This is a quarter of a billion dollars folks. When you figure in all the luxury tax and insurance and triple-A dollars over average, you are very close to this figure in fielding the last two Yankee teams. The colorful money in front is Igawa’s and Matsui’s, I suppose. Yankee Pride…there it is…those are the REAL monuments, kids. –fog
Fog,
So what’s the deal? Salary cap? I think we all know that there have been many well-funded teams that have produced nada…including the Mets and yes, the Yankees. What’s the solution you would propose?
Comment by John Walker — March 28, 2007 @ 12:53 am |
Anyone can WASTE money. The Dodgers did it. The Mets did it. The Yanks have done it. And so on. Wasting money is easy. Yank fans point to that fact as if that justifies spending like a govt bureau year after year.
I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t want to watch a HUGE payroll team beat the stuffing out of little teams each and every relentless year. It’s not really competition, is it? Pete Rose was suspended for gambling. In baseball, it’s painted on every clubhouse wall from A-Ball on up, that the first commandment is “Thou shalt not ever bet on baseball”. Why is that? Because if the public thought for a second, that the games were not on the level, they’d head for the exits in droves. And that’s why.
So what is the difference between gambling being a barrier to a “true-contest” and a 210 million to 24 million dollar payroll difference between teams, as you had last year or the year before with Yanks-Tampa? And Yanks fans will say, “but they CHOOSE to spend less”. And in a way, they are correct. It is a choice…somewhat. But not completely. Only certain markets can ever spend north of 150 million and stay in the black. These are businesses with different size metro areas and TV contracts servicing them. The 1997 Marlins won it all on a pile of cash and the owner found out that he was losing his a**! Arizona found out the same thing in 2001.
Yanks fans will also point to the Oaklands of the world and Minn and say, “see, they make the playoffs!”. But what they leave out is that there are 31 teams and out of those, 20 to 25 are smaller markets. So each year, you pick 8 playoff teams, guess what? You’re going to get some small market teams! But if you are sitting in Minnesota, waiting for it to happen, it could be 15 years between the slipper fitting for a series and then usually, what ends up happening is that the Yanks crush your Cinderella team at the Stadium because they are loaded. The Yanks’ fans NEVER have to wait 10 years for the merry-go-round to stop on them. They expect it every year.
And little teams have no cash-margin for error. If they make one boo-boo the size of the deal the Yanks just tossed off with Randy Johnson, they are messed up for YEARS! The Ansky just shrug it off. No big deal to them. And they can screw the pooch a few more times too, and it STILL won’t matter, because that cash spigot heals all hurts.
Now I’m not naive enough to think this will ever happen, but what I would do is not a salary cap. Let them spend whatever they think they need to to put “fannies in the seats”, as Big Stein is so fond of saying.
But if you spend 45% above the league norm, then you should have to win more games. That’s right. Load up your team, but if you do, you begin the season 0-12 or some such adjuster. Base the adjustment on a 10-year moving average that puts a number on the direct relationship of cash-to-performance.
We’re not going to mess with the game between the lines. Just going to mess with the standings, which are abstract and artificial any way. You want to make the dance on a 200 million dollar payroll when the league average is 88 million? Then win 107 games and not 95.
Like I said, it will never happen. And I don’t think salary caps are the way to go because the big markets STILL have inherent advantages. You think Avon is giving Jeter a cologne if he’s playing in KC? And Eddie DeBartolo showed the world in the 1980’s that the 49ers could just spit at the silly cap and do what they pleased anyhow. So, no, I don’t want that. But I don’t want to watch Pro Wrestling either.
And trust me, if the Mets spent like that, I’d become a Phillies Phan. I don’t want to root for some guy’s checkbook! I want to see kids on the big stage battling for a lot of money like they dreamed of in their back yards. I dreamed too, but I’m up in the seats, but mentally, I’m right with them.
–fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — March 28, 2007 @ 9:25 am |
Fog – interesting idea. I agree that it will never happen. In the mean-time, while we’re waiting for something to be done such as a salary cap, or whatever, should the Yankees organization be voluntarily capping their salary? That’s what it seems like you’re asking them to do. You say that if the Mets started spending money like that you’d be routing for some other team, but what’s a team to do if they have money and can spend it? I think asking them to hold back is a bit much. They’re playing by the rules, right?
Seriously, I’m open to options to level the playing field, but until they’re put in place I’m not going to walk away from the Yankees for doing what they’re doing.
Comment by John Walker — March 28, 2007 @ 1:27 pm |
They are playing by the rules. And it’s never been any different. There have always been the “have” clubs and the “have not” clubs and sometimes that is a reflection of the owner’s ability. Horace Stonhame inherited the most storied club in the NL and he sat in his office and drank and let O’Malley talk him into going to SF and generally ran what McGraw and Brush built into mediocrity. It’s not going to change. My point is just that the Yanks have long ago blown out of “reasonable” and gone into cartoon-land and I don’t find that compelling when they win–only when they lose. –fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — March 28, 2007 @ 1:55 pm |
best info
Comment by best payroll — December 1, 2007 @ 9:03 am |
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Comment by BOB — December 19, 2007 @ 1:12 pm |
WoW
Comment by Żnin — March 19, 2008 @ 4:18 pm |