If anyone was going to win, I'm glad it was them. Very classy team, and storied franchise. Way to represent the AL well.

I hope this is sarcasm. Those capitalist gluttons needed another title like Ted Williams' body currently needs its head. : P I mean, the Cardinals are next in line and they've only won 10 World Series. And only 8 have won more than 5. Must be nice to just be able to freely buy every good player available on the FA market.

Very original and thought-provoking post. It is rare indeed, on these boards, to find a viewpoint that puts forth a heretofore unexplored slant on this woefully under-publicized fact-based finding on the New York Yankees baseball organization.

-RB

Well, as you said, what more can be said that hasn't been said already? I'd LOVE to see your team try to compete on an $80 million payroll. : ?

I'd love to see your owners take some of the FREE luxury tax money the Yankees and other teams GIVE them and re-invest it in the team, instead of lining their already stuffed pockets with it!

But seriously, once baseball became big-bucks ENTERTAINMENT, all bets were off as far as capping salaries. As in my "Hollywood" example, why complain about the salaries of entertainers? Don't go to the movies or games if it's too expensive. Watch in HD on your home entertainment systems in the comfort of your own homes.

The high school games at your local park can provide all the back-to-basics baseball parity you seek, at no cost whatsoever. Major league baseball is star-driven, and stars make BIG salaries. It's as American as apple pie for big businesses to outspend smaller businesses. Why are you resentful of our American business model at work in MLB?

I, personally, loved it when my son was in little league and higher — watching those games was great for seeing basic baseball. The parents could get a little nutty, but it was fun and relaxing for the most part. MLB ballparks will never offer that to the average fan. And that, again, is big business at work. I can deal with it.

-RB

You gotta be tongue jackin' my shi t box son! The luxury tax you pay to other owners is exactly the problem. That gives you an out cluase to commit adultery on the rest of the league. You have not only the largest television market but your own Yankees Network (Y.E.S.).

"But seriously, once baseball became big-bucks ENTERTAINMENT, all bets were off as far as capping salaries. As in my "Hollywood" example, why complain about the salaries of entertainers? Don't go to the movies or games if it's too expensive. Watch in HD on your home entertainment systems in the comfort of your own homes."

Newsflash bro, FOOTBALL is Big-Bucks ENTERTAINMENT and thrives in America. I guess you could say that the NFL is as American as apple pie. Their business model seems to promote more of a unified front for the league as a whole. Parity is great for the small market cities and Superbowl dreams dance in folks heads prior to the season. That my friend is how to run big business, all while keeping the masses happy and thus, driving the money machine known simply as the NFL.
I would be willing to bet that HD converter boxes as well as bars are busting at the seams come Sunday afternoon so in my opinion your analogy doesn't hold water.

You claim that the Yankees are helping build riches for these "other owners" not from L.A., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and such. That they line their pockets with millions of dollars. If the league would adopt a salary cap, the Stienbrenners could invest the massive amounts of money they recieve in other business ventures. I would say invest in infrastructure but you already have your new digs in the Bronx. The Yankees, like the New York football Giants and Jets compete in a league under the structure in which 98% of Americans want and I don't see New Yorkers on smack boards complaining.

For you guys to have signed Texiera, Sabathia and Burnett last year and now talks of either you or the Red Sox getting Lackey and or Hallady is absolutely absurd!!!! That is exactly what is wrong with baseball. The Yankees are like the mafia paying off other teams to ultimately run their ponzy scheme on the league, all while doing it leagally as directed by the players uniuon. If they don't like the collective bargaining agreement, they threaten strike. Bunch of bul lsh it if you ask me!

GO TWINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unions are as American as apple pie, too! Or are you against them, too? Or just certain ones?

MLB is a willing participant in the "ponzi scheme" you imagine is taking place. It likes making all the extra money —for just ONE small example — the tons Matsui merchandise that is sold in the Far East —MLB gets a cut from every t-shirt, key ring, and all the other Matsui trinkets and doodads. MLB honchos know that the Yankees are very good for lining its pockets.

As I mentioned, MLB is more and more like the Hollywood star system every day. That's good for the MLB cash flow — good luck imagining the it'll ever change its system to one that makes them less dough. Every giant contract that someone like ARod or Jeter gets, the wider the perception that these are not just players, but stars to be idolized like Russell Crowe or Denzel. Cha-ching.

