That's a bold statement my friend, but I like it!

Sox can no longer whine about 'Evil Empire'
By Michael Rosenberg


I hate to slap any limits on free speech, but from now on, there are two words I never again want to hear out of the city of Boston.

"Evil Empire."

And I really, really don't want to hear them out of Larry Lucchino's mouth.

No more complaining about the Yankees' payroll, Red Sox fans. Your team is the second-fattest cat on the block.

The Red Sox just won the Daisuke Matsuzaka sweepstakes with an astounding $51.1 million bid. They are not paying $51.1 million for Matsuzaka's services. They are paying the Seibu Lions $51.1 million just for the right to negotiate with Matsuzaka. Just to get in the door. If they can't reach an agreement with Matsuzaka, the Red Sox get their money back. But they are expected to reach a deal.

Six major league teams spent less than that on their entire 2006 payroll.

Now, it is possible that the Red Sox aren't really paying that much; deals with Japanese teams are rumored to feature more secret handshakes than sixth-grade recess. But they are obviously spending a ton. Once they get around to actually, you know, paying the pitcher, their total bill could reach $100 million over five years.

The Red Sox see Matsuzaka as a 26-year-old ace and a gateway to the Japanese market, which explains why they see this as an investment.

But Matsuzaka has never even pitched in the major leagues. For all we know, the secret to his famed "gyroball" is illegally applied yogurt sauce, and he'll be a bust here.

If the Yankees made an offer like this, you know what would happen.

Lucchino, the Red Sox president, and many Boston fans would whine that the Yankees were spending recklessly, messing up baseball's payroll structure, sending the country into a recession and complicating the situation in the Middle East.

Four years ago, when the Yankees outbid Boston for Jose Contreras, an angry Lucchino told The New York Times "the evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America."

That deal was for four years and $32 million.

The Red Sox will apparently pay more just for the right to negotiate.

Hey, it's their money. They have it and they can spend it how they please. Maybe it will turn into a brilliant move, both for the baseball team and the business.

I just don't want to hear any whining from Boston fans about the Yankees payroll. Last year, the Yankees spent around $199 million, which is nuts. But the No. 2 team was the Red Sox, at $120 million, for a team that finished in third place in the A.L East.

Nobody else was above $103 million.

Thanks to baseball's revenue-sharing system, pretty much any team with good management and a strong business plan can compete for the playoffs. But for at least two-thirds of the teams in the major leagues, the idea of bidding anywhere near this much for a guy who has never pitched in the majors is absurd.

And when you add the astounding news of a $51.1 million offer to the reality of the Red Sox' payroll, you can only come to one conclusion:

The Red Sox are aggressively exploiting every possible revenue stream, creatively growing their big-market business in any way they can, then plowing their extra millions back into their ballclub in a vigorous attempt to compete for the World Series every year.

Nothing wrong with that.

But that's exactly what the Yankees do.

It can't be evil for one team and OK for another. It can't be horrible and offensive and ruining baseball when the Yankees do it and just fine when the Red Sox do it.

When it comes to baseball's economics, the only difference between the Red Sox and Yankees is that Boston is a really big market that loves baseball, and New York is a huge market that loves baseball.

If the Red Sox want to order a large, expensive platter of gyroballs, that is their right. But please, waiter: hold the morality play.

Source: FOX Sports