Before he painted the corners, CC threw the paint
Posted by: Sam Borden - Posted in Misc on Jul 15, 2010 
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What were you doing when you were 17? For me, I seem to recall eating a lot of hot dogs at Walter’s famous stand in Mamaroneck and making some incredibly poor (if not altogether embarrassing) attempts at talking to girls. Probably pretty standard.
More interesting, however, is the tale of what CC Sabathia was like at that age – and, for those who want to know, Sabathia will be featured on the MTV show “When I was 17″ this weekend.
According to this press release on MTV’s site, young CC apparently enjoyed throwing paint (in addition to fastballs):
“I remember one time in my junior year, in my art class, our teacher had us doing, like, finger paints, and I went and put a stripe on a girl’s shirt, and it turned into a big paint fight,” he laughed. “Paint all over the walls, all over everybody. It was pretty fun.
“The teacher was this short little lady, and she was screaming, ‘You guys, stop!’ and we kind of drowned her out.”
The show airs at 11 a.m. on Saturday on MTV.
* That’s an AP photo of Sabathia from this year’s All-Star Game – when he was very much not 17.
I really do not get the hesitation to bring up Albie. The pen is putrid – it’s beyond putrid, to be honest. What can it hurt? At least give him a try out before the deadline……give him and give the minor league arms a try. It makes no sense to do that after the deadline. If we try them out now, we can see how much help we need. I will admit that the problem with that is if the Yankees get good performances from Alby, etc.. in the next two weeks and then don’t make any moves, they are screwed if they start to struggle. I really don’t see any way the Yankees can fix this mess of a pen. Who are the decent relievers out there? None- and if there are, we’d have to pay an arm and a leg. The 8th inning in particular scares me – this may cost the Yankees a division title and it will definitely hurt them in the playoffs.
That’s a riot. I will definitely have to watch this!!
Jim July 15th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Chip stop being a wise guy you know what I meant. In 1972 tickets behind home plate were $4 I was speaking in inflation adjusted terms.
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Jim,
Also before George bought the Yankees they were being turned into the Pittsburgh Pirates by CBS. George, unlike so many other billionare owners, always put his money on the field.
Bottom line, everything in New York is more expensive than it is in Kansas City or Seattle, dinner at a restaurant, movie tickets, housing, whatever…why should baseball tickets be any different?
How has revenue sharing helped the As, Royals, Pirates, Orioles, Blue Jays, Indians, Marlins, Astros, Arizona, Mariners, etc.?
The number of “have-nots” are greater than at anytime in the sports history. As a Yankee fan, it is great for me, but not for the game.
The sport is booming, revenue-wise, not competition-wise.
I agree with SJ44′s take on the pen. The first order of business is attempting to acquire an elite reliever via trade. If there are no reasonable asking prices in the next 2 weeks, the Yankees will call up internal solutions. If you call them up now and they flop, it makes the Yankees look even more desperate. The asking prices are high to begin with. It’s risky to bank on a minor league arm to help leverage against the trade market.
I’d support an NBA-type cap. Where you can go over to sign your own players and you can manipulate cap space to make room for surrounding players.
Smokey July 15th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
How has revenue sharing helped the As, Royals, Pirates, Orioles, Blue Jays, Indians, Marlins, Astros, Arizona, Mariners, etc.?
The number of ?have-nots? are greater than at anytime in the sports history. As a Yankee fan, it is great for me, but not for the game.
The sport is booming, revenue-wise, not competition-wise.
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Revenue Sharing has given money to those clubs to spend that they ordinarily wouldn’t have spent (and truth be told, MLB has had to force some of the cheapest owners to put Revenue Sharing money back into their clubs rather than in their pockets). All the teams you mentioned have spent money on big ticket players – they just spent that money poorly (Chone Figgins, Jose Guillen, Kyle Farnsworth, etc…) that’s a problem of evaluation, not finances.
As for competition across the league – I would far rather have great teams and awful teams as opposed to the forced mediocrity that the NFL has.
smokey – all of those teams you have listed still exist. that is how they have been helped by revenue sharing.
AL fans have the right to be ticked off at those who lost the game for their league. Don’t they? Wouldn’t we if Papelbon or someone had blown it and cost us HFA, potentially?
That is why the ASG is fun – it means something and fans get mad at other teams players for losing the game, and I’m sure Dodgers/Cards/Phils/Reds/Mets fans are saluting McCaan for winning the game
The funniest part of people complaining about how much the Yankees spend is that if there was ever discussion of a salary cap, the owners of the Pirates, Royals, Marlins, etc would have a riot.
