I absolutely hate the Yankees. They are the WORST team in the AL and the MLB, aside from Montreal who won't exist anymore. I'll admit, they're not the worst in talent or winning season or pennants won, but the worst because of it all.
Now, if a team like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays won the pennant, then they earned it. Look at their club. It's miserable. They're so horrible, in fact, that all the people who wanted a baseball team in Tampa now want them out. But if they won the pennant, it would be something.
The Yankees, on the other hand, are the lazy man's pick. "Hey, Joe, who do you pick to win it all this year?" "How about the Yankees?" "That's the fourth year in a row..." "And I still ahve a good record."
Fact: One Trivial Pursuit question reads: "Who holds the record for most visits to the World Series Pennant game?" Answer: "The New York Yankees."
Do you know WHY the Yankees have such a good record? (I guess a better question would be "Are you sleeping in a box?") The Yankees are rich. There's no doubt about it. I can't go so far as to say they've stolen good players from bad teams, but they come pretty close to fitting the bill. Let's take the Braves for example (not saying my team is a bad one, but...)...
Gary Sheffield, the Braves' best right fielder. He's the one with the rocking bat, because he's keeping time with the pitcher's count. Great player. A very hard person to replace. Well, the Braves had to because the Yankees have him now.
Let's look at the Texas Rangers now. Their only PRAYER, their only Hail Mary, let's say, was A-Rod. Alexander Rodriguez. He was their best player, there's no doubt about it. My brother and I used to laugh at the Viagra commercials where he said his team was winning games, because he was the only one doing any sort of "winning." Where is he now? Psh. Easy question. The Yankees.
Baseball, of course, isn't the only sport that has a team like this. Hockey is another prime example with the Detroit Redwings. But I like the Redwings, because they're very unlike the Yankees. The Yankees acquire new and better players every season and the Redwings just recently lost one of their top veterans when they traded Brett Hull. Under the Yankees frame of mind, they would have never lost Hull unless they received five good players in some way or another.
Is there a solution to this problem? Of course there is. It's been presented many times. The National Football League uses this system and it's proven to work fairly well. It's called a Salary Cap.
Each team has a certain amount of money in which they can use to pay their players. Some teams will go the route of buying a lot of cheap, yet athletic players while other teams will go the path of buying a couple of expensive, outstanding players. Either way, all teams are getting a fair shot at all the players if they manage their money well.
This means a team like the Yankees would never exist. Sure, the Yankees could eye Gary Sheffield from a distance, but unless they got rid of some of their top guns, they couldn't acquire both him and A-Rod in the same season. This would considerably level the playing field.
I'm not saying the Yankees are a bad team. I'm just saying they're a good team through bad measures.
