The Yankees won another game of Monopoly this past week, signing baseball pedigree Mark Teixeira to a $180 million contract. The Yankees did pass GO; the Yankees did collect 200 (million) dollars in payroll and luxury tax penalties for 2009.
Brian Cashman and the Steinbrenner brothers bought up Park Place and Broadway (which ironically surround the ‘luxury tax' space on the monopoly board), and are now able to just sit back and collect a bounty of countless millions in profit.
This gaudy expression of power and wealth has predictably formed a tidal wave of anger and frustration from every other ownership group in baseball. Some are even calling for at least a soft salary cap.
I will make it perfectly clear that I am a diehard Yankee supporter, and completely agree that the Yanks throwing around dollar bills like a drunken sailor at a strip club is ludicrous. However, they do not represent the true problem within MLB.
The "small market" teams across the league have been pocketing the Yankees and Red Sox's millions for many years, since the implementation of the revenue sharing and luxury tax programs.
Other "small market" teams have also greatly benefited from the Yankees' shared memorabilia sales, as well as extreme increases in attendance during NY road games.
Intended to help level the playing field, and allow teams to sign and keep their young talent, these programs have been exploited by certain owners to fatten their own wallets.
The perfect example is a team like the Minnesota Twins, who are run by Carl Pohlad. This is a man whose net worth is 2.5 times larger than George Steinbrenner's.
Instead of using this clout and wealth to his advantage, Pohlad refuses to open his wallet, choosing to allow key players to walk in free agency.
He also ignored the team's needs in years when ONE key signing could have made the difference in achieving a World Series Championship.
Also, the Florida Marlins of course had another fire sale in the last six months, treating their young talent like immigrants with expired green cards. They are simply a disgrace.
The Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays, and Washington Nationals are proving to be the exceptions to the problem, and are showing that the programs can work if teams use them correctly.
Although not monumental signings, the Royals did spend almost $65 million for Gil Meche and Kyle Farnsworth in free agency over the last year, making clear efforts to improve.
The Rays were able to lock up Evan Longoria to a long-term deal, and even entertained adding Jason Giambi this offseason to add punch to the lineup. They also added payroll last season to make a significant playoff run.
Finally, the Nationals put together a monstrous package for Teixeira's services that would have paid an annual salary equal to nearly half of their total payroll from 2008. Although clearly aided by a new ballpark, the programs also assisted these plans.
We all know that the Yankees are in their own financial universe, and rival fans love to refer to them as the ‘Evil Empire.' They could make even Paul Bunyan feel like a midget.
The issue here is that the Yankees are being blamed for a perceived lack of parity that does not exist.
There have been 7 different champions in the 8 seasons since the Yankees last title. The Astros, Rays, Marlins, Rockies, and Diamondbacks have made the WS during this span.
A salary cap will never get past the player's association, so don't even bother hoping. The extra draft picks and revenues passed down from big to small market teams are the key to creating parity.
Run your team correctly, and you will reach the top of your sport. Spend the money you never earned, and keep your young stars. Accept that you aren't the Yankees...but maybe, just maybe... you can become the Rays one day.
Deanna Clover
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"A salary cap will never get past the player's association, so don't even bother hoping. The extra draft picks and revenues passed down from big to small market teams are the key to creating parody"
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Actually, it could easily get past the player's association as it did in the other major leagues. The real impediment, like you mention earlier in your blog, is that too many owners (including small market owners) are happy with the system as is. The Yanks and Sox are spending big money - and the small market owners are taking their piece of the luxury tax and lining their pockets.
A cap won't create parity in the league. A salary FLOOR is what is needed to ensure that cheap owners have to step up and support their product.
YODA
Total Comments (16866)
Thank you for your great input guys, and i agree with a lot if not all of what you said...i will say that i feel that you underestimate the power of the MLB player's association...
MLB is the only league with no salary cap AND 100% guaranteed contracts, and have not moved their stance on either topic even through multiple strikes, including the then damaging strike of 1994
A cap would never get past Don Fehr and the MLBPA...i would even expect to see an 8-team BCS playoff long before a cap in baseball
Heartbeat of the…
Park Ridge , NJ
Total Comments (132)
Great blog.
yanksfan7788
Palm Bay , FL
Total Comments (14)
I like the idea of a salary floor. It makes small market teams spend money that big market teams give them.
yanksfan7788
Palm Bay , FL
Total Comments (14)
I forget what it was but isn't A-rod and Derek Jeter salary worth more then the Tampa bay rays??? who went further???
