-
The Role of the Federal Government
June 12, 2013 | 47 comments
-
The Seriousness of the Charge
May 29, 2013 | 68 comments
-
The Seventeen Year Itch
May 15, 2013 | 6 comments
-
Questions
May 1, 2013 | 50 comments
-
Stifling Our Children
April 15, 2013 | 39 comments
Sports Arena
Bomberphobia
Yankee haters of the world fail to appreciate the conservative essence of New York’s mightiest franchise.
Short months ago, the first real taste of warm weather blew gently across the Northeast and the sight of blossoming trees with their explosions of brilliant color provided a great remedy for the winter blues. This glorious tableau was only tarnished by three days of watching my New York Yankees getting trashed by the Boston Red Sox up in Fenway Park. More misery was to follow as the Yanks would also lose the next five games at the hands of the dreaded Beantowners.
But just as Spring is the harbinger of good things to come, so does Fall sometimes usher in great days for some fortunate baseball fans. The Yanks won nine out of the next ten tilts with the Sox and in doing so, clinched the AL East on Sunday as well as the best record in baseball. So you’d think that everything would be bliss for Yankee fans, right? Well, maybe it is for some, but not for this one.
When you’re a conservative columnist, bad vibes are a part of the territory. You tend to grow a thick skin and brush the slings and arrows of outrageous liberals off your back; and believe me, last week brought a bunch of them. But when your favorite team makes the postseason, all should be happiness and light; except, that is, if you’re a Yankee fan. I mention these two things together because I have noticed that some of the gripes about conservatives advanced by those on the left have a great deal in common with those who suffer from an irrational hatred of the Yankees, or Bomberphobia as I like to call it.
In the course of their long history, the Yankees have been despised by various large groups of people; most notably fans of the teams who have suffered at the hands of their mighty batsmen. But in the last few decades or so, because they have so outspent their rivals in putting their profits into their farm system and acquiring the best players available, they have become the target of liberals everywhere.
This of course is understandable as liberals, particularly rich ones, often lecture us as to the evils of wealth. But what about you conservatives? Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone on the right should be a Bronx Bomber fan, but stop and consider what some of you have in common with the opposition in hating the Yanks.
Let’s take stock here. You’re a good conservative. You are a capitalist; one who believes that excellence should be rewarded, that a man should be able to earn whatever the market will pay. If you are a true conservative you despise socialism; the idea that in a country like America, some should support others who are perfectly capable of doing it themselves. You are sick of government bailouts and the welfare state.
Yet, many of you secretly applaud baseball’s version of socialism, euphemistically called the Competitive Balance Tax, which has resulted in the Yanks paying out over $150 million in the last six years to their direct competitors. Meanwhile, Robert Nutting, the dastardly owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates who pocketed $40 million in revenue-sharing alone last year, saw fit to reduce his 2009 payroll to $20 million by selling off the few good players he had. Such doings make those who cooked up the Oil for Food program look like pikers.
Yet some who disdain the concept of the redistribution of wealth as an economic and political system, see nothing wrong with the same idea in baseball. Those who champion parity in competitive sports remind me of Madeleine Albright and those of her ilk who bemoan the fact that it’s not fair that the U.S. is the world’s only remaining superpower.
As a conservative, you believe in fair play and the rule of law; that once the game has begun, the rules should not change because someone doesn’t like the outcome à la Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and friends. Yet Bomberphobes everywhere rejoiced when traitor Lee MacPhail, then president of the American League, overturned the unanimous decision of all four umpires in the infamous “pine tar game.” Talk about your recounts!
And, keeping in mind the fact that many became Bomberphobes when it was revealed that George Steinbrenner gave illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon, and there you have it: irrefutable evidence that those who harbor an irrational hatred for the Yanks must be closet liberals.
Now, before my mailbox gets flooded with angry missives, be advised that this column is mainly directed at some of my personal friends and colleagues who become twisted with Yankee hatred most Octobers, and is meant to be taken tongue in cheek; sort of. So come on my fellow conservatives, there’s still time to get in the game and root for America’s team.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (50) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Lisa Fabrizio
More Articles From Sports Arena
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/30/bomberphobia
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- The Lehrman Standard
- Celebrating Our Lady of Paris
- Of Weiner and Women
The Spectacle Blog
Democrat Dan Maffei Blames Budget Cuts for Girl’s Rape, Mother’s Murder
Robert Stacy McCain | 4:12PM
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 9:19AM
The essence of competition is a level playing field. With a fan base of about 12 million, the Yankees have a ability to make exponentially more money than most of their competitors (especially my Orioles). With no salary cap or real revenue sharing (necessary to level the playing field) the Yankees have an insurmountable unfair advantage. It is like watching a heavyweight champion box a 10 month old; in other words, it is sick and grotesque, and not "competition."
