In Major League Baseball there are the haves and the have-nots. No, wait. In MLB there’s the Yankees, the haves, and the have-nots. The Yankees are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett rolled into one.
With a $201M payroll, the Yankees spend more than $50M more than the Mets, the leader of the “haves” with a payroll more than $149M. After the Mets come the other “haves” – the Cubs, Red Sox, Tigers, Angels, Phillies, Astros, and Dodgers – all spending more than $100M per year in salaries. There are a few other “haves” in the $90M-range… then the “have-nots” fall into line.
As a Red Sox fan, I’m not complaining. The team for whom I root is one of the “haves” with a shot at winning a championship each year. However, since the mid-1990s, only the Marlins and Diamondbacks have interrupted one of the major-market teams from winning it all. And, I wouldn’t exactly call south Florida or Phoenix small markets – maybe just bad baseball fans.
With the Sox winning two World Series since 2004, the Yankees winning didn’t bother me as in years past. With all that spending, it was inevitable. It will just make the hot-stove season more fun in Boston this year. But for those baseball fans of “have-nots,” how long can they keep enjoying and supporting the long baseball season knowing there isn’t a chance-in-hell that their team can win a championship? How does that make Bud and the suits at MLB feel? Major League Baseball has become a league of elitists, which is just one of the many problems facing baseball.
With championship #27 under its belt, it’s happy-days again in New York. Congratulations to them and their fans. For the “have-nots,” MLB apparently doesn’t care.
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Bingo! A league is only as strong as its weakest link. There are plenty of “weak links” in MLB. Watch all the empty seats at stadiums next season. MLB better wake-up!
Comment by KCFan — November 6, 2009 @ 6:47 am
Just playing by the rules. Get over it.
Comment by NYY4ever — November 6, 2009 @ 8:50 am
These rules will be the ruin of MLB. MLB and its over-paid players have been fortunate that corporate America has supported it over the years. My guess is they will loose some fan-base, as small market teams are unable to compete.
Comment by D.Blue — November 6, 2009 @ 10:38 am
Money doesn’t cure all. I know, I’m a Mets’ fan. We had the second highest payroll in baseball, but made bad decisions with the money. Hell, the Yankees have been spending for years and just won only their second in 9-years.
Comment by MrMet — November 6, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
It’s not about the ‘haves’ not winning. It’s about the ‘have-nots’ having no chance to win.
Comment by Delmartian — November 6, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
The key to the “have nots” succeeding is to get MLB to schedule many more series with the Red Sox. That way Red Sox fans will keep flooding to their empty stadiums, hence, filling them up, and raising revenue. That would be a fun and creative solution. So instead of playing the Yankees 20 times a year, let’s have Boston go to Kansas City 20 times. I like that.
Comment by John — November 7, 2009 @ 12:00 am
To whom it may concern,
The Hall of Fame appreciates your viewpoint on the Yankees and as Co-Chairman I applaud your valuable and sensible insights. However, the disturbing part we find is your inclusion of the “Hall of Fame Network”. As you can tell from visiting our website(http://www.freewebs.com/thehof/), the Hall of Fame is a small (less than
member group of gladiators, once-in-a-lifetime contributors to humanity and we limit the use of our name to only our members. Can you please contact Co-Chairman Smokey and CEO Nick to see if any exemption is available? Alex, the Executive VP of Operations will probably take a long, hard view at the circumstances and render a final decision.
Kind Regards,
Co-Chairman Steve
Comment by Co-Chairman Steve — November 8, 2009 @ 8:09 pm