The Yankees Win And All Is Not Well With The World

My Daddy said he was worried because I hadn't called him in the past few days, so he dropped by. Translation - yeh, I know all about that cholesterol stuff, but Baby Grrrrl, this is MY birthday party and I don't want none of that no taste, no sugar, no fat stuff you thinkin of cookin up. So I told him I hadn't started cooking anything, what did he want, and he said he wanted to know why I was sitting there, all unhappy (and not cooking.)

 So I told him I was depressed because the stupid Yankees outspent everyone else by like a hunnert million bucks and bought up all the best players, like back in the bad old days, bizarrely known as "The Golden Age" by even baseball fans who didn't live in NY City (which held all 3 WS championships teams for around 15 years), and that I had a bad feeling that the umps and MBL and the media were all accidentally on purpose encouraging this to see that the Big 6 teams (heavily hyped by the media) got into the playoffs as much as possible at the expense of the other 24 non-glamour teams. It is only different from the old days when the players threw games for the gamblers because the vast majority of players aren't benefitting at all from this inequity. And it is even worse because I grew up during the age of somewhat more parity.

He looked at me. He said - you are too damm old to be that damm dumb. Money always talks and everything else always walks and it always has been and will be. The rich and pretty people will always be more popular that the poor, ugly people, regardless of their other qualities. The owners are in it to make money, not to "win." They aren't billionaires by accident. People will attach themselves to whatever team they think is a winner and will spend money on that team. People always have tried to attach themselves to the rich and the winners in spite of the fact that it has nothing to do with their own character. They just like believe that if they associate with a winner, then they too are a winner. The poor people hang around the rich hoping for crumbs, like those swarms of little fish around a shark. What did you expect? So what are you gonna cook?

sigh

I know that life isn't fair, that there is no such thing as equality, that there is not really anything that can be done about the fact that the Yankees make more money through their network and new stadium gifted to them by their #1 fan ex-mayor Guiliani than any other team does or possibly can. I know that as much as I hate their very existence, that they draw away crowds and that they are taxed enough that other owners can make their 20-30 mill a year and agree to send forth their Washington Generals teams for the Yankees to kick.

The other unfortunate fact is that there is absolutely no way to deal with the enormous media bias that has inexorably built up over the past 10 or so years - they try very hard not to mention any team besides the 6 biggies, unless they can somehow drag out the subject of steroids, which, for some reason, still manages to get a little bit of rise out of some people. I knew things had really really gotten bad back in 05, when McCarver and Buck made it more than obvious that they were sulking because the WS had teams from the 3rd and 4th largest cities in the country, not the teams they wanted. And, of course, neither the Sox nor the Astros had any players who were, shall we say, "media-worthy" like Jeter, except for the few ex-Yankees like Clemens, Pettitte and Jose Contreras.

I haven't even begun to touch the subject of the execrable umpiring, in which every single bad call (except one) went against the team that MLB and the media wanted to win. I don't accuse definitely without proof, but I sure am one suspicious person, let me put it that way. Of course I know that the quality of umpiring has gone rapidly downhill since Sandy Alderson left MLB for the Padres several years ago, as the umps are no longer accountable to anyone for essentially anything.

What really troubles me is that I see absolutely no solution to what I call the Yankees Problem. 1 - they have at least twice the resources/income of any other team. 2 - the media and MLB absolutely positively WANT them to win. They put down contests which lack Yankees, present them to their audience as inferior, unworthy of much of any interest, of lacking of "storylines" - seeing as how the baseball itself isn't THE story line. 3 - the other owners are absolutely positively NOT rebelling in any way, shape or form.

I understand that even if every single penny of income of any team derived from every single source there is was split, it wouldn't necessarily make for parity, as owners wouldn't HAVE to do anything to make money, just send 25 males out on the field. Salary caps certainly haven't created the slightest bit of parity in either football or basketball. And I seriously doubt that the baseball owners even WANT a salary cap any more, as they have managed to reduce the percent of revenues spent on ML player salaries from 60 to 40% over the past 15 years, while still managing to convince both the media and the public that the reason that ticket prices are so high and class barriers like the Legends Seats With Surrounding Moat To Keep Out The Trash, is that the greedy players are taking up all the money. A salary cap might could actually end up costing them MORE money in player salaries.

Thing is, I think that in the end, this is an ominous sign for fans of the remaining 24 teams, including my Astros. They have to beat the Yankees, the media AND the owner has to value winning over making money. I can't see how it could happen, except for a sudden streak of luck, such as the one started in 04 by the serendipitous "retirement" and signing of Clemens. The media, of course, would be delighted by the appearance of some unexpected underdog, as long as it went to the back of the bus where it belonged by the end of the first round of playoffs.

I know that Drayton McLane is happily giving out the appearance of starting from scratch with a New, Improved coaching staff. I know that a lot of fans and media would be so happy if we would just trade off Oswalt, Berkman and Lee (ignoring the no-trades) to I don't know who for I don't know what (not real too much because no one is going to take players of that age with those salaries and give anything back and Drayton is not going to eat all that money for nothing) and then we would have all that money (?!?) to go out and buy, like WHO? Free agents of the same age who would have even longer contracts?

I can't see the Astros getting to .500 this year either with the lack of power and the lack of starters - and no, Wilton Lopez/Bazardo/Wesley Wright are NOT gonna be quality ML starters. And unfortunately, I can't see the Astros winning much of anything again for many many years, especially as the media/MLB will be heavily backing the Cubs. Storyline, you know.

Yes, I do know that I am really gloomy, but unfortunately, sometimes, bad times really ARE coming and pretending that All Is Well really is a fool's errand.