In defense of the New York Yankees.

[JackDragna]

I'm not a Yankees fan. I root for the Chicago White Sox, one of the biggest ne'er do wells in professional sports. The Yankees routinely kick the crap out of the White Sox and for that, I bear them some enmity.

I do get a little perplexed, however, with the disgust people here exhibit toward the Yankees. People here call them "Republican" and say the Yankees are the example of baseball gone amok, a manifestation of the greed and arrogance plauging the sport. People have even authored posts asking why people hate the Yankees so much.

The truth of the matter is, however, is that the Yankees are simply the best at working a system everyone in baseball tacitly agrees to. Remember the strike year of '94? The owner of the White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, was a leading critic of the outrageous costs of baseball the year before. The following year, Reinsdorf signs slugger Albert Belle to a huge free agent deal. He played both sides of the ball, saying one thing to make himself look good but playing by an entirely different set of rules as a matter of practice.

Everyone in baseball wants to, or tries, to be the Yankees. The Red Sox, who whine and cry about being the David to New York's Goliath, got arguably the best hitter and pitcher in the majors today off free agency. Their payroll is one of the highest in baseball. Make no mistake, friends: if a team could generate the same kind of income the Yankees do, they'd spend as much as the Yankees in a second. Everyone in baseball tacitly agrees to the lunatic system of overpaying players and improving one's own team by buying off the talent of others.

Your team, wherever it is, is no beacon of baseball sanity. Before you bash the Yankees for a reason other than pure rivalry, realize your own team would do exactly what they did in a second and you yourself would be dancing in the streets as your team won the World Series. The Yankees are not the problem with baseball..you are the problem, for not realizing your bashing of the Yankees helps perpetuate the overall system all teams in the majors utilize.

[WindRavenX]

1. I love you

Seriously, you rock!

[Yavin4]

2. Hear! Hear!

Also, baseball's economic system is the fault of the owners who are unwilling to share their local revenue. Reinsdorf, and others like him, don't want to share their local TV money