The Yankees' win in this year's Series marks the end of a nine year drought. Nine years of futility from a team which perennially has the highest payroll in Major League Baseball. The Yankees' 2009 payroll exceeded $200 Million Dollars--almost $7.5 Million per player. This amount is high enough when standing alone, but when one considers that the New York Mets were a distant second at about $135 Million ($4.85 Million per player), the difference is staggering. The Mets would have had to have spent 150% of their 2009 payroll to be on a level playing field (pun intended) with the Yankees.
The payroll differences between the Yankees and other teams have been pretty consistent over the last few years. The Yankees were either just below or just above the $200 Million mark for the years 2006-09. During this same time period the teams which had the second highest payrolls--the Mets, Tigers, or Red Sox (twice)--have trailed by a range of $60-80 Million (about 30-40% less) each year.
So what's my point? Is this just a rant from a Kansas City Royals fan who endured losses for three straight years to the Yankees during the 1970's in the AL playoffs? Is this just one more whine in the large market-small market debate? Is this simply another spew of Yankee-hating venom?
Well, yes. But it's more than that. I believe it's an absolute joke that since 2000 the Yankees have only appeared in three World Series and have only come home with one crown. In one of their World Series appearances during this decade they lost to the Florida Marlins, whose payroll at the time was either the lowest or among the lowest in baseball.
What guy couldn't put together a championship fantasy team if he were given the first 15 picks in the draft? The Yankees should be able to win with Walter Matthau managing them. They have three sets of murderers' rows in their line-up. They have pinch hitters who would make the All Star team with the Royals. They can afford to pay their bat boy seven figures annually.
So the way I see it, the most prevalent emotion tonight in the Yankees' locker room must be that of relief. It seems odd to say it about a team that has 27 World Championships, but this win had more of a feel of getting a monkey off the Yankees' back than anything else. Simply put, if you spend $60 Million more on your players than the next closest team, you are supposed to win. It should be news only when you don't win.
Deep down, if I'm a Yankee, this victory is a bit tainted. Can you really get the maximum satisfaction out of winning when you assemble a team in the same fashion as the Little League coach who gets all the best players' dads to coach with him or sponsor the team so they could stack the proverbial deck? Something seemed wrong about that picture when I was a kid and something seems wrong with the picture we saw tonight.
I don't have a solution for this situation. I'm not advocating a salary cap or revenue sharing or some other measure that would curb the Yankees' earning power. These arguments have been made ad nauseum and don't seem to go anywhere.
Maybe the solution lies with the Yankees themselves. Perhaps if the Yankees win a few more in a row, Johnny Damon or Derek Jeter or A-Rod will decide that winning when you're always supposed to, winning when you're outspending the rest of the league anywhere from 6:1 to 3:2, winning when the outcome is less in question than that of an All Star Wrestling match, isn't that much fun. Maybe....
And when winning that way quits being fun for them, maybe the World Series will start being fun for me again.