This continues to expand into new avenues of the revenue stream MLB loves so much.

Long gone are the days when purist baseball fans were the target audience of MLB's product. I am one of those purists, believe it or not (as a kid, I used to die a slow death when they had WS games on in the afternoon on weekdays and I was in school listening to the nun dictating homework assignments).

The players union, like any a American union, obviously will do what it can to better the union members' financial and work-related conditions. That MLB acquiesces to them, or not, is their choice — they have to weigh the pros and cons and live with their decision.

BTW, the Twins — who I like and watched on MLB TV even when they weren't playing the Yanks —and who obviously have a much smaller payroll than the Yankees, didn't lose to them because of payroll. They could easily have won at least 2 of the games in the ALDS, but their players played below the level at which they played in the regular season.

Payroll didn't give the Yanks the advantage in the ALDS — Joe Nathan pitching like Armando Benitez, Nick Punto and Carlos Gomez running the bases like little leaguers, et al. lost two of the games for the Twins. A similar type of performance helped the Yanks in the ALCS against the Angels. We Yankee fans know that and feel very fortunate about that.

The Twins might well be 2009 WS champions if they had just played like the Twins did in the regular season; Yankee payroll likely wouldn't have gotten them past the first round without the Twins' generous help.

Good luck next year and hope to meet you guys in the playoffs again, "son". Also, may I compliment you on your creative writing skills; your opening line of your post deserves to go in the MLB message board HOF! I am impressed!

-RB

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I guess if my Twins were benefiting from a billionaire owner and a TV market the size of Jupiter, I would probably not complain either. Oh wait, we do have a billionaire family that owns the Twins but yet not even 1 blockbuster namethat would rock the division. J.J. Hardy will be alright for us at short but he's not exactly Hanley Ramirez now is he. Speaking of Hanley. With Jeter aging and the Marlins past history of trading away stars, guess America knows who the yankees shortstop of the future is, although a new ballpark in Miami could remedy that.

As far as unions go, I really dislike them. They may be All-American from the outside but there is so much politican' goin on and most of it is from the liberal side in the form of government payoffs for votes. Most Americans are aware of that via this last go around on the insanely ridiculous stimulous package. What a crock of sh it that was!

Not sure I agree with you and your Hollywood Stars analogy but hey, whatever blows your hair back I guess. I am also a baseball purist and wish the guys would play ball and treat the game the way we all did when we were little leaguers, now those were the days! I do realize baseball is a business and the name of the game is cash money. But at some point there has to be some checks and balances to the system. You say that is our current luxury tax system and I say that is just part of the problem.

As far as the ALDS goes, you are correct when you say that we played like sh it! It seems every year the Twins play the Yankees, it's like the guys are zombified or something. They look slower, have no fire in them and it doesn't seem like they ratchet up the intensity level. They play like the 163 (last 2 years) game season just broke them in half and go limping into the playoffs. I know if I was a ballplayer and was fortunate enough to find myself in a leadership roll on a ball club such as the Twins, I would come struttin' into the clubhouse and start chewin' some fuc kin' as s! Change the attitude of folks, wipe the smiles off the faces and roll up the sleeves and get to work! Maybe it's a lack of veteran leadership or just 1 more bat in the lineup, I don't know but it su cks to watch year in and year out. It rips my da mn heart out!

I would say good luck to you but you don't really need luck, you create your own. If ya'll land Halladay or Lackey and reamin healthy next year, it's a wrap. I just hope to enjoy some Leinenkugel's while sittin' in our new ballpark watching the team I love compete for another division title. Anything after that would be pure bonus.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the Vikings will improve to 8-1 today. :-)

GO VIKINGS!!!!!!!!!

They'd be the Nationals if they had to deal with a 80M payroll...

You mention high school games and little league...I imagine those things popped into your mind a lot when watching your team play half their games on that new field of theirs...

They really need to make it so a team can only sign as man Type A FAs as they have 1st bround picks available to give up to the team losing that FA. Brewers had to settle for a 2nd rounder. Jays had to settle for a 3rd rounder...kind of defeats the purpose of the rule, does it not?

A team offers arbitration, taking a chance the guy will take it and earn a big payday. When the player declines, that gamble is supposed to pay off in the form of getting the 1st rounder of the team that does sign him (to go along with that supplemental pick between rounds 1 and 2.)...but since the Yankees are allowed to sign as many as they want, Brewers and Blue Jays get boned...

and the funny part, since the Yanks lost a Type A that they offered arbitration to, they got a 1st rounder from another team and got to keep it, as opposed to giving it up to the Brewers (Sabathia ranked in type A than Burnett).

