The No Kool Aid Zone

Just for the sake of argument, what are the Yankees doing wrong? They aren’t breaking any rules and no other MLB team is prevented from spending just as much or more money than them to try to assemble the best team possible. The Yankees are really just the sports embodiment of the capitalistic world that Americans supposedly love and embrace, aren’t they?

gurufrisbee ~ Oct 9, 2006 at 10:19 am

In one sense, of course, you’re right: they’re not breaking any rules. I use the Yankees as a symbol—the best symbol, I think—of what is wrong with baseball, the sport which used to be my favorite. Baseball’s “playing field” is grossly unfair. The essence of sport is fair competition, but the rules of baseball are such that fair competition is a joke (unlike, say, the NFL, where the salary cap levels the playing field). Leaving Pittsburgh area in two weeks; the Pirates have had a losing season in each of the 14 summers I’ve lived up here (of course, maybe it’s ME!). Now, SOME, a decent amount, of the blame, can be laid at some sorry personnel decisions; the Pirates could have done BETTER than they’ve done. But the fact is that the small-market teams, such as Pittsburgh, KC, Milwaukee, etc., face a huge competitive disadvantage. It’s not that that disadvantage can’t be overcome; the Florida Marlins are a shining example of this, as are the Oakland A’s. It’s that these teams are the exception, instead of the rule; it’s that when they do the hard work of developing players, the Yankees (and yes, the Red Sox, my own Cardinals, the Dodgers, the Mets, the Cubs—who manage to stink ANYWAY, etc.) snap them up, because they have the money to spend that KC and Pittsburgh only DREAM of.

So yes, the Yankees play within the rules, sure, but I’ve always hated the Yankees, and now they epitomize to me the loss of a great game, the game of baseball.

Byron ~ Oct 9, 2006 at 11:43 am

I agree that baseball would be better with a salary cap that would help level the playing field for all teams, but I disagree with focusing the frustration/anger of the lack of that on the Yankees (or even all the big market, big budget teams). The anger should be with MLB and that’s who you should be mad at, IMO.

I’m in the Seattle area and it really annoys me with how much Yankee hatred there is around here by Mariner fans based on “the Yankees are trying to buy a title”. For one, the Mariners ARE a big budget team even though they often don’t win like one. Two, the biggest reason the Yankees have more success than the M’s is NOT because of the money they spend on free agents. It’s because the Yankees actually do a PHENOMENAL job of developing their own talent. Look at the guys they have now they brought up from their farm system – Jeter, Rivera, Wang, Posada, Bernie Williams, Cano (and Pettitte for most of this great run). And then you have guys like ARod and Randy Johnson and Abreu who are there because the Yankees were able to trade away even more of their young talent to get those guys. Yes, they do still break the bank to sign the Sheffields, Giambis, Damons, and Mussinas but that team has five guys on it right now that have been all stars that came up through their own minor league system – find me any other team in all of baseball who can come close to saying that.

And believe me, right now I have as much reason to dislike the big money teams as anyone on the heels of YOUR Cardinals knocking out MY Padres.

gurufrisbee ~ Oct 9, 2006 at 2:13 pm

Well, as to the Cardinals/Padres, NEENER NEENER…

Seriously, I hated the Yankees long before baseball got so seriously screwed up…I just have MORE reason now!

Byron ~ Oct 9, 2006 at 5:13 pm

Yes, it’s rough having $120 million and the best player in the game and play in the weakest division every year. No wonder you go to the World Series and win it every year – oh wait….

Seriously how does hating the Yankees because they do what they can to do successful not fall under the category of “slipshod reasoning, emotion without intellectual substance, bad ideas”?

gurufrisbee ~ Oct 9, 2006 at 6:38 pm

Hey, you’re expecting too much of sporting when you ask that rooting for a sports team has any intellectual substance whatever! Why do we love the teams we love and hate the teams we hate? Because we DO, dude, because we DO. There’s no super-intellectual reason why I hate the Dallas Cowboys; it just FEELS right, man, just like Yankee-hating. It’s pure, unadulterated emotion.

And when it comes to Yankee and Cowboy-hating, I have PLENTY of it!

Byron ~ Oct 9, 2006 at 9:57 pm

Here is a shocker – we disagree, Byron! I don’t think it’s too much to ask for people to apply intellectual substance to all areas of their life – including sports. I’ve always held great disgust for the Mariners fans whose greatest joy in life is to boo A-Rod because he didn’t want to stay in Seattle. Randy Johnson fakes an injury to force to get traded out of here and they love him. Ken Griffey Jr. forces a trade under the excuse he wants to move closer to home (Florida) and then agrees to go to Cincinnati (real close to Florida) and they love him. But A-Rod plays out his contract, listens to the M’s make massively pitiful contract offers of very few years and (relatively speaking) very little money and then bag on him for supposedly being dishonest when saying he wanted to go play for a winner. Hello M’s fans – you’ve finished in last place of your division three years in a row!

You can hate a team because you’re jealous of their success – fine – but don’t hate the Yankees because they spend the money to win – THAT’S WHAT ALL TEAMS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO.

gurufrisbee ~ Oct 10, 2006 at 5:45 pm

No, no, my point is that I hated the Yankees BEFORE they began their spending ways, just like I’ve always hated the Dallas Cowboys. There’s no rational reason behind it (well, to my mind, I can INVENT SOME!), but I just do. I love the Steelers; ergo, I root long/hard against the Browns. There’s nothing inherently better about the Steelers than the Browns—well, I’m sure some Steeler fans would argue that—but it’s the nature of the beast, dude! We love who we love and we hate who we hate; it doesn’t necessarily make any sense, unless there is a geographical component to it (root, root, root for the home team—but if you grew up, as I did, without a “home team”, then it’s pretty much completely arbitrary, right? I’m a Montreal Canadiens fan—well, as much as I am a hockey fan, which is to say very little. Why? Beats me, but I grew up liking the Canadiens and disliking the Boston Bruins.). It’s the nature of the beast, generally mindless partisanship.

And hopefully, maybe the only area of life where sentiment appropriately rules over sheer logic…

Byron ~ Oct 11, 2006 at 6:47 pm