If Orioles fans didn’t hate Mark Teixeira already, he’s really making it easier for them now. New York’s first baseman told ESPNNewYork.com that the Yankees are the “underdogs this year.”

“We’re the underdogs this year,” Teixeira said. “I love it. No one is picking us right now. Everyone in here should be looking forward to winning a championship. When you put on the pinstripes that is exactly what your goal should be every year. I think everyone understands that just because the public may not be picking us it doesn’t mean we don’t believe it in here.”

With a $200 million payroll you aren’t allowed to call yourselves underdogs. Sorry Tex. If the Yankees don’t win the pennant every year with that payroll they are failures, you don’t get the play the “everyone is writing us off” role.

The Severna Park native also went on to say that he wants to be “buried in pinstripes.” I guess that means he will be hated in his hometown forever.