How the New York Yankees destroyed baseball

[spiritual_gunfighter]

The Best Team Money Could Buy
by Joe Posnanski



The following is a screed about the Yankees' payroll. If you are a Yankees fan uninterested in a screed about the payroll, don't read it. You won't enjoy it. Go out, buy a championship T-shirt, reminisce about this great team, enjoy the victory. I'm telling you: Don't read it.

As for the rest of you: The following is, I think, something that is always bubbling below the surface of baseball (when you are not a Yankees fan). I rarely write about it because ... it's like writing about the heat in Phoenix. We all know it's there, and we don't really want to talk about it anymore. But with the Yankees winning the World Series and then talking about how it showed the team's character, well, yeah, I thought maybe this once ...

Here's the thing about the New York Yankees' huge payroll: It has been talked about so much that, in reality, it is hardly talked about at all. I know this makes little sense, but what I mean is this:

A. Everyone knows the Yankees spend much more money than any other team to win games.

B. Because everyone knows it, people have been complaining about it for many years.

C. Because people have complained about it for many years, everybody is sick of hearing about it.

D. Because everyone is sick of hearing about it, nobody really listens.

E. Because nobody really listens, people don't talk about the Yankees spending much more money than any other team to win games.

Yes, this is a weird circle. But in this bizarre world of spin where Alex Rodriguez tries to project himself as an underdog* and Yankees types try to recast George Steinbrenner as sympathetic figure, I think this Yankees money fatigue is very real. As soon as you start talking about it, people turn off. What we're talking about this again? Or, as indignant Yankees fans, they get angry: "Oh man, you're not going to talk about the Yankees MONEY thing again, are you?"



Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/11/05/yankees.payroll/index.html#ixzz0WHHb5aPJ

[joeybee12]

1. UNderdog? Why, because he didn't take steroids this week...

...he's still on them, lots of them are, they're getting more sophisticated to avoid testing.

[DaveinMD]

16. this from

the person that believes Big Papi.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Prove It

GAC

[Dinger]

2. I Don't think It Will Take All That Long Before We See The Number Of MLB Teams Shrink

It's comin' folks. In fact, these "little teams" help support the skankees. They (skankees) don't want competition, but yet they want competition. They can't continue to have it both ways, especially not in this economy.

[madinmaryland]

21. I thought that was Barroids package that had shrunk.

:hide:

[Jack Rabbit]

3. 27

The real 27. . .


SFSportsInsider.com

[H2O Man]

4. Oscar de la Hoya

got paid more than any other non-heavyweight boxer. Yet, he lost virtually every "super fight" that he engaged in. Still, he was good for the sport.

[wilt the stilt]

5. Yankees have always spent more money

Does this guy think this is a new phenomona. This has been their calling card forever. They used to spend more on bonus babies. now it's free agency. My Dad told me that in the forties they bought a Yankee killer and put him on the bench.

[Yavin4]

6. XXVII

[Yavin4]

7. An A.D.D. Monkey Could Write Better Analysis Than That Hack

This moron actually writes for SI? His big thesis is undermined by the point that the Yankees didn't win when their payroll was at its peak vs. the next place team.

Does it not prove that payroll alone doesn't guarantee a championship?

[madinmaryland]

8. Pretty much like your moronic post.

$as, just very $ad how they have RUINED the $port of ba$eball.

Douche

[Yavin4]

9. If a==9 && b==3 then a*b =

[madinmaryland]

10. If N=$ and Y=$, then your team has bought the championship..

$ad

[Yavin4]

11. public string num1="2"; public string num2="7"; Console.Writeline(num1+num2);

Output:

[KamaAina]

12. The Yankees pay a luxury tax for the bloated payroll.

If one or two of the small-market teams would plow their share of that back into players, as it was intended, rather than treating it as a windfall, then maybe those Yankee wins (once in nine years?!) wouldn't seem so inevitable.

[Yavin4]

13. The Yankees Have Paid A Grand Total of $148 million in Luxury Taxes

That's a direct subsidy from the Yankees to the small market teams.

In addition, these small market team owners get the following:

Revenue from the Fox network
Revenue from ESPN and TBS
Revenue from radio
Revenue from local broadcasts
Revenue from the internet
Revenue from merchandise
Revenue from ticket sales
Revenue from parking
Revenue from concessions

IOW, owning a baseball team is a license to print money, no matter the market. Some owners just choose to pocket more of the revenue than re-invest it in the team.

[madinmaryland]

14. That's over the last 10 years, $elig.

Fucking Di$graceful, $teinbrenner.

[Capt. America]

15. Simple math...the Yankee$ spent 450+ million in the offseason on three players.

I heard on the radio that HALF of the teams in MLB could be PURCHASED with 450 million dollars. Lets recap; 3 players' salaries = total team value of half of MLB team.

Best champion$ip money can buy. Bud $elig and MLB are fools for not making a better product and you Yankee apologists can go on goating about a hollow victory.

[DaveinMD]

17. actually that isn't true

that money is over the full length of those contracts and they are long contracts. The Yankees payroll went down last year.

[Yavin4]

18. Exactly.

And again, MLB's compensation system is not what Selig wants. It's what the Players through their union want. Selig wants a salary, but he cannot get one because the players will strike and shut down the game.

It's truly amazing how much disinformation there is out there about professional sports.

[yellowcanine]

19. Phillies Yankees WS had record ratings so how can that be bad for baseball?

Face it Yankee haters - having a dominant team like the Yankees is GOOD for baseball - they draw well at home, they draw well on the road (to the benefit of the home team/city) and they generate high ratings when they play in the post season. How is that not good for baseball?