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The Thing About the Yankees
I have this argument every once in a while with my friend Brandon. He says the Yankees don't "buy" their championships, I say they do.
They do, of course. Now, I'm not saying that the Yankees break the rules. Some people say that, but that's stupid. The rules of baseball are stupid, too, but the Yankees are well within them. So I'm not saying that the Yankees aren't playing fair.
On the other hand, it's silly to suggest that it's a fair fight. Me vs. Michael Vick in a footrace would not be a fair matchup, but if we both were running the same track under the same conditions no one would accuse him of cheating. Still, it would be obvious that since Michael Vick is fast and I am not, I would have little chance of winning. Now, whereas speed is just about the only factor in a footrace (other than perhaps "managing to not fall down"), wealth is only one of many factors in baseball. But, still, it matters.
And yes, plenty of teams have lots of money and haven't spent it as wisely as the Yankees. But that's limited to probably the Rangers, Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets and Braves, at least in the last couple of years. The Yankees are the best of those six or seven teams who can afford to sign marquee free agents (I know the Phillies signed Jim Thome. The Yankees and Mets were already paying tons of money to first basemen, so shut up), and even they've made some bad moves (Sterling Hitchcock and Jose Contreras come to mind).
Look at what happened the one time someone made some really stellar moves with the right players and a lot of money: the Diamondbacks went out and signed two of the best pitchers in baseball in Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, and it worked. They beat the Yankees. Last year, well... last year with the Angels, that was just a fluke.
And don't kid yourself; the Yankees have great homegrown talent, but they wouldn't have been able to hold onto all of it if they weren't the Yankees. Williams, Soriano, Jeter, Pettitte and Rivera have not played for any other team, but the Yankees don't have a premium on developing young players. Imagine, for example, what the Expos would look like right now with Pedro, Larry Walker, Ugueth Urbina and Moises Alou playing along side Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Vidro and that young pitching staff. Throw in a few big free agents from the past five years (maybe Mike Mussina, Jeff Kent and Thome, just for fun, because it's my column) and you've got yourself quite a team.
C Michael Barrett
1B Jim Thome
2B Jeff Kent
3B Fernando Tatis
SS Orlando Cabrera
OF Moises Alou
OF Vladimir Guerrero
OF Larry Walker
SP Pedro Martinez
SP Mike Mussina
SP Javier Vasquez
SP Tony Armas, Jr.
RP Ugueth Urbina
That's the fantasy world Expos, if they had money to sign marquee players while hanging onto their own. That team could probably go toe-to-toe with the Yankees. It's a meaningless thing to say, of course, but it's fun to play the what-ifs.
The truth is, since 1998 (because that's how far back I was able to find payroll figures), no team with a payroll among baseball's bottom half has won the World Series. Since then, only six out of forty playoff teams have had salaries in the bottom half, and only one of those (the 2002 Twins) has made it out of the first round of the playoffs. And one could argue (quite persuasively, in my opinion) that if not for Mulder, Hudson and Zito, the number of playoff teams in the bottom half since '98 would be three. Three out of forty.
So you need money (which a lot of teams don't have) and smarts (which most teams with money don't have) to win. The Yankees have both. It's not that I begrudge them the opportunity to use all their resources. It's not even that I think it's bad for baseball anymore (not with the new collective bargaining agreement, which might calm things down to some extent). I think it's good when you've got a big, bad villain to root against, and it's even better when that big, bad villain is a team of fairly likeable guys who you can't be that upset with even if they do stomp all over your puny little team.
I just think it's obvious that baseball's system allows the Yankees (and a few other very rich teams) an advantage. You can't really call it an unfair advantage, since it's within the rules, but it's an advantage off the field that leads to other teams having to come from behind before the first pitch is even thrown.
So Go, Anyone But the Yankees.
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