There will never be a cap in baseball. The small market owners don’t even want it.
“# Smokey July 15th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
How has revenue sharing helped the As, Royals, Pirates, Orioles, Blue Jays, Indians, Marlins, Astros, Arizona, Mariners, etc.?
The number of “have-nots” are greater than at anytime in the sports history. As a Yankee fan, it is great for me, but not for the game.
The sport is booming, revenue-wise, not competition-wise.
”
I agree. I’m looking at this for the good of the sport of baseball, not just the Yankees. And obviously the sport is rapidly declining in popularity, lowest tv rating ever for an all star game. Too many have nots that give up on their team by May. I love the Yankees but I can see that the current system is not working. The NBA soft cap strategy might be ok even though I don’t understand it completely, I guess the current team w/ rights is guaranteed that extra year? So the Free Agent can choose maximizing his salary or sacrificing some money to move on another team like Lebron?
How has revenue sharing helped the As, Royals, Pirates, Orioles, Blue Jays, Indians, Marlins, Astros, Arizona, Mariners, etc.?
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You do realize that out of 30 teams in MLB, only 8 make the playoffs right? So that leaves a lot of teams that put together good seasons out of it. The Marlins and Jays have put together decent seasons recently, they just exist in insanely tough divisions.
If management is stupid, no amount of money can save a team.
Look at the players Jack Z brought in – Figgins, Kotchman, no pitching beyond Lee and Hernandez (and he since traded Lee players who will have no impact this year). And he has the money – Figgins was a FA buy, and he extended Felix.
Baltimore bought FAs Garret Atkins, Kevin Millwood, Miguel Tejada. So they have money. But, those decisions, like their others, have bombed.
Yet, teams with smaller payrolls, like Tampa and Minnesota, are thriving. Minnesota just opened a new ballpark.
So, you think maybe organizational smarts might just have a role to play?
Come on, let’s grow get real.
Chip, if you read my first post today I said undeniably that Steinbrenner belongs in any NYC Hall of Fame, plaque/monument at Yankee stadium he has done more for this city than arguably any individual in the last 40 years but my argument is that while Steinbrenner was great for NY he does not have the same resume for all of baseball. Maybe the baseball union can start their own hall of fame and make him their inaugural member. Give me some evidence that he has made the GAME of baseball better. Although the Yankees weren’t, the game was thriving at the time he took over the Yankees – the undeniable national past time. Now baseball is the #2 sport in America behind Football. Why is that? Possibly because every year almost every football team has the hope of at least making the playoffs. How many baseball teams can say that each year?
LGY – Free Dejo! July 15th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
The funniest part of people complaining about how much the Yankees spend is that if there was ever discussion of a salary cap, the owners of the Pirates, Royals, Marlins, etc would have a riot.
There will never be a cap in baseball. The small market owners don?t even want it.
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Agreed,
Because with a Salary Cap of any kind would come a Salary Floor – likely around the area of 40 mil, which the small market owners would cry to high heaven over.
NYC already has a public school in the Bronx not that far from Yankee Stadium for children who are interested in off field sports careers and the Yankees are already benefactors of it.
Changing the name from Urban Assemby to GMS is a no brainer.
There’s not goint to be a salary cap in baseball. The owners who choose not to spend on their teams would never agree to the obligatory salary floor – they’d have to raise their payrolls, and keep less for themselves.
Parity = mediocrity.
The NBA sure is fun, with those riveting Bobcats/Magic matchups in the 1st round that end before it starts.
Allow half the league into the playoffs like the NBA/NHL, then parity will be increased.
I guess it depends upon how you define competitive. Listening to radio the other day and (I think it was on Stephen A. Smith show), guest was comparing NFL, MLB and NBA. Don’t remember exact #s but the gist was: In last 10 years 8 different teams have won WS. 8 different NFL teams won SB in last 12 years. But in NBA only 6 teams have won in last 30 years. Again, don’t remember exact #s but it was something like that.
Walter’s rules!
It means this: Put money into your f–king team and stop pocketing everything. The Marlins were recently scolded by MLB for pocketing everything. Since baseball franchises are insanely profitable to own, a lot of owners take what they get from revenue sharing and simply pocket it while further cutting their teams payroll. You cannot blame this on Yankee ownership, or the current system. Fans won’t show up to see sh*t teams. Either spend some money on your main franchise, or spend money on your farm system do you can eventually put together a team that people will pay to see instead of pocketing all the money you get from the Angels, Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets.
