Why cant the effing yankee's just go away? I hate the yankee's and everyone of there fans.. actually i think i hate david glass for not spending money so we can buy ws rings too... it just makes me have horrible casses of diarhhea of the mouth

I typically root for the AL team in the World Series. But heII no, absolutely not in this case! When the AL rep is the Yankees, I cheer for the NL team!

AND, it's especially great to get behind a great NL team like the Phillies with Ibanez and Stairs on the roster!

GO PHILLIES!!!!!!!!

I live in the NE, so I am besieged with Yankees and Red Sox fans but there is also an obviously growing legion of Phillies fans around here which has to gnaw at the Yankee faithful around here.

While I share your general feelings about the Yankees, I also can't fault them for doing as much as MLB financial parameters - or lack thereof - allow them to do in terms of FA spending. That speaks more to a MLB issue than a specific team issue.

The biggest difference between KC, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Washington, etc and the Yankees is that their/our ownership isn't willing to spend as much money as the Yankees and we - as fans - don't hold them accountable for putting a bad product out on the field. But I digress...

The irony of the Yankees, of course, is that they have not won a WS since 2000, when they actually had home grown talent on their roster - Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada as well as a starting lineup full of fairly low profile "grinders" like Chuck Knoblach, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill, Ricky Ledee and Shane Spencer. They spent their money on quality pitching and figured as long as the pitching kept them in the game, they would win with a couple bona fide stars and a bunch of offensively and defensively fundamentally sound players that would do all the little things to help the team win.

If Glass, Moore and Hillman would realize we would do well to follow a similar plan, we wouldn't finish in last place every year. Pitching and defense are still the cornerstones of great teams...and we have little of either.

I agree with you that great pitching and defense is the way to go.
However, you can't say that the small market owners are "not willing" to spend as much. They don't take in anywhere near the same amount of gross revenue.
Look at how many games the NYY and BOS, LA etc get on ESPN. Not only is it good advertising for them, they get hefty paydays. Not to mention the Yankees have 11 million viewers on the YES network.
While it's true a small market team can make a run at it, the cannot sustain it because as soon as they go to the series, everyone wants a raise.

What did they say this week? In 105 World series the NYY have been there over 40 times? Yeah that's fair.

First of all the teams you mentioned before the Yankees CANT spend as much as the Yankees because they dont make as much money and revenue!! I do agree that they could spend more than they do, but there is no way a team like the Royals could have a $200 million dollar payroll. I also thnk these owners that are getting luxury tax from teams like the Yankees should be forced to spend it on their baseball operations and not stick it in their pocket which I think some of these owners, including David Glass does.

I agree with what you and royalsnut are saying and I am guilty of over-simplifying my position in regards to small-mid market spending allowances versus major markets. The difference in their respective revenues is definitely substantial and it always has been, always will be.

My point - which may very well not be valid - is under Kauffman's ownership, the organization was willing to spend money much more freely because it was important to Ewing and his family to put a winner on the field. The Royals seemed to be a more personal extention of his persona and something he very much looked at as a gift toa great community he felt very much a part of.

I am sure there were many seasons where the profitability of the team was meager and likely even lost money more times than not. I also realize our minor leagues were far more robust and turning out a better quality of player than we have in recent memory and the finances of the day made it possible to lock up players like Brett, McRae, White and Wilson whereas in today's market, we are ultimately destined to lose 2 out of every 3 high caliber players we develop/acquire (eg Dye, Beltran , Damon) but we are also guilty of allowing players (eg Ibanez) to walk when we could have extended their contracts for relative peanuts.

I guess my other point is when you take a city like Philadelphia or the evil St. Louis where the fans have - generally speaking - a deeper emotional investment in their teams than we do, they also hold their respective owners and management to a higher degree of accountability. Folks in Seattle or KC like our teams but we also like our coffee..or barbecue...or jazz...and are too laid back for our own good when it comes to communicating our disdain. That's not a knock against us exactly so much as an simple observation to take from what you will.

All that said, I realize that short of the Glass family digging deeper into their own personal finances and taking a potential loss - which they wouldn't do if their lives depended on it - we are limited on what we can do financially and need to model ourselves organizationally after teams like Oakland, Cleveland, Minnesota, etc who focus their money and energy into revitalizing the minor league pipeline/scouting departments and hoping to see dividends met through internal means and savvy spending externally in the FA market.

