Don't Hate the Player (Yankees), Hate the Game (MLB)

The Yankees won their 27th World Series last night, and with that has come both praise, and disgust. I've heard many people saying thins like "I guess money can buy a championship." Or simply bashing "A-Roid" and other high profile Yankee players.

I am in no way a Yankee fan and don't plan on ever calling myself one. There have been times over the course of this season when I have said similar remarks. I would say, "looks like the Yankees bought themselves a pretty good season." However, I have come to the realization that all of that animosity was really just jealousy. The Yankees payroll exceeds $200 million. The Rangers budget last year as quoted by Nolan RyanNolan Ryan will be about "$68-70 million."

The Yankees have the ability to go out and get the big names that will bring in championships. They can, in effect, buy themselves a good season; even a world series ring. I as a fan am jealous that the Yankees can go out and spend money and contend every year, while the Rangers have to hope that their young farm system can produce because that's all they can afford. This jealousy seamlessly transitions into animocity as the Yankees are hoisting the trophy and the Rangers continue to wait on "next year."

But the way that I have come to look at it now is that it's not the Yankees fault. The Yankees are simply taking advantage of a flawed system. Baseball has no salary cap, and therefore neither requires or encourages parity in the sport. The 10 highest payrolls in Major League Baseball this year (in order) were the:

Yankees $201,449,189
Mets $149,373,987
Cubs $134,809,000
Red Sox $121,745,999
Tigers $115,085,145
Angels $113,709,000
Phillies $113,004,046
Astros $102,996,414
Dodgers $100,414,592
Mariners $98,904,166
source: http://www.getlisty.com/preview/2009-mlb-team-payrolls/


Playing in the ALCS this season were the Yankees and Angels. While the NLCS consisted of the Phillies vs. Dodgers. The only teams to make the playoffs that didn't appear on that list above were the Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, and Colorado Rockies. That means that 5 of the 8 teams in this postseason were in that top ten list, and all 4 of the teams in the League Championship Series.'

Is that fair? Maybe not. But don't hate the Yankees for going out and spending the most money and winning the world series. Either get angry with your team for not coughing up the dough, or get angry with Major League Baseball for allowing the sport to be run this way. It takes the competition off of the field and put it into the owner's pocketbooks. And while that may not be right, it's not the Yankees fault that they possess the deepest pockets.