Warning!! Danger!! Annual Off-topic Baseball Thread '07!! Beware!!

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

And there are people who make stupid statements...
errrr....17-19 is hardly a half, it's not even a quarter and it's hardly miserable in any event. But as I said... :shrug:

You know, when I say something stupidly obvious, like Wrigley wasn't built until 1914, your rapier wit retorts with "No sh1t". So what do I get to say when you say something that stupidly obvious? I'm not talking about this season; it was a general comment about how the Yankees do business. Obviously, the season isn't half over. The Yankees haven't even played a quarter of their schedule. But when they do have a miserable season, that's the attitude the fans have. No big deal, just go throw $80 mil at the problem.

I am so tired of hearing this old idiocy it makes my teeth hurt.

You might want to go see a dentist. The reason you hear it so much is that it's true.

Somehow it's OK for Microsoft to "buy" their way to success in the SW business but in sports, and particularly in baseball, and particularly for the Yankees, it's not "particularly sporting".

Come on. Completely different business models. Microsoft would be perfectly happy to put all of its competitors out of business. They'd still make a ton of money. If the Yankees put all of their competitors out of business, they'd be out of business, too.

The overall health of MLB depends in part on healthy franchises. If franchises in 20 cities never have a shot at the playoffs, fans stay away and the franchise suffers. Competitive balance improves the overall health of a sports league, generally. The NFL gives some evidence for that. Apples and volleyballs. If the Sox and Yankees are allowed to harm the competitive balance of the league simply by spending $100 million more per year than anybody else monopolize the best talent, it's not a good thing, IMHO.