Originally Posted by owsley
A) The advantage that the Yankees get from the extra money they spend is not nearly as high as people often claim. For various reasons, primarily the dynamic of variance in postseason play, baseball just doesn't have that big of a parity problem. Out of all the big leagues, it does better in this department than everyone except maybe the NFL. If you looked at the WS winners and runner ups the last 9 seasons without seeing team names, would you think the sport had a parity problem? Of course not. People attacking the Yankees' "unfair advantage" are largely attacking a problem that simply doesn't exist, the sport is quite fair.
So your argument here is "primarily" who cares if they have an unfair advantage getting to the playoffs every year, b/c the playoffs are really hard and they might not end up winning?
Also, how about the novel idea they shouldn't have any advantage at all? Not even a .000000001%, that the only advantage they should have come solely on their ability to run a baseball organization.
Now, look at a sport like soccer, namely the EPL and La Liga... now those are leagues which have serious parity problems due to owners spending ridiculous sums. In the EPL, 75% or more teams are ruled out of contention from day 1 because of their spending ability. OTOH, teams with billionaire owners like Chelsea and Man C genuinely have a huge unfair advantage and have been able to "buy" success simply by spending $100m very fast.
B) Other teams could spend just as much money, if not more, than the Yankees. People often forget this but Steinbrenner was NOT actually a particularly wealthy owner.
you're privy to the TV revenue the Yankees bring in right? If so, how can you say the above with a straight face?
There are a handful of other owners with far more resources available to them. Steinbrenner cared more about winning and was willing to lose money in order to increase the team's chances of winning, which he did for decades. Only recently has the team exploded in value, which is in large part due to his financial commitment, not merely "being in NYC." Lots of other owners are businessmen who look at their teams as investments which they want to make money off, and are not willing to sacrifice potential profit for the chance of winning (minnesota...).
You're seriously underestimating Steinnbrenner's ability to invest in a team and make his return back. If the Cleveland Indians owner dropped $225 million into his ballclub every year, he'd have to have every TV in Cleveland tuned into every game, every home game a sellout and ppl spending upwards of $100 in concessions to show a profit. If you're a poker player you probably know about this concept its called implied odds.
If spending more is an unfair advantage, it is not one that only the Yankees have available to them, not by a longshot. Never mind they already redistribute tens of millions each year to smaller market teams, many of whom choose not to spend that on player salaries or development.
C) The part in bold about Arod being a "****ty person IRL" is bull****. I seriously, seriously doubt that he is somehow a worse person than the average MLBer, he just because a pariah because of his contract. Tons of dudes in the league beat their wives, use drugs, only care about the money, or any number of things. In other worse they are normal, fallible, humans. The media ignores this when they are average or non-noteworthy players, or when they have decided to elevate him to "hero" status, whereupon they decide to ignore his flaws. At some point they decided to hate Arod, and have singled him out.
There are countless stories about what a jackwad A-Rod was during his time with the Rangers. Mark Texieria too for that matter, the guy is fake and he's not a nice guy. He might not be the only major leaguer who's not a nice guy. I didn't say he was the only major leaguer I didn't like tho either.
When Arod came to NY, Jeter made the extremely selfish decision of refusing to move from SS, despite Arod being a far better defender. As a result, the team suffered by not putting its best lineup out, and Arod had to move to 3rd and learn a new position. What does Arod get for complying up with Jeter's ridiculous demand for the sake of keeping everyone happy? He plays bad at his new position and gets mercilessly booed despite putting up MVP numbers in a season where they made the playoffs by something like 2 games. Yet the media arbitrarily decided that Jeter was a hero all around good American True Yankee, so they were silent about his selfish demand, while they chose to throw Arod under the bus and rag on him constantly for years.
this is a very solid point and one I hadn't considered before.