Look at the Mark Texieria debacle in the off season. That situation basically smashed in the skull of the Baltimore Orioles, and emphatically said "you have no right whatsoever to compete." The Orioles are left with painstakingly embarking on a tedious rebuilding process using "prospects" and their farm system, which will basically end up with the cash-awash Yankees stripping them of their talent once it reaches fruition.
I love the Yankee fans who laud their teams success, not acknowledging that its like appluading the Pittsburgh Steelers for prevailing against a team of crippled midgets.
Why should I watch baseball when I know before the season starts that (a) Baltimore, Toronto, KC, Pittsburgh, etc. have absolutely no (zero, nada) cxhance of even comepting, and (b) The Yankees will be in the post-season (14 of the last 15 years?). Why check the standings, look at the census in April and save your money.
In 1899, the national league contracted the great national league Baltimore Orioles out of existence; in 1903, the new American League stole the new Baltimore Orioles and made them the New York Highlanders, later the Yankees. Subsequent attempts by none other than former Orioles manager Foxy Ned Hanlon to bring a major league team back to Baltimore were repeatedly spiked by NY interests who thought (especially Charlie Ebbets) that Baltimore was "too colored."
Now, basically, Baltimore has been kicked out of the major leagues once again, unable to even begin to try to attempt to compete in the AL East (12 straight losing seasons and counting). Maybe the powereful and dominat New York interests in the game feel we in Baltimore are still "too colored."
Sad commentary on the sorry, predictable, and uninspiring state of the national pastime.
James| 9.30.09 @ 9:34AM
JohnD - I am sympathetic to you but you are omitting a few facts.
1) Check out what some of the teams that get league sharing do with the money. How about Pittsburgh? They get about $40MM a year and have sold off all of their players so they now have a $20MM payroll. The purpose of league sharing is to get players. They are not doing that. KC is doing the same thing.
2) The O's were a great team and rival to the NYY all through the late 1990's. They had a full ball park every night and money coming out of their ears. What has happened? Peter Angelos. That's what. Forget the racial angle. When the O's spend their considerable money wisely, they will compete. Cf - Phillies, Twins, Atlanta, St. Louis. All teams that have payrolls which the O's can compete.
Giga Joule| 10.1.09 @ 12:39PM
So what you're saying, James, is that money doesn't make a difference; that it's a coincidence that KC has a low budget and perennially lands in last place while the Yankees spend $200+ million and land in first place.
If that's the case, then why not give every team the same payroll? The Yankees wouldn't fear losing games, right?
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 9:38AM
Not to belabor the point, but your article was salt poured in a deep open wound.
I forgot to point out, the Yankees have ruined baseball; celebrating that is something I find deeply offensive and insensitive.
A few facts about the great city and fans that the Yankees (and Red Sox) have eliminated from baseball competition:
Baltimore's AAA Orioles went to the Junior World Series in 1944, after their ballpark burned to the ground on July 4 of that season, and they had to borrow bats and gloves to finish the year. The series, against Louisville, drew more fans than the major league world series that year. The games were played in Municipal Stadium, Baltimore's football stadium on 33rd St, that was later modified into Memorial Stadium, where the Colts (don't get me started on that) and Orioles played from the early 1950s until the former were stolen, and the latter moved to iconic Camden Yards.
When Cal Ripken was inducted into the HOF in 2007, a record crowd showed up. To quoite the HOF press release on the event: "The Induction crowd was estimated at 75,000 -- a 50-percent increase, believe it or not, over the previous record of 50,000 set in 1999 for the enshrinement of Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Robin Yount. Saturday's attendance was 14,000 at the Museum, nearly 5,000 more than any day in the 68-year history of the place."
They were all Oriole fans. More Batimore fans showed up than Yankee fans for ANY of the many Yankee inductees, despite the ceremonies occuring in the same state.
My point: Baltimore has the greatest baseball fans, and has for a century. Why MLB would allow what has been done to the greatest baseball fans in the world calls into question MLB's stewardship of the game.
