Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Yankees Have Ruined My Christmas

By Sean Crowe

I wanted to write a nice little Christmas article. I wanted to be in a good mood. I wanted to write something in the spirit of Christmas.

But I can't. I'm not in the mood.

The New York bleeping Yankees have ruined my Christmas.

The Yankees have officially ruined America's pastime. It's no longer a sport. It's become the Harlem Globetrotters and 29 Washington Generals.

Someone needs to remind the Yankees that the United States is going through a pretty bad recession. There's no recession in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are printing money.

They've landed the top three free agents on the market. The only thing stopping them from signing the rest of the free agents is that pesky 25-man roster limit.

The discrepancy between the Yankees and everyone else financially is completely unprecedented. They've spent over $400,000,000 this offseason.

Let that sink in for a minute.

They have the four highest paid players in the game. Two of them make up the left side of their infield.

Alex Rodriguez makes $27.5 million per season. Derek Jeter makes $18.9 million per season. Mark Teixeira makes $22.5 million per season. Jorge Posada makes $13.5 million per season. Robinson Cano makes $7.5 million per season.

What does that mean? I mean, aside from the fact that Cano obviously needs a new agent?

The Yankees' infield, just their infield, will make $83 million next season. Their starting infield will be making more money than 16 other teams' entire roster.

The Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, Arizona Diamondbacks, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, and Florida Marlins all have 25 men under contract for less money than the Yankees are paying their five starting infielders.

Bah, humbug.

And I'm a Red Sox fan. As far as 28 other teams are concerned, I have no business complaining.

The Red Sox are one of the haves. But even the Red Sox know that if the Yankees want a player, they'll outbid the them for him.

You see, the Red Sox have limits. Eventually, they'll run out of money. The Yankees won't.

I couldn't imagine being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. Or a Kansas City fan.

You can bash the have-nots for mismanagement all you want. You can point at the A's, the Twins, and the Rays as shining examples of how the have-nots can compete with, and sometimes even beat the haves.

But if you truly believe that, you're as naive as you are short-sighted.

The A's should still be one of the best teams in the American League, but they're not. They understand that when they bring up a player, they have five years. Once they lose control of that player, he's gone.

That's an awfully small window.

The Rays are good now because they've been terrible for so long they have a ton of high first round picks on their roster. But they know, a couple years from now all those players will be Yankees, Mets, or Red Sox.

All you need to know about the Twins is that Johan Santana is a member of the New York Mets.

Pirates fans don't have much to root for, but someone like Jason Bay at least gave them reason to show up. But Jason Bay has a year left on his contract. So instead of building around him, they trade him knowing they'll never be able to outbid the Red Sox for him.

Get the picture? Baseball is broken.

Major League Baseball needs a salary cap. They need one badly. I'm done with the sport. I'm sick of pompous Yankee fans who think it's their God given right to win championships simply because they're from New York.

The arrogant, short-sighted, greedy, scumbag owners in New York need to be knocked down a peg. Once Derek Lowe signs with the Mets, all five prime free agents this offseason will have signed with a New York team. There's one big-named free agent left (Manny Ramirez).

Any guess on where he'll eventually end up?

All I want for Christmas is a salary cap in Major League Baseball. Until I get one, I'll have to find something else to watch between the NBA and NFL seasons...

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner at Examiner.com. He writes a column every other Thursday for Sports Central. You can email him at [email protected].