Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

I’m getting a divorce.

That’s right – I can no longer, in good conscience, be a fan of the New York Yankees. Not with a team payroll of $300 million (which includes the $80 or $90 million the team will pay in luxury tax and revenue sharing).

It’s almost embarrassing to be a fan of the New York Yankees because it’s like rooting for the schoolyard bully in a fight against a kid 80 pounds lighter than him. At some point, one has to step back and say – hey, this just ain’t fair.

One of the things that bothers me is that the Yankees make virtually no effort drafting and developing young players to bring up through the ranks because they just let other teams do that for them (that’s what made the Randy Johnson deal so difficult; the Yankees have almost no minor league prospects). The Yankees figure they have so much money they can simply outbid the rest of the league to get whomever they want.

Such as ….

 

eCarl Pavano – four years, $40 million.

eJaret Wright – three years, $21 million.

eRandy Johnson – three years, $48 million.

With Pavano (two winning seasons out of eight in his career) and Wright (three winning seasons out of nine in his career), that’s $61 million for two pitchers who are a combined 109-103 for their career. Wow, mediocrity pays really well.

In 1998, the Yankees had a league-high payroll of $65.7 million and just seven years later their payroll (including the luxury tax and revenue sharing payout) will be more than four times as much. And that’s okay, because business experts estimate the New York Yankees generate more than $300 million in revenue each year (more than 10 times that generated by, say, the Montreal Expos) with the aid of their YES Network.

Sure, all those expenditures don’t guarantee a World Series championship (the Yankees have spent some $600 million the last four years, without winning a title) but it does guarantee a trip to the playoffs.

And looking at it, it can make you sick.

In 2005, the Yankees will have a starting rotation making more than $60 million with a fifth-starter (Kevin Brown) clearing $15 million a year. In their everyday lineup, they will have six players (Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and Bernie Williams) making better than $10 million a year with a closer (Mariano Rivera) making almost $11 million a year (which is about $141,000 per inning pitched).

Come on.

The Yankees and I have had some great times together – like the Bucky Dent homer against the Red Sox in 1978; Graig Nettles breaking Bill Lee’s arm in that brouhaha; Nettles flashing the leather in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers – but I’m getting a divorce.

The great times are over and it’s time to move on. But as to whom my next relationship will be with, I can’t say.

Sure, I rooted for the Boston Red Sox throughout the 2004 playoffs but I’ve thought long and hard about it and I just don’t know if I can do it full time. The Red Sox have a nice (albeit disappointing) history and have had many, many great players and this could work, if I root in memory of my mother, who never had a chance to see the Sox win the series. But I also grew up hating them and that would be a hard thing to overcome.

Then I’ve thought about the New York Mets, but they don’t have a rich history like the Yankees (or the Red Sox) and, with their own network coming on line in a year, they will be just as bad as the Yankees with the spending excesses.

I’ve also thought about the Chicago Cubs because – for some reason – DirecTV carries WGN out of Chicago and I can watch a lot of Cubs games. Cubs fans are great fans, but could I sit there and watch my team come up short year after year after year? I think fans in Chicago are made of sterner stuff than me.

Maybe by the time pitchers and catchers report in February, I’ll know. But right now, I’ll stay single.