The Yakees eliminating the greatest fans from seeing their team allowed to compete is nothing to be celbrated, and very, very bad for the game.
Simply put, the Yankees have ruined baseball, and anyone who would celebarte that is no baseball fan.
JohnD | 9.30.09 @ 9:47AM
James:
(1) Pittsburgh is another story, and they COULD compete because they don't have to get past the Yankees and Bosox; citing the Philles, Twins, et.al. is a red herring; they do not have to compete with the Yankees and Bosox to get to the post season, and anyone can win a 7 game series; a 162 game season is a different story.
(2) Angelos has spent money, but as a former O's GM said, "we are offering confederate money." What he meant was, whatever the O's offer, the Yanks can offer double. This relegates the O's to 2nd and 3rd tier free agents, who still have to be paid "Yankee" money because the Yanks "set the market," to quote super agent Scott Boras. (again, see Texieria).
You are just flat out wrong. Sure, Angelos has made some bad moves, but 12 years? It is because the O's cannot improve through free agency, because the Yankees basically skim the cream with their vastly superior resources, overpaying if necessary, and leave the rest of the league (O's included) to pick through the inferior leftovers.
Citing small market teams that have made the post season is irrelvant except in the case of Tampa, because they are in the AL east and had to get past the Yankees. But look at Tampa; they painstakingly rebuilt, made the post season once last year, and where are they now? Yankees are in 14 of the last 15 years. Is that your idea of competition?
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 10:02AM
AL East
Post Season Appearances, Last 10 seasons
NY Yankees - 9
Bosox - 6
Tampa - 1
Baltimore - 0
Toronto - 0
Competition? Ha!
J.A. Davis| 9.30.09 @ 10:21AM
Please Lisa! Must you politicize baseball. You can be a conservative, and hate the Yankees. Earlier post got it right. Baseball needs more competitive balance. This is not a matter of the free market. Baseball is not competing with baseball. It's competing with movies, NFL, MSL, etc. I think RET used to use the term Kultursmog to describe this urge to bring politics into every arena of life. It's a very bad impulse.
Tim| 9.30.09 @ 10:57AM
The UN should impose sanctions on the Yankees.
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 11:02AM
How about MLB do what the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS have done. Either a salary cap, or revenue sharing, and I mean revenue sharing not what MLB calls revenue sharing.
Every nickel of the proceeds from every ticket, parking spot, hot dog, baseball cap etc. sold should be divided equally. The TV and radio contracts for each team should be negotiated by MLB and divided equally (prevents Steinbrenner's YES netwrok sham from hiding profits from MLB "revenue sharing").
Each team should make the same revenue, to the penny. Then we'll have fair competition in MLB.
Plus, revenue sharing could be agreed to by the owners, with no say from the players union.
Akaky| 9.30.09 @ 11:47AM
As a lifelong Yankee fan-not only am I from the Bronx, I am from Highbridge, the neighborhood where Yankee Stadium and the new park are located-let me just point out one thing that always seems to slip the minds of the Bomberphobes: between 1977 and 1996 the New York Yankees had the highest payroll in baseball and didn't win the World Series once. Money will only get you far, folks; great wads of cash can't play the game for you. Some of these comments reek of sour grapes.
Dennis Duggan| 9.30.09 @ 11:53AM
Lisa,
When you think private business whose stadium was subsidized by taxpayers ($200 million) who can't even afford the tickets (4000 fewer affordable seats than in the old stadium), is an exemplar of conservative values, you've lived in far too long in New York City.
Brian Cain| 9.30.09 @ 11:56AM
Lisa,
While I understand your argument, and as a Yankee fan I welcome their success, I have become a very distant fan of Major League Baseball in recent years.
I have become worn out by the announcers heralding the terms of each player's contract terms at every turn, particularly as they come to the bat.
"Now batting number 2, Derek__, who's contract is now worth $100 million!"
I do not watch BB to hear about how much a player is being paid. I am only interested in being entertained with the thrill of the action itself. And the older I get, I care less and less about individual players, but am interested only in watching the game.
So, after a time, I stopped watching the Players Contract Bonanza Report - which was all the announcers could talk about.
Sorry, not interested anymore.
