This feels almost like a "confession of a baseball fan" of sorts, but I have to admit that I am, and always have been a Yankees fan. However – in my own defense, unlike most non-New Yorkers that follow the Bronx Bombers (that I know, at least), my love of them has nothing to do with how many times they have won the World Series, or how dominant they have been (on and off) for the last 30 years.
The year was 1972. It was one year before the George Steinbrenner era began, 10 years since the Yankees had last won a World Series (which was 2 years before I was born) and 5 years before they were to win their next one. So considering how mediocre they were when I started following them, it cannot be thought that I was jumping on the winner's bandwagon.
What actually made me a Yankees fan was my baseball card collection. One of the cards that I had was for the Yankees left fielder at the time, Bobby Murcer. I was 7 years old, and without knowing anything (yet) about this player, I thought he had a really cool sounding name, and in his baseball card picture he looked like a really nice guy. So, because of Bobby Murcer I became a Yankees fan.
I have stayed a Yankees fan because once I decide I love a team, it's for life – taking the good with the bad, and all that stuff.
However, I don't like the policy (started by George Steinbrenner when he became the Yankees owner, and continued to this day by the Yankees and many other teams) of pouring gazillions of dollars every year into buying the biggest names on the market, paying the highest total team salary in order to have the best team.
For one thing, it makes the sport much less interesting if one team is the equivalent of the All-Star team and by comparison every opponent is a high school intra-mural squad.
For another thing, the Yankees themselves have proven beyond any doubt over the last 10 years that buying the best players isn't what makes the team the best team. If it did they would have won a lot more World Series in the last 10 years than only in 2000 and 2009.
If you want additional proof - this year the World Series was won by the San Francisco Giants - with a payroll that ranked only 10th in Major League baseball (less than half of the Yankee's payroll) and virtually no "huge" stars (pitching ace Tim Lincecum notwithstanding). To woin the World Series, they beat the Rangers, who ranked 27th in the Majors for payroll, barely over a quarter of what the Yankees shelled out in salaries this year (and the Rangers beat the Yankees in the playoffs 4 games to 2 - so much for the biggest salaries of the biggest names making you the best team...)
Give me a team with "home grown" talent that has been with the organization since minor leagues, or at least early in the professional career, and I'm happy to see that team prove that as a team, they are the best in the league.
But back to my beloved, albeit troubled Yankees. Not to anyone's surprise, the Yanks have opened their off-season by making moves to acquire pitcher Cliff Lee.
For those of you visiting from Saturn, or who otherwise don't follow baseball, Cliff Lee is one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past several years, and he seems to be still at the peak of his career – he hasn't showed any signs of slowing down yet.
So all of the teams want him, and the Yankees are known for being willing to pay out top dollar and out-bid other teams in bringing the best players to Yankee Stadium.
And as much as I love my Yanks and want to see them win, I'm tired of how their budgetary lack of constraints really take away form the beauty of the sport. Professional sports have all become big business, and it is absolutely beyond me – even from the perspective of the players how it has sunk to the level which it is.
I mean – seriously! Take the case of Cliff Lee. He earned $9 million this year.
To play a game.
For 6 months of the year.
Now – let's say the Yankees decide to give Cliff Lee the same incentive as their other 2 biggest name aces right now – CC Sabathia, who earned over $24 million this year (and granted, had a pretty good year) and AJ Burnette, who earned $16.5 million this year (and basically sucked).
If the Yankees decide to go that route and offer Cliff Lee, say $15 million this year, and the Rangers will "only" go as high as 10. It's a reasonable assumption that he would leave Texas (where he has said that he is very happy pitching) to go to New York and make that much more money.
But tell me something - Is there really so much that anybody can or would want to do with $15 million (per year!) that they can't do with $10 million?
I seriously don't think so.
But that's become the nature of the proverbial beast, not only in professional baseball, but in basketball and football as well.
The depth to which the whole thing has sunk was really driven home for me this evening with an article I saw online about a high school football game.
The football team of Bald Knob, Arkansas (and I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to know that there is a place with a name like this. I mean it!) was racking up a huge win – apparently a regular occurrence for this particular team.
By mid-way into the 3rd quarter, the score was 70-34 and the sophomore quarterback had thrown for 534 yards and 8 touchdowns. Had he stayed in the game, it is good bet that he would have tied or broken the Arkansas state single-game record of 10 touchdowns.
He was taken out though. Apparently the state of Arkansas has a "Mercy Rule", common in many states up through the high school level of play, which prevents teams already winning by a huge margin from piling on the points and humiliating the other team.
So, the Bald Knob (hee hee hee) coach pulled the quarterback and the rest of the starters from the game for the remainder of the third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. Afterwards the coach said that while he thought about the record, he wouldn't do that to another team just to get a record.
Unfortunately, this Mercy Rule isn't found on either the college or professional level, which makes me very sad.
There is a lesson that players can learn from rules like this one – that it is a game that they are playing, and yes, the point is win, but there is no honor in humiliating an opponent. You can play, play your best, be the better team – even by far, while still keeping sight of what the game really is all about.
If athletes are taught from a young age that whatever game they compete is a part of life, but not life's be-all and end-all definition of self, and if that lesson is continued into young adulthood, and then not-so-young adulthood, then perhaps when they reach the professional level, they'll remember that they can enjoy the sport, keep that parity between teams and not need an additional $10 million about the $10 million that they already get to play a game.
Then the game can return to being just that – a game.
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