An Angel Fan’s Viewpoint:
As a fan of the team that got the short end of the stick in this, here are my observations and conclusions:
Does anyone doubt that The Boss remains in charge of the Yankees? Maybe not the day-to-day operations of the team, but the BIG decisions. Who do they spend the money on? How much money is spent? Maybe even whether Joba starts or relieves. I think that The Boss still makes the big decisions.
I also think he was embarrassed last year to spend all that money and miss the playoffs. And he has vowed that IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. Maybe he was even pounding on the desk.
Meaningless DonS Observation: One way to make it less likely to happen again is to have a third baseman who is less interested in chasing Madonna and more interested in chasing the pennant, but that’s just MY opinion. Well, mine and Nick’s.
Two Other Interlocked DonS Observations: 1) I hate The Boss – in nice way, as “The One, The, Only Groucho” used to say. “Say the secret word and a duck will come down and give you fifty bucks. It’s a common word, one that people use every day.” 2) I wish The Boss owned a team that I root for, because he settles for no less than victory…and spares no effort to achieve that victory. I think he would be spending similar money even without the New York financial advantages that he enjoys, because he is the most competitive owner in sports.
Who says “money can’t buy me love?”
They’ll probably sign Manny Ramirez too! I wonder what that’ll do to team chemistry, tongue in cheek. How come the only one of our four major sports with this problem is baseball and it seems okay with most fans?
Basketball, football, and hockey all have a salary cap. The only sport with an unbalanced playing field is baseball. Other than the Rays coming out of leftfield this past year, there are usually no surprises in baseball.
I’m not supporting a salary cap out of bitterness. The White Sox have the 4th highest payroll, so there are 26 teams worse off than us.
Teddy, I wish there was a cap here too: I’ve been pounding the proverbial desk on this subject for a long time. To me, you have a choice: you can continue on the way you are and run the risk of a franchise simply shutting down in the middle of the season one day, or you can say “we like having 30 franchises and we’re going to keep working on a cap until we get it right”.
The sad part is that I think it will take a bankruptcy to get the owners in charge to feel differently. :- (
Also, on the idea that the Sox are #4 in payroll: I think you also have to look at how far they are behind the Yanks. The Yankees are going to “lap the field” pretty soon. IMHO, that starts to kill the winter ticket sales for the other 29.