Regards,
Brian Cain
Todd| 9.30.09 @ 12:06PM
I think that the author makes a confused argument about socialism in baseball. If MLB decides it is in their best interest to have more competition and to decide revenue sharing is the best way to do that, is that not a free market decision? The government is not imposing it on them so it is incorrect to call it socialism. I do think it is a shame what is happening in places like Pittsburgh and Kansas City and something should be done. If the owners decide just to pocket the money and not improve the product on the field, they should be penalized in my opinion or the franchise simply eliminated if they cannot compete in a meaningful way.
I think it is a ridiculous stretch to say the Yankees stand for conservatism and free markets. Just how much of their new stadium was funded for by taxpayers? The real outrage in professional sports is the taxpayer subsidies being used to pay for new stadiums. When players like Arod make more than $20 million per year, it is criminal that taxpayers should in effect have to subsidize these ridiculous salaries. This has been going on for way too long and needs to stop.
Goggles Pisano| 9.30.09 @ 12:12PM
Figures I would have to read some pro-Yankee crap like this one the day my beloved Indians fired their entire coaching staff...
Bob Miller| 9.30.09 @ 12:26PM
Let's go, Mets! (someday)
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 12:31PM
Akaky:
They may have not won a series between 1977 and 1996, and maybe "money will only get you so far" (think Mets), and the Yanks haven't won a series since 2000 (I believe) but one thing is for sure; they have spent enough money to keep Baltimore, Toronto, and Tampa (with one fleeting exception) from having any slight glimmer of a shred of a morsel of hope of even competing for an entire decade, and have destroyed the fan base in those three cities.
14 post season appearances in the last 15 years is what it bought the Yankees. 0 in 12 years for Baltimore is what it bought the Yankees. A large, loyal fan base that no longer attends games in Baltimore after 12 seasons of futility is what it bought them.
Good for baseball? I disagree, and would rather say they have been a catastrophe for baseball, a wrecking ball, that has made baseball all but unwatchable and irrelvant in the American sports landscape.
How many times will the national sports press tell for us to be excited about a yet another Yankees-Bosox showdown (can we see any other teams please? Ever? Maybe once? No?)
I knew last April who was going to the postseason from the AL east, and guess what? I know who is going next year too.
I used to love - love baseball, and I played for years, well into adulthood. Now I don't go, don't watch, and don't care because I already know who is going to win the AL East this year, and next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and . . .
Worse, I know the Orioles do not have even a 0.00000000000000000001% chance (not for the last decade), and it is because they cannot even hope to try to compete with a $250 million-payroll juggernaut.
Good for baseball?
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 2:38PM
I would like to apologize to all midgets for my dreadful insensitivity, and for suggesting that midgets, as a group, were inferior professional football players, to, say, non-midgets.
I did not mean to imply that a team of midgets would be inherently at any disadvantage in any football contest, due solely to their being, well, undersized.
Had I thought better of it, I should have said, "it is like watching an NBA team play basketball against a team of white guys."
I am sorry if I offended anybody.
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 9.30.09 @ 2:56PM
JohnD: I wasn't asking for you to apologize to the Midgets of America. I think Midgets have a sense of humor, although I could be wrong about that, being that I don't actually know one, but I think they do anyway. But I just like the thought of The Midgets vs. The Steelers. I would pay big money to see that game, it would be a riot. But good luck finding the Midgets who'd put their lives on the line for whatever amount of money they'd be offered to play it though.
But as a life long fan of the Bronx Bombers, I have a hard time understanding your argument about them, I just don't know what you're trying to get at. Complaining about the Yankees, they're destroying baseball, they're like a heavy weight boxer punching a baby, Wow!!, JohnD Wow!!, well that's just all crazy talk, the Yanks would never punch a baby, never. George might have back in the day, but not the players.
Let's Go Yankees!!
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 3:19PM
LLL:
Let me spell it out. (I love thick-headed Yankee fans who think winning every year is just ducky for the rest of the league)
New York City and its surrounding area has about 20 million people (potential fans); The Baltimore-area has about 2 million.
They Yankees make about 10 times the revenue from their local broadcast rights for radio and TV (the real money in pro sports).
Despite a 10-1 population advantage (1000%), the Yankees used to only draw 50% more than Baltimore at the gate (hence the superior loyalty of Baltimore fans)
Since the advent of free agency (see the Curt Flood case) in the 1970s, teams can improve via free agency, subject to how much they can afford to spend on luring free agents. Free agents will typically go to the highest bidder, so the best free agents, will end up with a team that has the most money to spend (still with me? - do I have to explain that people, even ballplayers, like money?)
