Help Wanted: Yankees in need of Financial Advisor - 6/2/08  Mike B

With any degree of success comes scrutiny and disdain, but why exactly do sports fans hate teams with a constant high level of performance?  Is it ok to hate these teams?  I don’t like the San Antonio Spurs because they are the most boring basketball team to ever win a championship.  I used to have no problem with the New England Patriots until it became apparent that they will do anything to win, as long as they can get away with it, regardless of league regulations.

I’ve justified my hatred for these two superpowers.  If you’d like to hate along with me, feel free.  But the major question we’re asking here is if it is ok to hate the New York Yankees.

Absolutely.

For starters, the Yankees are not even the superpower of Major League Baseball, but they get that star treatment.  The Yankees are still chasing the Atlanta Braves playoff appearances mark of 14.  If they continue on their current pace, they’ll fall one playoff appearance short at 13.

They also haven’t sniffed the World Series since 2003 when they were defeated by the mini-market Florida Marlins. It is clear the Yankees are not dominant.  I’ll give them only the status of recently and consistently competitive.

More so than their misapplied superpower status, they are an easy target for opposing fans because of their astronomical payroll.  But for all that money spent, what is there to show?  How many wins have the Yankees paid for?  Are they getting their money’s worth? 

According to a 2008 article on Forbes.com titled “The Business of Baseball,” the Yankees have a 2007 wins-player cost ratio of 43.  That means the Yankees achieved 67% fewer victories per dollar of payroll compared to the league average.  Comparatively, other large market teams operate slightly in the deficit in the win-player cost ratio. The Mets are at 76, Red Sox at 67, Chicago Cubs at 74 but none so low as the Yankees. Of all teams in Major League Baseball, the Yankees are the least efficient spenders per victory.  2007 NL Champion Colorado Rockies operated at a win-player cost ratio of 158.

It is not that money spent in baseball does not translate into success.  The issue here is that the Yankees are not successfully managed in the front office.  With this in mind, fans can almost consider being more appreciative of the Yankees in their current state of slightly above average mediocrity. 

They’re the ones that will overpay for the popular but overvalued free agents like Carl Pavano’s $39 million contract in 2005.  That contract yielded 5 wins over two years for the Yankees.  Pavano is still on the payroll.

They’re the ones that will trade away their talented young prospects for aging stars rapidly approaching their post-prime declines like Randy Johnson and Bobby Abreu, receiving nothing resembling these players at their prime, the price and expectation it seems the Yankees consistently pay for.

Their acquisitions make headlines and garner resentment from the fans of opposing teams. Who didn’t want Johnny Damon after the Red Sox World Series win and the height of his prime and popularity? 

Maybe it’s a good thing all of us armchair GM’s aren’t anything more.  Damon’s hype was unfounded, as the Yankees have gotten two average seasons from the now-civilized caveman, and sit on an astronomical contract for an average hitting center fielder with a throwing arm of a 12-year-old.

They do have a reasonable amount of success, and that coupled with a legendary history gives them the appearance of a superpower.  So we have that old-fashioned hate for them so fundamental in sports fandom.

They have the power to outspend any team in the free agent market, and we sincerely resent them for that. They’ve been reloading for years now, seemingly stealing our teams’ shots at a sure-fire ticket to the playoffs.

So even though we can be thankful for the Yankees lack of value for the dollar, we are allowed to hate them.  Being a three-Sportscenters-a-day, Around the Horn and PTI type of sports fan gives you the right to hate any team for any number of reasons.  And for that hate, don’t vote for any Yankees in the 2008 All-Star Game.  Being in Yankee Stadium will be poetic justice for fans of baseball.

But the real reason not to vote for any Yankees?  There simply are no all-star Yankees this year.  Right now, the only Yankees leading in voting are predictably Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. But Jeter’s .269 average and A-Rod’s 132 at-bats should be enough for any baseball fan, Yankee-hater or not, to realize in 2008 that no Yankee should be recognized in the American League starting lineup.

  - Mike B. 

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