[QUOTE=Trunk]
But, in baseball, I believe the Yankees behavior is detrimental to the league. They’ve taken what should be a competition on the field, and made it a competition between owners where the primary advantages don’t come from wise decision making, or coaching, or scouting but rather from the status of being in a large market.
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Define large market. In my lifetime I’ve seen the Indians pine about the disadvantages of being in a small market, to selling out every home game for years while fielding some of the greatest lineups in history, to again pining about the disadvantages of being in a small market. Market size is not static, but very much dependent on wise corporate decision making, coaching, and scouting. Atlanta is not a terribly big place, and slightly smaller than B’more, but the Braves were one of the largest markets in baseball for much of the 90’s for exactly those reasons.
I dont even buy the, “But the tri-state area is so big the Yankees have a much larger built in fan base.” True many more people live in the NYC area than say Milwaukee, but they are also competing against 8 other professional sports teams and all manner of other attractions for dollars.
Also, you’re argument in favor of parity in baseball run contrary to your appreciation of scrappy teams and love of the underdog. Part of the joy many people took in seeing the Yankees lose to the Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Tigers was the David vs. Goliath storyline. If all teams have equal funding then it turns into team A from certain city beats team B from another city – which is exactly how I view the NFL. There are no heroes or villains, just assemblages of players that base their life out of a certain city for a few years. Not to mention that there is little evidence that the revenue sharing and salary cap used by the NFL increases the turn over of contenders. 14 different teams have won the past 20 WS, while 12 have won the past 20 Superbowls. In my opinion, the perceived benefit of the salary cap has much more to do with the fact that half of all the teams in the NFL make the playoffs. Go back and see who would have made the playoffs in baseball over the past 20 years if half the teams were selected. Given the incredibly stochastic nature of baseball it’s not unreasonable to assume that anyone of them could have made a run at the championship.
I’m not a football fan, but I understand how the salary cap benefits the NFL. Many football fans can and do watch nearly every interesting game on all season long. In that case it behooves them to make every match up interesting. With baseball, after following my team I’m lucky if I get a chance to watch condensed highlights of the other games.
As to your original post: Is it any fun being a Yankee’s fan? Not so much anymore. I haven’t agreed with many of the off season moves recently. At the end of the '04 season I thought the better long term financial decision to their lack of center fielder would have been moving Jeter to center, ARod back to short, and signing a competent 3rd baseman. I pine for the days when Brosius was going for 100 RBI from the 8-9 hole (or better yet, when they would pretty much sign Louis Soho sometime during the bottom of the ninth inning, pull him from the stands, stick him in uniform, and have him deliver a pinch hit game winning double). But still, they almost always make it interesting. And that’s why I watch, to be entertained.