“Now baseball is the #2 sport in America behind Football. Why is that?”
National TV deals and a 16 game schedule which matches the decline of attention span in the US?
If you want smaller market teams to be more competitive then you have to force the rich owners of those teams to spend more of their money.
Steinbrenner did it, not because he was the richest owner, but because he invested in his team.
Punishing the owners who are actually willing to spend their money makes no sense.
actually no parity creates not mediocrity but just a bad product…how many Triple A rosters are on big league teams? too many. I do think there are too many teams also, contraction might be a good idea, get rid of the As and Rays
The NBA system really worked with 3 of the best free agents on the market, and 2 of the top 5 players in the game ending up on the same team in one offseason.
2001 WS – Arizona – Yankees
2002 Anaheim – San Francisco
2003 Florida – Yankees
2004 Boston – St. Louis
2005 Chicago – Houston
2006 St. Louis – Detroit
2007 Boston – Colorado
2008 Philadelphia – Tampa
Yeah, it’s always the Yankees, no one else has a chance.
Jim July 15th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Chip, if you read my first post today I said undeniably that Steinbrenner belongs in any NYC Hall of Fame, plaque/monument at Yankee stadium he has done more for this city than arguably any individual in the last 40 years but my argument is that while Steinbrenner was great for NY he does not have the same resume for all of baseball. Maybe the baseball union can start their own hall of fame and make him their inaugural member. Give me some evidence that he has made the GAME of baseball better. Although the Yankees weren?t, the game was thriving at the time he took over the Yankees ? the undeniable national past time. Now baseball is the #2 sport in America behind Football. Why is that? Possibly because every year almost every football team has the hope of at least making the playoffs. How many baseball teams can say that each year?
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The NFL’s popularity is tied to two main things:
1. The fact that the season is so short that each game is impactful
2. Gambling. Or have you not noticed that each week every sport network from coast to coast spends hours talking about spreads?
The fact is that “parity” is NFL speak for “forced averageness” The level of play in the NFL has steadily declined for years as a result of this. And don’t think the fans haven’t taken notice – teams are facing the reality of having their games blacked out more and more. The Jets, who are supposed to be a team on the rise, are going to have to buy up their own tickets to ensure that they don’t get blacked out too.
George raised the level of competition around the game. Because the Yankees got so good, the Red Sox had to get better, because the Red Sox and Yankees were better the Angels had to get stronger, etc.
As for what he’s done for small markets, beyond revenue sharing, check out the attendance numbers for teams when the Yankees are in town. Cleveland had 2 series sell out last season – they were the series where the Yankees and Red Sox came to town.
Bottom line, George Steinbrenner made everyone money. The problem is that unlike the other owners in baseball, George was willing to put his money back on the field, the others wanted to put the money straight into their pockets.
just looking at the world series winners does not prove parity in the sport. lol…
football actually has worse parity than baseball if you look at all of the teams that have made the playoffs in the last 10 years.
If you have it..spend it!
test
Also, payrolls and player salaries don’t dictate ticket prices. That’s a terrible argument.
Supply and demand dictate ticket prices.
The tickets are that expensive because people are willing to pay those prices.
If the Yankees slashed $100 million off their payroll the ticket prices would be the same if the demand was still there.
TV ratings are not the best indicator of success. Aside from the NFL, ratings are down in ALL sports because we live in a different era.
Baseball is still in a much better position than the NBA. In 2008, the 6 game Lakers/Celtics finals got a lower rating than the Red Sox/Rockies 4 game noncompetitive series. That is staggering. A marquee NBA dream matchup got lower ratings than a noncompetitive WS featuring an expansion team.
This past NBA finals, a riveting 7 game set between the Lakers/Celtics again, got a lower rating than the Yanks/Phils series, by a fairly large margin too. And the last World Series wasn’t even great and featured 2 local East Coast teams. If you ever get the dream matchup in baseball like you did this yr the NBA (a la Dodgers/Yanks, Cubs/Red Sox), ratings will be in the mid teens, 15, 16 probably at least.
And the lowest rated ASG ever, with a 7.2 rating, was still significantly higher than the NBA ASG (3.3 rating) or the NHL one.
Baseball might be the #2 sport in this country, but it is clearly etched there, ahead of the NBA.