As such, they have about 10 times the money to spend on talent, because there is no revenue sharing or salary cap in baseball. So for every $1 the Orioles can spend on free agents, the Yankees can spend $10.
I'll write slower now: This would be an unfair advantage, having 10 times the resources to buy talent than your competitors. The Yankees, with so much MORE money than the Orioles can buy GOOD free agents (Texieria) whereas the Orioles, with LESS money can buy only inferior free agents (Aubrey Huff).
This limitless supply of GOOD free agent players in competition with a team with BAD free agent players results in an ADVANTAGE, and not a level playing field, that is the essence of fair competition.
This advantage is reflected in the fact that in the last 10 years, Baltimore has 0 post season appearances, to the Yankees 9. (You do understand the Orioles have to first win more games than the Yankees over an entire 162 game season to win the AL east, the division in which both teams play).
This is so clear to all but Yankees fans, and so borne out by the results of the last decade, that explaining it is almost insulting, to both of us.
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 10.1.09 @ 6:47AM
JohnD: I understand you point of view, I really do, and I almost completely agree with all your arguments too, the Yankees don’t play fair. Okay there? I admit it, and it’s probably, hurting baseball in the long run too. Okay? I admit that too. But you don’t have to blame the Yankees fan’s for it, it wasn’t our idea. Nor do you have to insult us while your at it, just because you hate the Yankees so much, we’re not the ones who made the Yankees adopt this policy, of spend and destroy against all other teams.
Although your insult did make me laugh a bit, “I’ll write slower (for you) now”, yes, yes, please do JohnD, because you know us Yankees fans cannot read very well, and it gives us a chance to keep up with your awesome “Baltimore” logic. But I just wanted to point out to you, if you didn’t notice it, but you insulted yourself at the same time in your rant, when you said, “This is so clear to all but Yankees fans, and so borne out by the results of the last decade, that explaining it is almost insulting, to both of us”, and yet there you were again, explaining it some more to us simple Yankee fans. We got it JohnD, we really do, the Yankees are Evil, Baltimore is great, and has “real” fans too, and The Bronx is the black hole through which the destruction of the World, and possibly the Universe, will be initiated. That could be true? But I can’t help myself JohnD, I just can’t, probably because I’m such a dumb Yankees fan, but, Let’s Go Yankees!!
Tim| 9.30.09 @ 3:43PM
The Yankees have been secretly enriching uranium for years and Bush let it happen! Dick Cheney has substantial investments...
AJ| 9.30.09 @ 3:45PM
Lisa, what does George Will think?
JP| 9.30.09 @ 3:58PM
John,
While the Yanks have had 9 appearances, they haven't gone to the WS since 2003. They lost the WS twice to wild card teams. They more they spend, the less they perform.
JohnD| 9.30.09 @ 4:10PM
JP:
Irrelevent; they have spent enough to keep the Orioles out of meaningful contention for 12 years.
I sense I am now rivaling the reviled "Liberal Reader" with my opinions. This is a big issue with me.
The Yankees have ruined baseball by making it uncompetitive.
It is this simple: Yankee fans are not baseball fans. By definition, if you like the Yankees you support the ruination of baseball, and therefore hate baseball.
I love (or loved) baseball; consequently, I hate the Yankees, and what they have done to baseball.
baluca| 9.30.09 @ 5:03PM
JohnD, I sympathize with you. I grew up a Yankee fan in the 80's watching Mattingly, Pags and Rags.
I lost interest when they dumped Tino Martinez who hit a game saving homerun in the World Series in 2001 and had him replaced with the steroid user Jason Giambi the following season.
One possible solution in restoring competitiveness is for the AL to drop the DH.
GW| 10.1.09 @ 12:35AM
Unfortunately the writer is approaching this issue with limited knowledge and thought. If professional baseball acted like a TRUE free market, that is teams could move wherever they wanted and new teams could form whenever they wanted the Yankees would hardly be a dominate force that they are.
As John D. intelligently put it, the Yankees have a much bigger market share than Baltimore does due to population issues. With only the Mets to compete with in New York and a metro population of about 18 million, the Yankees can charge more money because demand is artificially inflated. In normal industries (such as food, construction, etc) there are no barriers to entry for competition. Unfortunately, the MLB operates as a cartel which strictly forbids the expansion of new teams and the relocation of existing teams (without the consensus of 75% of current team owners). Thus, places where the market for a major league team is far from equilibrium (read, New York metro area) will have teams who generate more money (and thus get the best talent) whereas smaller market teams (read KC, Baltimore, Pittsburgh) will lose out on free agency because of the invariance principle (the best talent gravitates to the most money).
