This article is intended for those with a sense of humor who are able to recognize irony as stein appeals to the emotions and invokes a sort of “eye roll effect”as you engage with the article. The readers all seem to value being current in news. Because this article is posted in a current news magazine, they are likely political and left leaning. He addresses his audience by continuously pushing the bounds and relating the Yankees to historical events of significance appealing to those that are educated regarding the actual significance of those events. It is not well supported, however, since this article is not scholarly in nature, it is understandable due to the audience being TIME Magazine Readers and that he is appealing to a demographic that already relates to his sentiments.
Stein is using many of the tools used in the Brief Thompson but with the naked eye it is not inherently obvious. You are tempted to say no because in classic persuasion, you are looking for the author to defend a point rather than use satire to make fun of that point. He treats his readers as being intelligible enough to pick up on the fact that he is poking fun of that elitism or these absurd American traditions. He is reinforcing the belief that his readers already hold as mentioned on page 76.
Dive Into Discourse 