Attention New York and Boston baseball fans…this may come as a rather large shock so please sit down.
Are you sitting? Okay…here goes.
Baseball does, in fact, exist outside of New York and Boston.
I’ll give that just a minute or two to sink in. Feel free to continue reading whenever you feel physically and emotionally able. However, I am going to warn all of you Yankees and Red Sox fans out there that this entire blog will actually be bashing BOTH of your respective fan-bases. So don’t go thinking you can skim the article--as fans from the upper east coast are wont to do--and then promptly go on a comment adding tirade about why your team is superior to the opposition.
Instead, I’d prefer it if when this little ride is over, ya’ll just sat back and took a few minutes to think about how ridiculously short-sighted and egomaniacal you really are.
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Chapter One – All About the Benjamins
First and foremost, I realize that the Yankees and Red Sox both just made the playoffs…again. I also realize that the Red Sox just won the World Series…again. However, let’s also take a moment to note that the Yankees and Red Sox led all of baseball in terms of payroll…again. (with the New York Mets coasting in third-place)
The Yankees and Red Sox combined payroll in 2007 was roughly $338 million. All four of the National League playoff teams combined paid out roughly $296 million worth of salary in 2007. Not a one of those teams had made the playoffs since the Cubs NLCS run in 2003.
So brag all you want about your successes, but until you can win with small payrolls like the Athletics, Twins, Rockies, Padres, Indians and Diamondbacks have done in recent years—keep your mouth shut. The Pirates and Royals could win the World Series with a $150 million payroll too…or at least make the playoffs and choke in the first round.
Chapter Two – Pie in the Sky Expectations
I have three names for you. Bill Pulsipher. Jason Isringhausen. Paul Wilson. In the mid-1990s, the trio were all widely hyped as the next generation of New York Mets' superstars. The group received considerable press attention and the nickname “Generation K.” These three were viewed as the future of the franchise and injuries derailed all of their career significantly. Pulsipher finished his career with thirteen wins and a 5.15 earned run average. Wilson had a better career finishing up with 40 wins and 4.86 ERA, despite being touted as a future Hall-of-Famer straight out of school. Only Isringhausen managed to patch together a solid career as a closer after multiple injuries derailed his highly-touted starting career.
Anyone get where I’m taking this?
Let me drop some more names for you in the upper east coast…Jacoby Ellsbury, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Clay Buchholz and Ian Kennedy. All are highly-touted prospects and apparently every one of you thinks that all of the pitchers are going to turn into Bob Gibson and Ellsbury is going to be better than Ken Griffey Jr. That’s pretty much the only reason why I can assume none of you wants to trade any of those players for Johan Santana.
Ever since December, all I’ve read about is how neither Red Sox nor Yankees fans want to give up any of their prized prospects. Yankees fans seem to think they’re doing the Twins some sort of favor by even offering to “take Santana off the Twins’ hands.” I’ve read trade proposals from Yankee fans that include overpriced and under-talented players at the end of their careers and contracts such as Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina and Johnny Damon. Call me crazy, but why would the Twins trade the best pitcher in baseball for a bunch of overpaid, worn-out has-beens who won’t be under contract for more than a year?
In fact, far too many Yankees fans have made the argument that they should wait until Santana hits free agency and just buy him. Well, long story short Santana will not hit free-agency. He’ll be traded and locked up to an extension and you’ll never get your hands on him unless you make a trade.
Red Sox fans are too unwilling to throw in Buchholz or Ellsbury and act like giving up Jon Lester in addition to Coco Crisp and two prospects is some kind of sin. Let’s be honest Red Sox fans, look at the horrible trades the team has made in the last two years. In acquiring Eric Gagne last year and reacquiring Doug Mirabelli the year before the Sox gave up plenty of promising young talent and received very little in return. No one complained about the talent given up in those deals and all you received in return was a back-up catcher who’s lucky to hit above the Mendoza line and a closer who buckled under the pressure of a big market.
Until any of those five players lives up to the hype, consider yourselves idiots for passing on the greatest pitcher in baseball because you’ve bought into your own hype.
Chapter 3 – Homers Shouldn’t Talk Baseball
This is a simple request I’m making to each and everyone of the Yankees and Red Sox fans out there who thinks it’s necessary to leave a comment on every thread of every baseball story posted on every website on the internet.
It’s as simple as this, not every article is about the Red Sox or Yankees…don’t try to make the comment thread about the Yankees or Red Sox.
If you know nothing about another team, for the love of the Baseball Gods, please keep your mouth shut. Everyone outside of the upper east coast assumes you’re all only paying attention to yourselves anyway, no need to prove us right.
And please, please, pretty please…don’t try to argue for the value of your hometown team when it’s completely ludicrous. You just look like an ####.
