Wednesday, December 24, 2008

A voice of reason

Shysterball has an excellent take on the Yanks bonanza:

Baseball's prime directive is to be a financially successful and entertaining enterprise, and it has gotten better and better at this even as the Yankees have gone nuclear with their payroll. Some would even argue that there's a causal relationship there. I don't know if that's the case, but it cannot be denied that the Yankees' success and subsequent largess of the past 15 years has correlated remarkably well with the growth of baseball's attendance and revenues.

Maybe that's cold comfort for Blue Jays and Orioles fans, but unless and until the Yankees' spending habits either (a) make a mockery of competitive balance; or (b) send fans away from the game in droves, those habits are not worth worrying about, and I don't see how any of their moves this past month are likely to lead to either of those developments.

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