Bears fan in MN
Excelsior , MN
Total Comments (47)
The marlins did not have a fire sale. you are oblivious. why don't you look into something before you come to a conclusion. they got rid of players they didn't need. An injury prone outfielder, a low average-home run hitting horrible defensive first baseman, a mediocre closer, and a 6th starter.
Dre-No
Miami , FL
Total Comments (2)
The marlins did not have a fire sale. you are oblivious. why don't you look into something before you come to a conclusion. they got rid of players they didn't need. An injury prone outfielder, a low average-home run hitting horrible defensive first baseman, a mediocre closer, and a 6th starter. They have have Cameron Maybin and Gaby Sanchez to take over at center and 1st respectively. Two highly promising prospects.
Dre-No
Miami , FL
Total Comments (2)
Really excellent blog. It gives comfort that there are intelligent rational Yankee fans out there.
tiosammy...you are oblivious to all things baseball, business, and reality in general.
josephplumber
Tampa , FL
Total Comments (1365)
Thank you very much josephplumber...i really appreciate the compliment and i hope you come back to read again
Heartbeat of the…
Park Ridge , NJ
Total Comments (132)
great! Your the kind of guy we need in online blogging about the bogus coming out of yankee hater mouths!
Yankees4lif
Groton , CT
Total Comments (4)
I will try to say exactly how i feel good or bad about the Yanks...i am a die hard fan but sometimes things need to be said on the negative side too when it's deserved
At the same time, i am also going to try to defend the Yanks, when warranted, against attacks that i disagree with.
Heartbeat of the…
Park Ridge , NJ
Total Comments (132)
You point out that Pohlad's net worth is 2.5 times larger then Steinbrenner's, but keep in mind it's his NET worth. You can't sign free agents with buildings and property- they prefer dollars.
Winning With…
Detroit Lakes , MN
Total Comments (2)
A different point of view.
This money race started long, long ago and was generated by two men of very different temperment: George Steinbrenner and Gene Autry. George was trying to return hegemony to the Yankees and Gene was fighting for the Angel's life against the Dodgers. I do not know George. Don't want to. But I knew Gene and he understood the damage this race would cause and the idiocy of saying that a journeyman pitcher was worth 40 times more than Mays, Mantle, Dimaggio Clemente or Kaline was enough to make one blow big chunks. I won't even talk about Ruth,Gehrig, Greenburg, Walter Johnson or even Koufax.
Manny Rameriz and CC Sabatia are merely wannabees dressed in clown suits. Nevertheless, there have been great players making so much money, even pitchers. Clemmons for his whole career, Gooden, Guidry for about 7 years, Rivera, and a couple of ex Atlanta pitchers who should give half their earnings to blind umpires. Even Reggie deserved a lot of money. Like Mantle, Jackson was one of the best money players of the last 60 years. However, the Yankees paid Jackson an order of magnitude more money and his World Series records are not even close to Mantle's. The game is so commercialized/gladitorialized that I seldom go any more. No matter how much the Yankees spend. The game has forgotten its timeless, philosophical core in order to become a variant on football, a game I played but to which I never go as a fan. It is actual the football fan that repells me so. Now they are also baseball fans, as well. Or so it seems. The Bleacher creatures or druken blutos at the Meadowlands are equally repugnant. This is where rampant commercialism and money have led us.
I will watch on the television and go to minor league games, thank you!
Diogenes
New York , NY
Total Comments (5)
Just for the record virtually nothing you said made any sense...gramatically or in general...and you spelled approximately 150 words wrong including virtually every single player you mentioned in the 2nd paragraph...
You honestly attempt to compare contracts from 50 years ago to today, as well as Jackson and Mantle whose best seasons were 20 years apart...i won't even go into the economics of this and time value of money because it is just far too ludicrous a stance to waste my time debating
Teams are worth exponentially more today than 50, 20, or even 10 years ago, as the game has expanded nationally as well as globally. Internet and merchandise dollars have skyrocketed, as well as the development of local television networks like NESN and YES. The manufacturing of new stadiums worth $500 million upwards of $1.5 billion automatically raise a team's value to the moon.
Teams would not spend the money they do on payroll if they were not profitable, and the reasons baseball has been so profitable are listed above as well as putting more fans in the stands than any time in their history.
Heartbeat of the…
Park Ridge , NJ
Total Comments (132)
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