Yankees Bite the Dust

The New York Yankees have the largest player payroll in baseball, an astounding $195 million. $25M of that goes to one player, Alex Rodriguez. Compare that with the $15M payroll of the Florida Marlins. The Yankees, operating in a major market, have money to burn and with it they buy the top talent. With sluggers like A-Rod, Giambi, Sheffield, Matsui, Cano, Damon, Jeter, Posada and Abreu, they finished well ahead of the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Orioles in the regular season, teams which are not exactly pushovers. How could they lose?

But lose they did, the victims of inspired Detroit pitching, in the first playoff round. A-Rod is likely to be the whipping boy. Although his statistics for the season would be considered excellent for most players, his super salary didn't bring super results. He fell flat in the short playoff. New Yorkers have been hard on him ever since he and his salary arrived in town. Fans have been tolerant of huge player salaries for years, but the $25M was finally just too much. It will be interesting to watch the fallout.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.
And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,
but there is no joy in the Bronx -
the mighty Yankees have struck out.

(With apologies to Ernest Thayer and the mighty Casey.)