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| Tuesday, August 27 Updated: August 28, 12:50 PM ET Rich and smart: Yanks ride both to top By Bob Klapisch Special to ESPN.com |
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The mantra sung by the anti-Yankee army is so familiar, we know it by heart: George Steinbrenner breaks the rules with his turbo dollars -- if not the letter of the law, then its spirit. Not fair, we're told. Not ethical. It's not even fun anymore, watching the Yankees become as bloated as Microsoft. It's a familiar bleating, all right, which has grown louder since 1996, the official start of the Bronx golden era. With four World Championships in six years since, the Yankees have become a billboard of berserk overspending.
Or have they? Is Steinbrenner's $140 million payroll the only reason the Bombers keep winning? Is it just dollars? If that were the case, then how would one explain the ferocious A's, who, on a $40 million payroll -- less than a third of the Yankees' -- are on their way to a third consecutive postseason appearance. If money really ruled, we'd like to know why the Twins -- who were on the verge of being vaporized by Bud Selig -- are crushing the White Sox and the Indians in the AL Central Division. And why, if cash is king, are the Rangers dead last in the West with a $100 million payroll? Oakland's success in particular proves that it's aggressive scouting and smart trades that lift franchises, not just money. True, the Yankees had the resources to sign expensive free agents like Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina in the last two years -- and Steinbrenner didn't blink in adding Jeff Weaver and Raul Mondesi in a five-day span -- but the Yankees' core is the product of old-fashioned hard work by their scouts and minor-league managers. Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams were scouted, drafted and developed by the Yankees themselves. They weren't bought or bartered or acquired in any high-priced trade. Consider:
Not because of payroll considerations. It's because the key members of the organization, most notably chief scout Gene Michael, sensed greatness in Williams and the others. These core players are why the Yankees are still considered the big leagues' model of efficiency. Yes, Steinbrenner pays handsomely, but as Oakland's Barry Zito said recently, "The Yankees always seem to pick the right free agent to go after, or make the right trade." In terms of actual wealth ... well, the Yankees are flush with cash. They're on their way to another three million home attendance mark, even though the fledgling YES network continues to slog through a legal quagmire with Cablevision. Still, the Yankees aren't spending anyone's money except their own. Steinbrenner pours his profit back into the ballclub, all because he wants to win. Call it obsessive or foolish or even stupid. But it's not wrong, and there's nothing unfair about it. Steinbrenner is simply outperforming wealthier owners and corporations, including the Dodgers' Fox group and the Cubs' Tribune Company. Certainly, Steinbrenner's compulsion to win creates an atmosphere of excess; only the Yankees would pay Sterling Hitchcock $12 million over two years to do nothing. And it's disheartening for any club when players like Weaver and Mondesi can become Yankees in the same week But it's also true not even Steinbrenner can guarantee success: the Yankees lost the World Series in 2001, don't have the major leagues' best record this year, and are facing threats to their empire. Rivera is out indefinitely with a mysterious shoulder injury and Mussina can't get anyone out, period. Yet, the Yankees suffer the slings and arrows of league-wide outrage, and the club's hierarchy is united in the belief that Selig and his top lieutenant Sandy Alderson are out to get them. Perhaps Steinbrenner would be more popular if he behaved like Rangers' owner Tom Hicks, a buffoon who signed Alex Rodriguez to a $252 million contract, then has the audacity to call for economic reform. Hard-liners nod in agreement with Hicks, yet enjoy an enduring private laugh at how fast A-Rod's money took the Rangers to the cellar. Nothing bothers Selig more than watching the Yankees win the pennant every year, and for this, Steinbrenner has been banished from the community of owners during the recent labor negotiation. But, really, what law have the Yankees broken? Steinbrenner is merely repairing the damage the organization suffered between 1982-1995 -- a 14-year dark age during which his team failed to make it to the World Series once. Strangely, no one had a problem with the Yankees then. And all the while in the '90s, no one seemed to mind the Braves' mastery of the National League. There's good reason for that, since the Braves prevailed with hard work and intelligent planning. The Yankees spend more than the Braves, but these two organizations operate on a common, iron-credo: players, not money, deliver you into October's embrace. If you don't believe that, ask the A's. Better yet, ask the Rangers. Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) covers baseball for ESPN.com. |
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