Yankees Make Mockery of Baseball
November 5, 2009 · Leslie Monteiro · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
This observer witnessed something in New York City the last couple of days.
On Tuesday night, New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg bought himself another term by defeating New York City comptroller William Thompson in an mayoral election that the Democratic candidate had no chance of winning.
Last night, the Yankees bought themselves their 27th championship by eliminating the Phillies in six games in what was a boring World Series.
What can we learn from this? If anyone has the money, he or she can do whatever he or she wants, and odds are success comes with it.
In baseball, it’s all about teams spending money to get a championship, and the Yankees proved it this year.
The Yankees improved their payroll to $208 million after taking a terroristic approach this past winter by taking away the small-market teams’ best players in CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. Also, they use their money well by signing draft picks that other teams could not afford to sign.
A team wins by fielding the best players, and the Yankees do it well by making sure they get what they want with the allure of money and the city. Others baseball teams don’t have that luxury, and therein lies the problem.
When many baseball teams don’t have the advantage the Yankees have when it comes to revenue, it’s hard to win a championship. That’s the harsh reality that small-market teams and their fanbases dealt with since the late nineties.
Baseball turned out to be a business in which a mom-and-pop operation can’t keep up with brand operations. How can any baseball fan love that situation?
This writer grew up loving baseball, but now, he can care less. He did not watch the postseason for the second straight year, and he showed apathy for baseball these days to the point he finds soccer to be more watchable than the national pastime.
Others share the same feeling. Football replaced baseball as the most popular sport in this country.
There’s something wrong with that scenario, but times have changed.
Who can blame anyone for picking the National Football League over Major League Baseball? They know an elite football team can lose on a Sunday whether it’s regular season or the postseason.
With a salary cap, it’s easy for a football team to turn their season around after a bad season, as the Falcons proved last season. No one can say the same thing about baseball.
Fans in Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa-St. Petersburg show apathy towards baseball, because their teams are usually eliminated from the playoffs by spring training.
That is not fair, and it’s something Yankees fans fail to understand. They love to cite other small-market teams doing well, but they miss the point.
Those small-market teams don’t have to deal with facing the Yankees, so it’s easy for them to win their respective division. But come October, they don’t have a chance to beat the Yankees as the Twins found out few weeks ago.
It’s bad enough those teams can’t win during the regular season, but they can’t win in the offseason either with the Evil Empire raising its tentacles. Small-market teams can’t even afford to keep their own players because they know they will get their money from the Yankees.
The Twins don’t have a prayer of signing Joe Mauer even if he gets the best offer from them, since the Yankees can make a mockery of the Twins offer. It’s the same thing with the Cardinals when they have to resign Albert Pujols, or with the Marlins making an attempt to keep Josh Johnson.
How can a fan of those cities even get into the sport when looking at this bleak situation?
The salary cap saves the sport of football from going out of control. It’s time for that to happen with too many players being overpaid for their services.
It levels the playing field, and it makes the games watchable.
Major League Baseball offers the same big-market teams winning championships year after year, while the rest of the sports offer different teams that win championships.
That’s the way it should be.
The Major League Baseball Players Association may not like the salary cap, but the owners need to stick together and figure out a way to save the sport from dying altogether. Work stoppage may be the way to go for the situation to get better no matter how long it takes.
The Yankee Universe can go celebrate their day today.
For the rest of us, it’s a day of mourning.
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