New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox Spar Over Salary Cap

The last time anybody from the Red Sox called for a salary cap in baseball was about five years ago; right after they lost out to the Yankees in their attempt to acquire Alex Rodriguez.

They are reissuing their call this winter and one can’t help but to wonder if this has something to do with the Boston Sour Grapes missing out on their target this winter Mark Teixeira.

“I think we all agree that competitive balance is an issue,” Red Sox' owner John Henry said.

“The Yankees have spent like the U.S. Congress,” Red Sox' president Larry Lucchino said.

This seems crazy to me. It’s like Microsoft complaining about the competitive balance in computer sales. After all the Red Sox and their 2008 payroll of $133,440,037 was among the highest in the sport.

Their payroll is so high that they more than doubled eight other teams; including the Diamondbacks, Twins, Royals, Nationals, Pirates, Athletics, Rays and Marlins.

And where is the problem with competitive balance? Of the eight poorest teams in baseball two of them won the World Series (Arizona in ‘01 and Florida in ‘03), one of them were in the WS last season (Tampa), and two others are consistent contenders in their division (Oakland and Minnesota).

This call for a salary cap also comes immediately after the Yankees missed the playoffs and actually managed to lower their payroll.

Of course, the mouth-piece of the Yankees wouldn’t just go quietly.

“Along with a few other teams, we’re basically baseball’s stimulus package,” he said pointing out that because of revenue sharing the Yankees help small market teams consistently yield a profit.

As he sees it, handing out all that money, $110 million in luxury taxes and revenue sharing, they can spend how much they want on their own team.

“As long as we’re doing that and giving all this money to other teams in revenue sharing, a staggering amount, we should be able to spend on salaries what we want to,” Steinbrenner said. “Because of revenue sharing and because of the popularity nationwide, the Yankees are critical to baseball.”

All of this is ridiculous, baseball is probably the most competitive sport in the entire country. Attendance is raising every year and in the past ten years, nine different teams have won the World Series.

In the NFL, it’s always the Patriots and Steelers, in the NBA it's similar, and the NHL is just a mess, but the same teams that were on top in the mid-90’s, the Red Wings and the Devils, are still on top today.

The Red Sox should just stop crying over missed opportunities. When it comes down to it, they couldn’t sign Teixeira because of $12 million over eight years. Wah.