I get it. Good one!

But no, I mentioned it because some of the best times I've ever had watching baseball was the 8 or so years I coached and watched my son and his little league team play on the sandlots of Brooklyn.

Yankee Stadium, old or new, could never approximate that great experience.

-RB

"...but since the Yankees are allowed to sign as many as they want, Brewers and Blue Jays get boned..."

Question: Is the above phrase true or false?
Answer: False

Last time I looked the Blue Jays, Brewers and all major league teams are allowed to sign as many free agents as they're willing to reach down into their pockets to sign. Or did you read the bylaws and find something in the smalll print that no one else has found about who's allowed to sign whom.

There are lots of rich, very very rich owners who are all allowed to, but choose not to sign big name free agent. Maybe if they took the chance, people would actually fill the stands and make them enough money to recoup the investment.

All allowed.

-RB

baseball will never truly be fair until there's a salary cap (including fixing the amount of money offered to undrafted players). the NFL is kicking MLB's A** in popularity. it's not even close. ask baseball fans in pittsburgh, cincinnati, baltimore, kansas city, toronto, etc. about how fair baseball is. MLB has teams that haven't made the playoffs in over a decade, haven't even been close. heck, even the bad teams in the NFL have had somewhat successful years (the raiders in '02-'03). baseball is broken in a bad way. it may never change, either

"...but since the Yankees are allowed to sign as many as they want, Brewers and Blue Jays get boned..."

Question: Is the above phrase true or false?
Answer: False'

OK, first of all, they outbid anyone if they want the guy bad enough...but that wasn't even the biggest issue. When a team offers arbitration to a Type A FA and that player declines, they're supposed to get a first rounder (along with the supplemental pick). When the Yankees, or any team, is allowed to sign Type A FAs and NOT give up a first rounder (and, in the case of the Blue Jays, not even a 2nd rounder), it cheats the system.

You should not be able to sign a Type A unless you have the first rounder to give up to the losing team.

Maybe I'm missing something — are you saying the Yankees are "cheating the system" by playing within the rules of the system?

Or did you find something in the "rule book" — that the Yankees are breaking — that MLB missed?

-RB

No, the Yanks are playing within the system...and my complaint would stand no matter which team it is.

I have a fundamental probelm with the Brewers having to settle for a 2nd round and the Blue Jays having to settle for a 3rd rounder (both getting their supplementals of course), when they lost their Type A FA after offering them arbitration. The rules say when a team offers arbitration to a type A FA (taking a gamble that the player accepts and gets a big time pay raise) the losing team gets, by the rules, get a first rounder from the team that signs him.

Why should they have to settle for a 2nd or 3rd rounder cause a team went out and got 3 type A FA?

" I'd LOVE to see your team try to compete on an $80 million payroll. : ? "

1996
1) Yankees - 53 million
2) Orioles - 49 million
3) Braves - 48 million
4) Indians - 46 million
5) White Sox - 42 million
6) Reds - 41 million
7) Red Sox - 40 million
8) Mariners - 39 million
9) Cardinals - 39 million
10) Rangers - 36 million

1998
1) Orioles - 71 million
2) Yankees - 64 million
3) Braves - 60 million
4) Indians - 60 million
5) Rangers - 55 million
6) Cardinals - 53 million
7) Mariners - 53 million
8) Red Sox - 52 million
9) Mets - 50 million
10) Cubs - 50 million

1999
1) Yankees - 89 million
2) Rangers - 82 million
3) Braves - 76 million
4) Indians - 74 million
5) Red Sox - 72 million
6) Mets - 72 million
7) Dodgers - 71 million
8) Orioles - 71 million
9) Diamondbacks - 71 million
10) Cubs - 56 million

2000
1) Yankees - 93 million
2) Dodgers - 91 million
3) Orioles - 84 million
4) Braves - 83 Million
5) Red Sox - 82 million
6) Mets - 80 million
7) Diamondbacks - 80 million
8) Indians - 77 million
9) Rangers - 71 million
10) Devil Rays - 65 million

he OBVIOUSLY means in today's day and age. Yes, 10, 11 season, the Yanks were below 80M...

P.S. Yanks led in three of those 4 years you posted...