Yankees' spending spree a joy Yankees should be praised for having 1 goal: World title
Read no further if you visit this space craving a rant against the New York Yankees and their off-season spending spree. In an economy that is tanking and threatens to get worse, they represent everything you want in a sports ownership but can't have.
You can't have it because the Yankees are unique, they know so, and they operate accordingly. They are building a new ballpark, thus creating jobs, and will charge up to $2,500 for the best seats because demand shall equal or surpass supply.
At a time when other franchises retrench and common folk squirrel away savings in shoe boxes, the Yankees buy CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira for something like $423 million because that's the way it's done in the Bronx.
The Yankees break no rules, unlike fellow New Yorker Bernard Madoff (allegedly), and violate no trust with their fans, who expect management to try, regardless of a recession that many seers remind rhymes with depression.
Whether the Yankees also create a diversion from the current mind-set of fear-mongering is arguable, but at the very least, they aren't crying poor and protecting their nest egg. All the Yankees care about is winning the World Series, a badge that has eluded them since 2000.
Call it brazen if you must, but compare the Yankees with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who seduced their public into believing that tax dollars for a modern stadium will mean a contending team. Well, the building is in place, but the Pirates have not posted even a .500 mark since 1992, a major league record for consumer fraud. Where are those revenue-sharing checks, written by the Yankees and cashed by the Pirates, going?
Closer to home, Mark Attanasio, chairman of the Milwaukee Brewers, sees the Yankees reloading and decrees that baseball must have a salary cap or perish. Owners who preceded him upon the advent of free agency also predicted doom, not imagining that in 2008, the game would become an industry worth $6 billion.
Pitted against America's strongest union, which only increases its leverage when the Yankees so handsomely reward card-carrying members, Attanasio's wish stands as much chance of fruition as Miller Park's sausage race has of snagging an Emmy.
Even the NFL is taking the easy way out by joining and perpetuating panic. A colossus by every definition, the nation's most prosperous league has laid off mid-level employees while fast-forwarding plans for what no doubt will be another costly Super Bowl halftime orgy.
This is arrogant and irresponsible behavior, but as Commissioner Roger Goodell intoned, "I would like to be able to report that we are immune from the troubles around us, but we are not." Perhaps he refers to expensive court cases, such as the $28 million judgment against the players' association and in favor of retirees entitled to funds for broken bones and broken lives. Locally, the mood is not so dire. The Cubs are for sale but are not pinching pennies. You can call them a lot of things, but not cheap. The Blackhawks are off the charts. They have doubled their attendance at the United Center, then doubled that for a day at Wrigley Field. As management reinvests principal, fans reinvest interest. Economics 101.
The Yankees are more hated than ever, but what Hank Steinbrenner does will warm the cockles of father George's wallet. The Yankees' mantra is, regardless of the real world, what they can least afford is not to win. Shop until it hurts. Bravo.