Example 1: Recently someone wrote a blog ranting about Bernie Williams and how he should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Let me repeat that in case anyone didn’t catch it correctly. Someone was trying to defend an argument that Bernie Williams was a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
I’m not even going to go into explaining why that is absolute baseball blasphemy, because if I have to you, you’re either not a baseball fan or you’re in the group of people who agrees, in which case, color yourself dead to me.
Example 2: There was an article on FoxSports.com about the top four teams that have a chance to surprise this year. The article had nothing to do with the Red Sox or the Yankees. In the article Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins was referenced as being the best all-around catcher in baseball. On the comment thread someone immediately posted a reply that basically took a big ole dump all over the article simply because of the Mauer comment.
His argument? Jason Varitek is the best overall catcher in baseball. To further establish his “argument” he put up the head-to-head career statistics of Jason Varitek and Jorge Posada, completely taking Mauer (or Russell Martin or Victor Martinez or Brian McCann) out of the argument altogether and making it a Yankees vs. Red Sox piece.
Again, if there is any need for me to explain the absolute lack of mental capacity it takes to try and label Jason Varitek as the best all-around catcher in the game you are either not a baseball fan or you are part of the problem.
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That my east coast loving friends shall be the end of my tirade if for no better reason than I’m already a little nauseous knowing that I just wrote yet another piece that focuses on the Red Sox and Yankees…like roughly 80% of the baseball stories that are turned out by the media in a year.
Just do me a favor fans in New York and Boston, pull your heads out of the sand and read about other teams every once in awhile, get your #### together and then you can start talking baseball all you want.
But as long as you’re going to sit back with your uneducated, simple-minded arguments of “my team is better than yours…” just keep it to yourselves or your friends down at the pub and spare the rest of us—who know what we’re talking about—the time and suffering.
AMEN TKATT!!!!! I couldn't agree more with you. Every single article on baseball turns out about ny or boston. I'm a mariner fan so not alot about my team but thats not th epoint.
I saw that article about Mauer and saw exactly what you are talking about, ridiculous!
What are you talking about? Everyone knows that New York and Boston have the most knowledgeable fans in all of sports. The rest of MLB only exists to develop top talent for the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just a small-market crybaby.
Just kidding. Excellent post. I'm sick of these fans who think baseball revolves around them too.
What do you expect when those two teams account for almost 14% of all the player payroll in MLB? Did you know that if you total the payroll for the eight lowest paying teams, eight mind you, it will equal slightly more than what these two teams pay their players? MLB has turned into a suckers sport... Who won the WS last year? Who is favored to win it this year? Who has the best players?
I'll be down on MLB until they even the playing field, but that won't happen as long as people continue to fill the stands, even though the eventual winner will most likely be either the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees...
See, what people who say they know baseball don't realize is that the playing field is a lot more even than the low salary teams will admit. revenue sharing has given teams millions and millions of $$$ to teams that refuse to spend that money on players. How is that fair to the larger market teams who are making money because they put a quality product out there?
Small market ignorance just plain kills me. The owners don't want to spend the money to make money. In the NBA the Clippers are a prime example. Why pay the players when you are going to make money anyway. All the Red Sox/Yankees/Angels/Blue Jays/Mets/Dodgers do is try to put their team in a position to win. And this article is even more rediculous!!!! How are going to complain about people talking about noone but the Yankees and Red Sox then criticize them for trying to make a "deal" for Santana?? If they don't want to give up EVERY prospect they have and still pay the guy 20+million a year they are not doing enough......but why do we talk about them so much. The article was started with talk of the Sox and Yanks and then pretty much bashes himself for talking about it....what a crock of ####!!!!!
I think you're way off base here and a little self important to boot... Don't talk down to people, especially when you don't know what you're talking about. The luxury tax in MLB is nothing but so much lip service. The tax has only been implemented on nine occasions and the Yankees have been the subject of five of those. There are no provisions for the recipients of that money to spend it on their player payroll and by and large the small market owners simply pocket it. So much for improving the competition on the field.
If I get tired of anyone, it's people like you that think you know baseball. You don't have a clue pal... You're just another of the suckers that like to think MLB is still a sport when in fact it's just a time consuming exercise that determines which of the richest teams will win...
Last edited by Dwindy1 on January 21st at 5:07 PM.
Now it is Boston vs New York in the Super Bowl too! We can't get away from them!!!! I liked Patriots and Red Sox much better when they were lovable losers.
AWESOME RANT!!!! I couldn't have said it better myself!! I'm sick and tired of these retards turning EVERY article into a Yankees v. Red Sox battle!! #### the Yankees!! #### the Red Sox!!! There ARE 28 OTHER baseball teams out there!
Your rant is why baseball needs a HARD salary cap (and salary floor) very similar to the NFL's salary cap. If left unchecked, the Yankees and Red Sox will have ONE QUARTER of the TOTAL salary of ALL the MLB teams.