Ouch:
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweets.....eviews-a-l
Yankees: It’s hard to know what to expect from the 2010 version of the New York Yankees. Should we focus on the great starting pitching, and the hitting of Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher? Or should we worry about A-Rod’s nagging injuries and the shaky bullpen? True enough, the Yankees are on a pace to win more than 100 games. But they are 16-3 against the weakest teams on their schedule (Baltimore, Houston, Cleveland) and just 25-22 against everyone else. So far, the Yankees have won eight and lost eight against division rivals Boston, Tampa Bay and Toronto. We cannot pronounce these Yankees a championship-caliber team. Not yet.
– Will Moller and Larry Behrendt, It’s About the Money’s 2010 Trade Deadline Primer
Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are still in Minny because of Revenue Sharing
Zach Grienke is still in KC because of Revenue Sharing
Evan Longoria signed a long term deal in Tampa because of Revenue Sharing
Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson will be fixtures in Florida because of Revenue Sharing
Think about it – last year when the Yankees played the Twins in the playoffs; the Yankees were essentially paying part of the salaries of the guys trying to beat them.
As a Yankee fan I’m sure you all are constantly harassed about payroll discussions. It is a lousy argument when you consider teams like the Padres, Cubs, Rays, and Mariners.
They are teams that sit in the top, bottom, or middle of the payroll charts and all do different things.
It really is all about ownership / staff which is why Steinbrenner belongs in the HOF.
He was consistently good. (WS Championship or not.)
“# Chip July 15th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are still in Minny because of Revenue Sharing
Zach Grienke is still in KC because of Revenue Sharing
Evan Longoria signed a long term deal in Tampa because of Revenue Sharing
Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson will be fixtures in Florida because of Revenue Sharing
Think about it – last year when the Yankees played the Twins in the playoffs; the Yankees were essentially paying part of the salaries of the guys trying to beat them.
”
Evan Longoria signed that long term deal b/c his agent gave him bad advice, nothing to do w/ revenue sharing. He left a lot of money on the table, that was a steal for the Rays
It is a double-edged sword. Society has one too far down the path of compelling media to turn back now.
If the Royals are in the WS now, the ratings would be abysmal.
The NBA/MLB are now married to big market teams for their ratings success. I’m sure it is a double-edged sword for guys like Selig as well— he wants parity and doesn’t want the Yanks to keep winning because it hurts the parity he is striving for and probably a hindrance to the long term growth of the sport. However, he knows he NEEDS the Yanks/Sox to carry his sport and produce the TV ratings to keep sponsorships/revenue/TV happy.
The small market teams in sports these days have to dig themselves out of a hole and make themselves relevant to the country, the sport can’t do it for them.
But they are 16-3 against the weakest teams on their schedule (Baltimore, Houston, Cleveland) and just 25-22 against everyone else. So far, the Yankees have won eight and lost eight against division rivals Boston, Tampa Bay and Toronto.
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That is exactly how you become a 100 win team. You pound the bad teams and you play slightly above .500 against the good teams. That’s the exact formula.
tampayanks.
That is a strategy that small market teams need to start taking now – lock up young players for a long time, while they are still young and many years away from FA.
most players will take the guaranteed money/protection right now and set their families up rather than risk injury/underperformance while yearning for a bigger payday 4-5 years down the road.
Evan Longoria signed that long term deal b/c his agent gave him bad advice, nothing to do w/ revenue sharing. He left a lot of money on the table, that was a steal for the Rays
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Have you spoken to Lingoria about what he wants? Maybe he told his agent “I want to be a Ray, so get me the best contract they can give me.”
Without revenue sharing, it makes it harder for the Rays to keep him happy.
I’ll bet there are a lot of players that would take less money to play for their team.
JackCurryYESYankees will honor Steinbrenner with video tribute before Friday’s game. Further tributes to Boss and Sheppard will be announced Friday.
Intresting plan proposed by Buster Onley. It would make baseball more competitive. I don’t agree with all of it, but it does have some merit. MLB will not have a salary cap, this is a way to keep more teams involved for the entire season.
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb.....id=5037023
GB–I too whole-heatedly agree on the Coca-Cola comments. It is the best, particularly in view of the fact it was my father’s employer and a darn good one at that.
They still have a lot of games left with good teams in the 2nd half, so they will have plenty of time to improve on that record.
Still have 6 on the road in Texas, 4 in Chicago, 4 home Detroit, 2 upcoming with the Angels, Tons of games vs. the AL East, etc.
“But they are 16-3 against the weakest teams on their schedule (Baltimore, Houston, Cleveland) and just 25-22 against everyone else.”
