A Yankee Cap?
Shh! If you listen intently, you can hear the sound of thousands of frontrunners slinking off the Yankee bandwagon. Fans who couldn’t tell the difference between Charlie Hayes and Von Hayes, or who think Paul O’Neill was Secretary of the Treasury, are looking around for something else to do this summer beside take up the good seats at Yankee Stadium.
And if you have really good ears, you can hear the whinings of Yankee fans who’ve never known adversity: Boo hoo!, four years without a World Series ring!. Some of them are even starting to wonder whether a salary cap might save them from themselves and their spendthrift owner.
But before anybody gets too excited about the Yankees’ misfortunes, let me remind fans in Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and Kansas City why a salary cap is not the answer to your problems.
The lack of a salary cap is not what made the Yankees world champions four out of five years from 1996-2000. It’s what has made them chumps from 2002-2005. Over their history, the Yankees have shown time and again that spending lavishly on salaries does not a championship make.
The Yankees spent grossly on free agents in the 1980s and didn’t win the World Series once. They didn’t make the playoffs after 1981, though had the three-division system been in effect, they would have won the wild card in 1984, 1985 and 1986.
The Yankee championship teams were built while George Steinbrenner was banned from baseball, and forbidden from trading away young stars like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Bernie Williams. Steinbrenner had to be physically restrained from dealing Rivera, the greatest closer of all time in my opinion, after he blew the 1997 ALDS against Cleveland.
Those teams were home grown, with role players added here and there as complements. They won through smart management, trades that worked out, a lack of injuries, and timely hitting. The Yankees of the late 1990s thrived despite foolish free agent signings like Jose Canseco, Glenallen Hill, Hideki Irabu, and Henry Rodriguez. Even Roger Clemens was an expensive mistake for most of the 1999 season (though he proved worthwhile in 2000).
Since then, the Yankees have grown bloated, patching large holes with large contracts: Giambi, Sheffield, Rodriguez, Johnson, Brown, the list goes on and on. They’ve shown once again that the most expensive team is not necessarily the best team. In fact, the more they spend, the worse they perform.
If fiscal restraint were imposed on the Yankees, they might realize that their farm system is a place where they can spend unrestricted dollars, and a way for them to get an edge over teams that can’t afford a scout in every two-oxen town in the Dominican Republic. They might keep their minor league talent and build a winner from within the way they did in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, a salary cap wouldn’t make the inept teams any smarter. Minnesota, Oakland, and Florida have all shown an ability to make the playoffs without a high payroll. The fact that they can do it and other teams can’t is a testament to their baseball acumen (and the lack of it in other small market teams). A salary cap would only limit player salaries artificially.
Besides, if the Yankees were to start sucking the way they did in the late 1980s, what joy would there be left for the mismanaged teams? They’ll still be cellar dwellers, but they won’t have the Yankees to beat up on any more. It’s no fun to beat up on Goliath if he has his hands tied behind his back. He’s not Goliath any more.
It takes more than money to win a championship. The Orioles, Dodgers, and Mets of proved that in the late 1990s, and the Yankees are proving it again. You need solid pitching, good defense, a little bit of luck. Some might argue that you need a bunch of guys who like to play together (a.k.a. the dreaded chemistry), though the Yankees of the 1970s hated each other, as did Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in 2001.
The two Florida Marlins championship teams are an object lesson for building a winner. The first team was bought, and quickly sold as soon as the rings were distributed. The second team was built from the ground up, with quality pitching, speed, and defense, and a group of guys who like playing together. Their young pitchers seem poised to keep them in contention for several more years.
But a salary cap isn’t going to make Florida any more able to re-sign those pitchers when they become free agents. They’ll just be distributed about the league at artificially low rates. And ticket prices won’t go down.
And if you have really good ears, you can hear the whinings of Yankee fans who’ve never known adversity: Boo hoo!, four years without a World Series ring!. Some of them are even starting to wonder whether a salary cap might save them from themselves and their spendthrift owner.
But before anybody gets too excited about the Yankees’ misfortunes, let me remind fans in Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and Kansas City why a salary cap is not the answer to your problems.
The lack of a salary cap is not what made the Yankees world champions four out of five years from 1996-2000. It’s what has made them chumps from 2002-2005. Over their history, the Yankees have shown time and again that spending lavishly on salaries does not a championship make.
The Yankees spent grossly on free agents in the 1980s and didn’t win the World Series once. They didn’t make the playoffs after 1981, though had the three-division system been in effect, they would have won the wild card in 1984, 1985 and 1986.
The Yankee championship teams were built while George Steinbrenner was banned from baseball, and forbidden from trading away young stars like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Bernie Williams. Steinbrenner had to be physically restrained from dealing Rivera, the greatest closer of all time in my opinion, after he blew the 1997 ALDS against Cleveland.
Those teams were home grown, with role players added here and there as complements. They won through smart management, trades that worked out, a lack of injuries, and timely hitting. The Yankees of the late 1990s thrived despite foolish free agent signings like Jose Canseco, Glenallen Hill, Hideki Irabu, and Henry Rodriguez. Even Roger Clemens was an expensive mistake for most of the 1999 season (though he proved worthwhile in 2000).
Since then, the Yankees have grown bloated, patching large holes with large contracts: Giambi, Sheffield, Rodriguez, Johnson, Brown, the list goes on and on. They’ve shown once again that the most expensive team is not necessarily the best team. In fact, the more they spend, the worse they perform.
If fiscal restraint were imposed on the Yankees, they might realize that their farm system is a place where they can spend unrestricted dollars, and a way for them to get an edge over teams that can’t afford a scout in every two-oxen town in the Dominican Republic. They might keep their minor league talent and build a winner from within the way they did in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, a salary cap wouldn’t make the inept teams any smarter. Minnesota, Oakland, and Florida have all shown an ability to make the playoffs without a high payroll. The fact that they can do it and other teams can’t is a testament to their baseball acumen (and the lack of it in other small market teams). A salary cap would only limit player salaries artificially.
Besides, if the Yankees were to start sucking the way they did in the late 1980s, what joy would there be left for the mismanaged teams? They’ll still be cellar dwellers, but they won’t have the Yankees to beat up on any more. It’s no fun to beat up on Goliath if he has his hands tied behind his back. He’s not Goliath any more.
It takes more than money to win a championship. The Orioles, Dodgers, and Mets of proved that in the late 1990s, and the Yankees are proving it again. You need solid pitching, good defense, a little bit of luck. Some might argue that you need a bunch of guys who like to play together (a.k.a. the dreaded chemistry), though the Yankees of the 1970s hated each other, as did Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in 2001.
The two Florida Marlins championship teams are an object lesson for building a winner. The first team was bought, and quickly sold as soon as the rings were distributed. The second team was built from the ground up, with quality pitching, speed, and defense, and a group of guys who like playing together. Their young pitchers seem poised to keep them in contention for several more years.
But a salary cap isn’t going to make Florida any more able to re-sign those pitchers when they become free agents. They’ll just be distributed about the league at artificially low rates. And ticket prices won’t go down.
posted by John Rosenthal @ 10:11 AM
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