Great post, I love how Bos/NY/Phi fans think they're the most "passionate" sports fans out there....Somebody needs to explain that booing and trashing your team when things aren't going perfectly is not the same thing as passion.
Truly passionate fans? I'll take Cardinals fans, (and I'm a Braves fan; and yes I know, our fans are admittedly among the most anti-passionate).
winners win...those who don't talk smack..."i liked the Patriots and Red Sox" "when they were lovable losers"...maybe you should take a seat on the bench with another lovable loser "S.D. #21"
Although I agree entirely with Tkatt here, there is one underlying fact he forgot. Without those "big, bad" teams like Boston and New York, we wouldn't have the drama. If every team played .500 ball and all teams were equal in pay (not necessarily talent), it wouldn't be the same.
Everyone, especially in the US, strives on underdogs, comebacks, et al. We (most of us) love the little guy. This is the country of Rocky, Rudy and The Karate Kid. Without the "bad" guys, there would be no "good" guys.
We love drama. Triumph. Character. Without bullies, there would not be prosperity.
Last edited by WriterWithWryWit on January 22nd at 10:19 AM.
I wasn't talking about luxury tax. There is a thing called revenue sharing in MLB. In 2006 the yankees paid $77million and the Red Sox paid $51million. That money goes to teams like the Devil Rays and Brewers. In 2006 14 rich teams paid 16 small market teams that omney. The small market teams are not putting that money back into their team they are pocketing it. So, when you want to talk about an even playing field tell the small market teams to put a respectable team out there with the money that the "successful" teams are paying them.
Dwindy1!!!! Who did I put down??? The small market fans that complain about the money spending??? But you can put down someone who actually knows the truth and is pointing it out?? You put me down because you didn't read my post correctly.
Here is a great article explaining why small market teams don't succeed.
Half of the Royals Salaries were paid by the Red Sox/Yankees/Mets/Dodgers/Cubs/Angel s. Ticket sales are down, wins are down and the profits are up. Why?? Revenue sharing!!! Come at me with facts before you say that I don't know what I am talking about. If you look at how much the Royals received than you will realize that the Marlins owners did not pay $1 of their players salaries the last 2 years. The other owners of the league did. People need to realize that baseball is a business and it's the owners who would rather make a profit through revenue sharing instead of putting together a good team and making money the right way. MLB has made things worse wi
dwindy1 - if you knew a little you would know that the teams revenues are not just luxury taxes but also internet revenues, shares of gates receipts, and merchandise fees along with their own ticket revenues and broadcast rights - if a team like tampa rays can spend 45 mil this year on salaries then there are dollars out there for the small market teams
...let's be honest whether the Twins had just won the World Series or if they were stuck in the cellar it wouldn't matter...b/c all you'd hear about is the Yankees and Red Sox anyway.
...any article written about the Twins would turn into a back-and-forth battle between Red Sox and Yankees fans. That's the point I'm making.
It has nothing to do with the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox are better than my favorite team and only fans of one of those two teams would try to turn it into a team-envy kind of thing.
i'm a yankee fan living in baltimore md. and can almost see the writers point of view. but until some of these small market teams do anything worth writing about the fans, press, blogs and anyone with an opinion is going to write about the teams playing for the title every yr. like other readers have noticed about other sports. the pats in football even before this yrs run along with the cowboys are always mentioned. how about kobe and the lakers. the pub goes were the stars are and where the rings get won. americans like winners and like hating winners. the writer of the blog did not say who his or her team was but until they make the playoffs on a regular basis with an endorsment worthy player, the national press and the nation won't care. winning teams and marketable players sell newspaper, mags and espn highlights. it is just the way it is in this country.
until the greedy #### owners in the upper east coast decide to start sharing local revenues with the rest of the league there will be a competitve imbalance in baseball. Sadly you and your egos can't understand what it is like in smaller markets. If the Twins, Athletics, Diamondbacks, Brewers, and Reds had your ability to pay players there would be no such thing as a Yankee or Red Sox dynasty. You BUY all the talent in the league and then spout your mouths off about how other owners don't own up. Well the owners on the east coast still turn a profit with their rediculous payrolls. Those small market clubs with their meager payrolls don't always make a buck. They want to keep their talent and their players. These teams aren't the Florida Marlins but you can't take a $20 millions dollar loss and expect an owner to keep throwing dollars around. Face it your owners are in large media markets and the dollar argument is valid no matter how "rich" another owner is.
I am a 24-year-old aspiring baseball writer. I grew up to stories of Willie Mays, the Miracle Mets and the Bronx Zoo from my father. Although my playing days never amounted to much, baseball has always remained my passion. I recently moved to Boston from the midwest and I am enjoying the hype and hysteria of living at the heart of Red Sox Nation. As you can tell from my avatar the Twins are my team, a result of being born and raised in Iowa and attending college in Minnesota. If you're ever in the mood to talk baseball, or any sport for that matter, you can drop me a line or leave a comment on my blog.