Hmm…where have I heard this before? Don’t worry, the numbers will look a lot different once we complete our annual thrashing of the Sox in August.
Interesting discussion this afternoon and lots of good points being made. Baseball is still the most affordable of all pro sports.
Chip, those are some of your best posts ever (except the one when you said your wife married you b/c she liked your trade suggestions)
The only thing to do is punish the Yankees even more with luxury tax. Now that word has come out that Hal is more fiscally conservative George, it would be smart of that owners to use that against him by making it even more painful to spend over the luxury tax. That might deter the Yanks from going as crazy in FA as we did a couple years ago.
That is the only thing they can do because no cap is coming – all they can do it make the Yankee tax even greater.
Thanks Sam. You had to bring up Walter’s. Now I’m going to have to go there today and then on the way home hit up Sal’s Pizza on Mamaroneck Ave for the best pizza in Westchester. Then after that I’ll head straight to an emergency room for an angioplasty.
betsy – the yankees are actually 26-21 against teams with winning records, which by my math is the best mark in the majors. not sure what neyer was trying to prove there (he probably just needed to write something negative), but that article is just bonkers.
Betsy -
I take all those things with a grain of salt. Every single thing I listen to (not on purpose, believe me) has the Red Sox going on a tear “once all their guys come off the DL.” Yes, all are going to come off at the same time, and all are going to come back at not only full strength but at full productivity.
Tell my why these guys get the benefit of the doubt all the time? And, yes, the Yankees have some questions, but no more so, and possibly less so than many other contending teams. Yet all their questions are “answered” in the negative while every other teams are answered in the positive.
It’s why I can’t take these things seriously at all.
You have other people saying that teams need to be afraid of the Yankees because they still haven’t really clicked offensively.
The truth lies, as always, somewhere in the middle.
If the first half is a true indicator, then the Yankees are in good shape. They’ve done well in spite of some set backs and disappointments. And so have the Rays and the Red Sox done well in spite of their set backs and disappointment. Why should the second half be much different?
The other thing that always seems to be written as a negative is that the Yankees beat up on lesser competition. Ahem. Excuse me? And if they didn’t????? Of course it’s tougher to beat the teams that are closer to you competitively. The record will reflect that. But if you don’t take the opportunity to beat lesser teams, you can’t win the division. so how is it a negative????????
Something for the “Steinbrenner ruined baseball” pissers and moaners, George Steinbrenner voted against free agency. He was the only one that did the first CBA that asked for it. Since he couldn’t outvote them, he used it against them. Cry to your team owners.
Chip with regard to Mauer and Morneau I have to disagree something. if I recall the Twins owner is worth much more than George so he could pay them without the revenue sharing if he wanted to. I do agree that revenue sharing helped remember when they were about to be retracted but that owner has much more money to put into his team if he wanted to.
for comparison sake, the yankees were 48-30 against teams with winning records last year (not counting interleague). thats not all that much different… at the halfway point the yankees were still 0-8 vs boston last year.
Betsy
The Yanks are actually 10-9 against Sox/Rays/Jays and the book Neyer references is written by a couple Twins fans and he wrote the forward to it so take it with a grain of salt.
Chip the argument that Steinbrenner paying the luxury tax has made baseball better is akin to saying GE paying fines for poisoning lakes and rivers is better for America because it pays part of the money to make them clean again. Just like you can’t deduct parking tickets from your yearly taxes Steinbrenner deserves no credit for paying the luxury tax.
Speaking of FA, I’m wondering the contract Jeter will receive.
Can they justify paying him half of what A-Rod makes (which is what he’s worth), or will they have to pay in the low-mid 20s.
Im not saying Jeter is worth half of A-Rod. More so A-Rod is worth much less. Yankees are quite good at over paying for diminishing home town goods.
“That is the only thing they can do because no cap is coming – all they can do it make the Yankee tax even greater.”
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Why?
The Yankees are not the problem. They are using the money that we the fans put into the team and into the MLB revenue stream and investing in the team. They are giving the fans what they want.
The rich owners that don’t spend on their team and pocket the money they are handed are the problem.
Why should the Yankees have to line the pockets of other rich owners even more?
Ah – Sal’s Pizza in Mamaroneck. I remember it well. Can’t get anything close to that in Beantown.
Luxury Tax goes to MLB’s Central Fund so it doesn’t directly line other owners pockets. That’s what revenue sharing is for.
pat,
I think Jeter will want 4 years and he will get it. If he stinks it up after 2 or 3 years, he will retire. He’s not going to milk this team and hurt it in any way and he’s not going to embarrass himself in his later years. Like Paul O’Neill and Moose, Jeter will go out on top.