So as it might appear at first site the Yankees win due to better management and better player development, they actually benefit because of an abscence of a free market in professional baseball. They compete in by far the largest market in the US with only one competitor (Mets, who in turn have the 3rd highest payroll) and can charge basically whatever they want for tickets. So Yankee-bashing can be defended no matter whatever side of the political aisle you sit.
Paul Crowley| 10.1.09 @ 9:50AM
Go Dodgers!
Paul Crowley| 10.1.09 @ 10:00AM
So, are the number of flies on the window due to the "natrual balance" of the Free Market, or is their number, All Things Being Equal, due to the regulation, or lack thereof of manure removal in the back yard?
Paul Crowley| 10.1.09 @ 10:06AM
Correction:
professional comment posters, not comment poster.
multi-page, not multi-pate.
"natural balance," not "natrual balance."
Lauratox| 10.1.09 @ 10:35AM
Peter Angelos has enough money to pay for better players...he doesn't want to. Don't be blaming the Yankees for his lack of initiative around his own team.
Phillip Nagle| 10.1.09 @ 2:26PM
The Yankees are part of an oligarch system. True capitalism would allow a free movement of teams (maybe the Orioles or Pirates to New York). It is only gross incompetance that keeps the Mets out of the Series. Of course then there are my Cubs who are cursed. Does anyone know where we can get a goat to sacrifice.
JohnD| 10.1.09 @ 3:57PM
"Peter Angelos has enough money to pay for better players...he doesn't want to. Don't be blaming the Yankees for his lack of initiative around his own team. "
Apparently you never heard of Mark Texieria. He offered 6 years $180 million ($30 million a year) to Tex who took the Yankees 6 year $200 million.
But with a 10-1 disadvantage in fan base doing so means he would lose money on the Orioles. You are suggesting he try to match a tenfold larger market dollar for dollar in free agency?
Your post is idiotic. Angelos isn't running a charity, and he has tried spending money in free agency and the yankees just outbid him with a flick of the wrist, for reasons stated above.
Boy the Yankee-lovers are thickheaded. You must really hate competitive baseball to bve a Yankees fan.
pm cronin| 10.1.09 @ 5:09PM
I'm not a Yankees fan but any stretch of the imagination (Go Phils), and the first MLB game I ever saw was at the old Memorial Stadium (compliments of the O's utility man Dave May), but I feel the current sorry state of the Oriole's can be attributed much more accurately to Peter Angelos . I still cringe regarding his remark about refusing to sign Cuban defectors as a bow to Castro in the 90's. You want to mix politics and losing baseball, I'd look there before I'd bash the Yankees (though if you want to pick on New York, what about the Mets' Carlos Delgado's refusal to stand during the tribute to our troops ).overseas)
JohnD| 10.1.09 @ 5:19PM
While Angelos has made some bad moves, many are attributable to the fact that they cannot go after first tier free agents and often end up paying too much for 2nd tier free agents. (again, look at the Texieria debacle). He now has Andy McPhail as GM who has spent three years now building the system up, and we still haven't threatened .500.
Yet the Yankees can reload with a gold-plated All Star team every season, and their mistakes (Pavano) matter little given their 10-1 advantage.
No, you can't really blame Angelos for all of 12 years of it.
Paul Crowley| 10.2.09 @ 2:32AM
My comment was removed.
The comment [Paul Crowley| 10.1.09 @ 9:53AM]:
“This website is something. The professional comment poster could get a multi-pate argument going over the proverbial number of flies on the window.”
Of course, there were typos.
The comment was that the professional comment posters here at American Spectator could get a multi-page argument going over the proverbial number of flies on the window.
I'm still curious where American Spectator receives its finanncing, that allows it to provide this "public service" free to us peons.
Pingback| 10.7.09 @ 6:39AM
RANT: Building stadiums at taxpayer expense! « Reinke Faces Life links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ClubPenguinCheats | 3.15.10 @ 10:36PM
I lost interest when they dumped Tino Martinez who hit a game saving homerun in the World Series in 2001 and had him replaced with the steroid user Jason Giambi the following season.