I hate the Yankees.
In the interests of fairness, I should make this clear before I go on. I've been a fan of the Atlanta Braves since the days of Dale Murphy, Rick Mahler and Bob Horner. It was with great pride that I watched the Braves build themselves into a baseball dynasty.
And it was with great pain that I watched them go down, again and again, in October. Yes, they won it all in 1995, beating the Indians in six exciting games. But as good as it was to see that, it was with a crushing sense of pain and doom that I watched the Braves lose the series in 1996 to the Damn Yankees. I remember sitting about 8 inches from the TV screen as Mark Lemke popped out in the 9th inning. I tried to force the ball into the stands by sheer force of will, but it didn't work. Charlie Hayes caught it for the last out of the series. And so was born my hatred of the Yankees. It didn't get any better in 1999, when the Yankees swept the Braves out of the World Series. By then my hatred was festering.
I say all of this because what I'm about to say may sound like Yankee favoritism. Let me assure you that it is NOT. What I say I say as a baseball fan, pure and simple.
Baseball doesn't need a salary cap.
There's been a lot of noise this off-season reviving the idea of a salary cap in baseball. Many team owners have called for some sort of limit on payroll spending. And several fans, resentful of the fact that the Yankees seemed to have rigged the free agent process, are echoing those sentiments.
The owners have their own reasons. As for the fans, reporters, columnists, and talking heads calling for a salary cap, they have a reason of their own: They hate the Yankees.
This is a big generalization, I know. And there are exceptions. But for the most part, the calls for a salary cap have come from those who are spiteful that the Yankees spent so much money and want to see them punished. Believe me — I've been hating the Yankees for twelve years now; I think I can recognize my own kind. Is it a coincidence that the salary cap noise came in the same offseason that the Yankees spent $400 million-plus on players? If the Mets or the Dodgers had signed these players, would we be hearing even a fraction of these complaints? I doubt it.
Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
Another point that could be made is the fact that George Steinbrenner actually invested in his team. He could easily have pocketed tens of millions in pure profit, but chose instead to put money into his team to win. He's much needed in baseball to better contrast the money hoarding owners of the Royals and Marlins (in past years not too long ago).
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Eight teams have won a world series in the last nine years.
Also, 19 teams in the last 25. Think about that, too. Only 11 current franchises do not have a championship in the last quarter century. That's astounding.
Those teams:
Rays
Rockies
Mariners
Cubs
Nationals
Indians
Rangers
Giants
Padres
Astros
Brewers
Of those 11 teams, six of them have made the World Series in the last 12 years. Two others were in the playoffs last year. The other three are:
• The Mariners, who tied the single-season win record in 2001
• The Nationals, who many people believe would have won the WS were it not for the '94 strike
• The Rangers, who, God bless 'em, try their best. (There are rumors they have made the playoffs in their team history, but these records cannot be verified by any credible third parties.)
So there it is. The Rangers should demand a salary cap! Or demand that George W. Bush buy them back from Tom Hicks.
3 - Aaron Whitehead
In his Feb. 23rd column for the NY Daily News, Mike Lupica writes about Don Fehr, ending with, " Then find a way to retire gracefully before the next collective-bargaining negotiation in 2011, when Fehr will have to give in on a salary cap."
Umm, Mike? The owners have demanded a salary cap in the CBA before. Do you remember how that turned out?
It was in the summer of 1994. What happened in baseball from 1994-1995? What happened the last time the owners tried to push through a salary cap?
There was a strike!
What -- and I mean this with all sincerity -- makes you think that 2011 will be any different?