Jeter will be worth every penny he gets. Think of the revenue that will be brought in during his quest for 3000 hits…not just in selling seats but also jerseys, programs, new Yankeeographys and whatever else they can market.
No doubt Jeter gets 4 years, but at what cost?
Unfortunately probably far more than his worth.
“….. I seem to recall eating a lot of hot dogs at Walter’s famous stand in Mamaroneck and making some incredibly poor (if not altogether embarrassing) attempts at talking to girls.”
That was you?
“Chip with regard to Mauer and Morneau I have to disagree something. if I recall the Twins owner is worth much more than George so he could pay them without the revenue sharing if he wanted to”
Not really. The money the Twins owner has to pay his players is tied to the revenue the Twins generate. He’s not going to tap into another of his enterprises or his personal wealth to fund his team. No owner does, including Mr. Steinbrenner. The reason for the Yankees monumental fiscal advantage over everyone else has had nothing to do with the Steinbrenner family fortune. It’s been all about the fact that the Yankees have been able to generate way more revenue than anyone else.
Jeter should get 1 or 2 years more than he intends to play so he will never have to answer questions about retirement and he won’t have to deal with a retirement tour.
The Yankees should backload the contract heavily and either pay it off or negotiate a buy-out after he decides to hang them up.
Please don’t misunderstand any of my Jeter comments. I am a big Jeter fan, I just hope his contract is not given simply because A-Rod makes $x.
I hope he breaks the hits record and all that but wonder if he’ll be paid accordingly.
Pat,
I like that idea. With guys like Mo and Jeter it should most assuredly be on their own time because they’ve said they want out on top.
billy d – that’s simply not true. the twins have operated at or around 50% revenue to payroll for years. the yankees are consistently in the 60%+ range. that’s enough to sign a $20-$30mil/year player.
Jeter will be a money maker for the Yankees long after he retires. I don’t think his contract dollar-wise is an issue at all. It will be interesting to see the terms, because this is a unique situation and will call for a unique, creative solution.
The issue really is when Jeter does really begin to decline, how will that be handled. He can have a lifetime contract as far as I’m concerned; the issue is when does he stop playing and in a way that has nothing to do with whatever contract he signs.
“billy d – that’s simply not true. the twins have operated at or around 50% revenue to payroll for years. the yankees are consistently in the 60%+ range. that’s enough to sign a $20-$30mil/year player.”
It is true. I’m not saying every owner puts the same percentage of revenue back into the on field product. I’m merely pointing out that the because the Pohlad family has a larger fortune than the Steinbrenner family doesn’t mean they have more money with which to pay players. The gap in wealth, whatever it is, has nothing to do with their respective baseball operations.
FWIW, 35%-38% of Yankees revenue is a hell of a lot more than 50% of the Twins’.
Doreen you make an excellent point. Championships are won by beating the lesser lights with great regularity. Betsy did the article happen to mention how Boston, Texas or the other contenders are faring against the other top teams?
the expression “you have to spend money to make money” didn’t make itself up.
Mauer took a major team friendly deal.
If he went on the market, the Yanks/Sox would have gone crazy for him.
That is the only way small markets can keep their stars – they either lock them up at a very young age (but still lose them in the middle of their prime, but get a yr or two of their post arbitration years under control usually) or their starts take discounts to stay there.
New thread
Yankees to honor Boss, Sheppard before Friday’s game
Jim July 15th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Chip the argument that Steinbrenner paying the luxury tax has made baseball better is akin to saying GE paying fines for poisoning lakes and rivers is better for America because it pays part of the money to make them clean again. Just like you can?t deduct parking tickets from your yearly taxes Steinbrenner deserves no credit for paying the luxury tax.
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Well first of all I think the people that GE employs would argue that GE has made America better, but that’s not the point either.
I never credited George for paying the Luxury Tax. I said his payments into Revenue Sharing have made baseball better. By the way Revenue Sharing is a fine imposed on baseball teams for making money – essentially for operating a successful business – that is used to keep poorly run franchises afloat.
Imagine if you ran a successful hardware store and the federal government came to you and said, “in the interest of fairness we’re going to take a chunk of your profits to ensure that the hardware store down the block, selling the same items as you do, can stay in business even though they’ve run their business badly.”
You would go through the roof. Any business owner would. You are giving money to someone who is trying to steal your customers.