Maybe I was just playing the contrarian or Devil's Advocate by drawing a little of the flame away from the feet of the Yankees because I felt their best teams in recent memory were actually built using scrappers and grinders to get the job done and allowing their pitching and defense to carry them deep into title contention as opposed to the reckless spenders they have become in recent years. In any case, I would love to see KC build their rosters around the Park they play in and use that to gain a true home field advantage. Give me a roster of contact/gap hitters with speed to utilize on offense and defense as well as a pitching staff that can keep the ball in play and I believe we will find ourselves halfway home in our pursuit of relevance and consistent competitiveness.

The current formula of spotty starting pitching, awful bullpen arms and hitters that seem unable to get on base or play defense sure as all heck isn't working.

Great Post !!! The only thing I would contend is IMO : The Yankees have arguably, always been "reckless spenders" under Georgie's watch....Historically the yanks never raised their own talent....That said, I could say The Royals did their share of "reckless spending" under Kauffman....I understood your essense of the latter though.

Thanks KC-bell...The beginning of the end for us under the Kauffman stewardship IMO was when we traded away Saberhagen for McReynolds, Jeffries and Keith Miller. Granted, had we gotten more production from McReynolds it would not have seemed so bad but that trade still gnaws at me some from time to time.

Before that, we traded Cone for Ed Hearn which was even worse in retrospect but Cone had not really shown glimpses of what he would go on to become at the time that we traded him...and we truly had a deep deficiency at catcher that Hearn could have filled had it not been for the career ending injury he would suffer nearly immediately after we acquired him...that was just a bad beat.

Of course, there were other bad/underachieving FA acquisitions such as Felix Jose, Mark Davis, Storm Davis, Kurt Stillwell and Gerald Perry. I don't know that I really have a point in dredging up some of these things but I suppose one could argue that we stepped in some major road apples in FA even before our minors started to dry up. We seemed to swing and miss a lot in Free Agency...then the minors only produced some meager offerings in Gary Thurman, Jeff Conine, Sean Berry, Phil Hiatt and Brent Mayne...It just seems like we never quite recovered from those late eighties mis-steps.

Yep...I'm with ya...Sabe's deal was totally disheartening to me...As an organization, they still haven't recovered...I had a hard time as a fan...I never knew any better...Always thought they would come around and set the ship right...Guess, that thought has changed to hope...We were very lucky to have an owner like Kauffman.

The first Cone deal wasn't nearly as bad as the second....He should have never ended-up in Yankees uniform....

The first was all about hindsight....The second was all about the strike...IMO

"I would love to see KC build their rosters around the Park they play in and use that to gain a true homefield advantage."

I had a conversation with a former Royal utility infielder this year and he was of the opinion that KC should tear-up the turf, pour concrete, and lay the carpet back down.Then they could build a team to take advantage of that....I'm not totally sold on that idea, but, I would think they could roll and pack the field they have and keep the grass cut down short....Of coarse with the current infielders' range and defensive capabilities planting alph-alpha on the infield might be better....But, yeah KC should be taking advantage of the deep power alleys and dimensions, like they once did....Veteran club's used to hate coming in and playing games in KC.Temp's would be 120+ degrees...Of coarse they used to actually play day games during the week too....

"I live in the NE (sic- left blank so who knows?), so I am besieged with Yankees and Red Sox fans but..."

I - the ONE AND ONLY Beefster, live in NE, which properly stands for ~ NEBRASKA!

You on the other hand, live in NE- which stands for New England (which is what you meant to say but didn't). Or in your case, NE really means specifically BRISTOL, CT (home of pathetic ESPN)!!!!

YOU ARE EXPOSED ONCE AND FOR ALL!!! LOL! New England girly boy!

Are you one of the 'etards on ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning?" Just curious? Please enlighten us oh great one Yoda!

"the NE" was intended to represent the northeast. Allentown, PA to be exact.

Sorry that something about that angered you so much. Not sure how that "exposes" a person but then again I don't think it really matters all that much.

What the heII are you talking about, Beef? I hope this was tongue-in-cheek, but we can't usually be sure with you.

Cheap gin is a terrible thing to waste! :)

I have been to a couple 120 degree games ,I think I saw 4 or 5 people pass out, keep the grass.

Yay Phils won, down 3-2 now only! If any team can come back from 3-1 deficit to the Yankees, it just may be the Phillies! And Sabathia is scheduled to pitch Game 7 (if it gets there), and in the WS starters are only 12-36 over the last so many years when they pitch on three days rest, so that's good.

To DocPeck ~ I was just testing Buddy to make sure he wasn't an ESPN plant - wink wink! It's hard to tell with him sometimes if he's just here for an ESPN "Journalism School" ranting or if he's a TRUE BLUE ROYAL!

Gotcha Beef! But he's a good Royal.