Congress' Resolution: Congratulating the Yankees on Their Title

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Today I came across the resolution Congress passed in the wake of the Yankees winning the World Series.

The text of the resolution includes this:

"Whereas the contributions of the Yankees' players throughout the season were all vital in securing the title; and

Whereas the Yankees were guided to victory by Manager Joe Girardi, General Manager Brian Cashman, President Randy Levine, and the leadership of Hank and Hal Steinbrenner: Now therefore be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives congratulates--

(1) the 2009 Major League Baseball World Series Champions, the New York Yankees, for an outstanding season and a record 27th World Series Championship win; and

(2) the players, coaches, staff and leadership of the Yankees organization for their great success."

When 17 representatives voted no on the resolution, and another 11 voted present (essentially voting no without formally doing so), a man named Josh Alper writing for NBC New York didn't like it. He wrote:

"This [the business of passing meaningless resolutions "that have absolutely nothing to do with governance," as Alper says] is all silliness and we'd be the first to applaud a House lawmaker standing up and saying that he or she was voting against the resolution because the House of Representatives exists to debate, discuss and craft the laws of the land. These are meaningless exercises at any point in time, but especially when there are serious issues in front of the government and it would be swell if Congress decided to just focus on them instead of patting baseball teams on the back.

"If you are going to waste time with this nonsense, however, just be grownups, vote to congratulate whoever wins and move on with your lives."

My guess is that although some of the representatives voted against the resolution because they represent partisans of the Red Sox and Phillies, others, like Rep. Bruce Bailey of Iowa and Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, voted against it for other reasons.

I'm sure that for at least some naysayers in Congress, the resolution vote wasn't so much a popularity poll on the Yankees as it was a chance to express their opinion on broader issues of politics and professional sports.

Bailey, Kaptur, and others likely object to the public, non-federal subsidies for the Yankees' new stadium, and the resolution's failure to acknowledge the public funding that helps the Yankees bring in the revenue that lets them sign the talent to position the team to win World Series titles.

In any case, these baseball resolution votes aren't purely "meaningless exercises," because MLB is directly supported by Congress through its anti-trust exemption, and Congress has repeatedly involved itself in the ongoing MLB steroids scandal. It's as naive to think that professional baseball can be isolated from politics as it is to think that MLB officials are willing to bear the full cost of running their league themselves, without seeking political support and tax money being spent to build their stadiums.

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