Sunday, July 27, 2008

The Halliburton Yankees

If there was an appropriate name for the Yankees - it would be Halliburton. They have single-handedly made baseball a game about money and who has the most. Now, one might say, look at the Twins, look at the Devil Rays or the Oakland A's or look at those pesky Marlins, but of course these same people won't tell you they are anomalies, exceptions (these teams do not ever win. The Marlins did, but that was when they were loaded with salary.)

The Yankees have now acquired more talent, Xavier Nady and Demasco Martes and are looking into Jarod Washburn and maybe even Bonds (who I support to coming back to the league by the way). Because they have injuries to Damon, Matsui and Posada, why not load up and get some more guys in here. No other team can do this, nor does any other team want to. Now, of course the Red Sox, the Mets and Dodgers are all big market well spent teams, but when injuries occur they don't just load up for the sake of it. "Hey, because we have it."

And here is the ultimate reason why this is ridiculous. The salaries. The Yankees are so far and above every other team it is silly to say they are a big market team. We should call them the "super market" team and then the Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Angels the big market teams. The Yankees payroll this year is $207,100+ this year. The next team that is even close is the Mets at $137,000+ with the Tigers, Red Sox and White Sox rounding out the top 5. Surely ridiculous amounts of money to be paid, but the Yankees outspend the rest of the league by $70,000 which is inaccurate now with Nady, Martes and of course Washburn on the way.

How much money is that? Well, it is the entire salaries of the Rockies, Orioles, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Royals, Twins, Nationals, Pirates, A's, Devil Rays and Marlins. That is how much money it is. It is an astonishing amount of money. Yes, it is their money, no one disputes that, New York is the biggest market, blah, blah, blah, I get it. Is it necessary though? Is it necessary for Walmart to put every other business who competes with them out of business? Is it necessary for Starbucks to buy up coffee shops and then keep them empty just so another one won't go in there? Is it necessary for Halliburton to spend our money in Iraq and not keep track of it? No, it is not necessary.

Surely, it is true one can compete without spending this money, but it is usually a spend thrift way teams need to go about it, with good coaching and great drafts and what they don't tell us is - is these teams do not win championships. They compete, but they do not win. I am not a big fan of the salary cap, but this is stupid. The Red Sox are also caught up in the system as are the Mets, but comparing the Mets and Red Sox to the Yankees is like comparing Walmart to Super Cuts. Not a fair analogy. But, at least we have them to hate. That is nice.

Who will the Halliburton Yankees sign next?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much does Manny make? To be a lazy, whiny son of a bitch? Poor MLB, the Yankees ruined everything. It wasnt the Texas Rangers, who paid ARod 25 million a year way back when? Or maybe when Boston gave Manny his insane contract?

I know that you dont actually mean to equate The New York Yankees, a team of baseball players, with a company involved in no-bid contracts to make billions off of the destroyed Iraq of today. That just seems a little hyporbolic, even for a diehard Red Sox fan like yourself.

The Yankees do charge insane prices for tickets, and anything at the game. They do pay for whatever they want. However, their lifeblood today, from Cano to Joba Chamberlain, to Mariano Rivera, to Jeter, to Posada, to Ponson, is farm-grown. Please don`t attempt to prove that they are just a team of store-bought, limited edition hired guns, who are being seduced by Sodom`s money and greed.

Anonymous said...

Ok, are we getting personal? Manny out hits the league. Do I think he is whiny? Yes. Do I think he is the evildoer that the Red Sox paint him out to be? Absolutely not. He is a wonderful human being with a lot of money who is the best right handed hitter of his generation.

I am not going to argue Yankees with you because there is no defense of a team that has 70 million dollars more in payroll than any other team.

Jorge down? We got Jose Molina. Not good enough? We'll go get the best catcher since Johnny Bench. The Yankees do not plug holes they put in steal where ther is already copper. It is ridiculous.

The point was capitalism. The Yankees are the poster child for what is wrong with it in baseball as Halliburton is what is wrong with profit over safety and Walmart is the problem of profit over people. Same concept.

If you can see it, I will never make you see it.

Anonymous said...

By the way Ponson is not a Yankee prodigy. He is a bum that came up in the Orioles system.

And you named five guys on a 25 man roster. You forgot, Damon, ARod, Abreu, Giambi, now Pudge, Mussina, Matsui, Nady, Molina, etc.