Of course it is easy to be a fan of a team that buys a championship every four years.
The Yankees spent millions more than the next highest paying team this year and over $100. Million more than all but six teams.
http://deadspin.com/2013-payrolls-and-salaries-for-every-mlb-team-462765594
They spent even more in 2012. Almost $40 million more than the next highest paying team.
http://baseball.about.com/od/newsrumors/a/2012-Baseball-Team-Payrolls.htm
In 2011: Same thing but worse, ALMOST SIXTY MILLION MORE that the next club.
http://baseball.about.com/od/newsrumors/a/2011-Baseball-Team-Payrolls.htm
It would be easier to list the years that the Yankees spent less than any other team in the league because over the last 100 years IT HAS NEVER HAPPENNED!
The reason why the NFL is so popular is that every team has the chance to compete. Where as in Baseball at least forty percent of the teams could never compete on a regular basis simply because the pigs at the trough don't care about competition. The Yankees gorge themselves on the talent of the small and mid market teams. They pilfer that talent that the other teams develop. They have every ability to do so because they control the league. They dictate the terms of revenue sharing, which is basically nonexistent. They also resist any change that would make for a more competitive and more subsequently interesting and successful league.
As for Socialist, the MLB is a FRANCHISE. They are independently owned teams, but like every franchise they are supposed to work as a group to increase the entire well being of the whole. Franchises do that through revenue sharing in the form of franchise fees and centralized purchasing. This allows for a consistent product. That is why a Big Mac in New York is the same as one in Dallas.
The fact that the MLB is a franchise makes the disparagement in salaries even more egregious.
A hard salary cap along with a hard salary basement coupled with real revenue sharing would make for a much more competitive league and thereby increase the value and profits of ALL THE TEAMS. That would than make the ability of an organization to judge talent and coach that talent much more important than their ability to write a big check to those players up for new contracts.
As it stands now New York can afford to make stupid trades and give massive contract because they know that no one can compete with them.
As for Cano, they can afford him. They can afford anything. They spend ten times what the lowest payroll team spends.
Why would that ever change without pressure from the other teams in the league. I cry for their inability to find the nickels in the sofa sign Cano. I some how believe that they will spend whatever they decide they need to if they really want him.
Mike Royko may have said it best: “Hating the Yankees is as American as pizza pie, unwed mothers, and cheating on your income tax.”
I hate the Yankees and all real Americans do. The skeevy crap hole New York and the front runners can have them. They are everything that is wrong with baseball.
When they won in 1996, they had the tenth highest payroll.
No, the idea that the Yankees just buy titles is a myth. Do you know how many of the current Yankees are homegrown? (A majority.) That’s doing it the old-fashioned way.
If small-market teams can never compete, how do you explain Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Tampa beings in the playoffs? How do you explain Arizona in 2011? They’re at a disadvantage, true, but they can compete if they decide to. Unfortunately, too many teams would rather lose, whine, and collect welfare from the large-market clubs.
A hard salary cap would merely inhibit creative clubs from competing. It would bring down player salaries without having much effect on the competition.