You say you have a problem with the Yankees 4 year $52 million signing of Johnny Damon?  That the accumulation of all-star talent by George Steinbrenner looks an awful lot like what the Hunt brothers once tried to do with the silver market.  That it's bad for competitive balance, bad for small and medium market teams, and bad for baseball.  You are forgetting a critical concept.  The devine right of kings.

Under this philosophy certain kings are accountable to no man.  In baseball the kings are few but they are powerful.  Start with Steinbrenner.  The fact that the American League East race has been clinched in December of the year before the 2006 season is of little importance.  George Steinbrenner is a king.  The fans of the Devil Rays and Orioles exist only to subsidize his travelling exhibition of all star players.

King Johnny Damon enjoyed the adulation of RedSox fans, becoming the shining knight who would be their champion.  But he is a king and as such is not accountable for their disappointment.  A king accepts, as his right, the loyalty of subjects.  This loyalty does not extend in the opposite direction.  Let them eat cake, or at least Coco Crisps in center field.

Lest we forget, King Scott Boras must also be paid tribute.  He has proclaimed himself the savior of the down trodden minor leaguers, whose lot he presumably enhances by draining owners and fans of every last shekel possible.  Invariably his major league free agents end up going to New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago but who are we as mere sports fans to question baseball's royalty?

Invariably, as happens with kings excercising absolute power even the strongest empires will crumble.  The signs will slowly appear.  Fans will stop paying tribute and two or three teams will go under.  Attendance in other cities will fall and Boras will squeeze his tribute out of a smaller and smaller purse.  As some kingdoms change hands, kings alas being mortal, the power of the great monarchs will fade.  The populace will become surly and eventually new regimes will come to rule by gaining the favor of the common man.  Let us hope they are more enlightened than King George, King Scott, and King Johnny and that the reformation comes quickly.