the secondhand stuff - can constrict blood flow, so that a man who smokes more than 1 pack per day increases his chances of ED by 50%. That's a not-insignificant slice of the Big Apple.
Thompson concludes that between the heightened age of baseball fans in general and the high stress levels in New York and the issues its city residents have with smoking, even second-hand, New York fans might well be the most ED-afflicted fans in all of sports.
The question left unstated is, What does this mean for Mets fans? Living in NYC? Check? Older demographic? Check. The last variable is stress. Does anyone think Mets fans win that comparison?
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
