Happy for the New York Yankees, they looked like exactly what they are: A well-oiled, very expensive machine. Albeit one that is starting to show its age.
And congrats to Hideki Matsui, the series MVP.
Although I still believe the DH rule spoils the game.
Yes – 100 Million can buy a Championship but it can’t buy you integrity, heart or soul….
These Yankees are a very unlikeable bunch. The team dynamic that marks true champions is not there. A-ROD kissing himself in the mirror and the other unsavory aspects of these players can’t compare to the Phillies in likeability. Chase Utley has the stuff….undeniable.
I really don’t see many players on the Yankees that you would want hanging around with your friends. Derek Jeter maybe but still it is not a highly admired group.
As a Red Sox fan, I have to acknoweledge the Yankees as the winners but the difference in the heart, “soul” and integrity of the teams is night & day. The Yankess weren’t dubbed the “Evil Empire” by sportswrites and Baseball fans for nothing.
I admire the Phillies for their effort – They played with heart & soul. Money can but the championship but it seems hollow from here.
Although I still believe the DH rule spoils the game.
+1 for sure…
- SJS
For my money (no pun intended), a better analysis from CCNmoney: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/World-Series-Yankees-cnnm-2759255884.html?x=0&.v=3 the Yankees were actually more efficient with their $$ than many other teams.
In the same vein: http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/11/05/the-yankees-payroll/
Joe Posnanski (of Sports Illustrated and my hometown paper the Kansas City Star) shows us why the insane $$$ the Yanks spend doesn’t ALWAYS buy them the series. Synopsis for those who don’t want to parse through the post (a good, but long read): baseball is a game where consistency is important through the long haul, but then you get to the playoffs where short series’ early on can weed out teams that otherwise would dominate due to their payroll (i.e. a fluke game or two can change the course of the playoffs).
DaveC
Lex,
As a Yankees fan who grew up in a small midwestern town, I’m convinced it’s genetics for some of us. I KNOW you could start a GREAT and LOOOONG conversation by a post asking everyone who drops by here how & why they came to root for their particular team. And whether, for example, people tend to root for only ONE team–or have a favorite in each league. And if their allegiances have changed over time, why. Anyone want to join me in petitioning Lex? Lets start the winter hot-stove/cracker-barrel conversation NOW!
I have three favorite clubs. The Dodgers, and whoever is playing the Yankees or the Braves.
@QM I’m with you. Dodger Blue! I started listening to their games back in ‘62, and, yes, Vin Scully was calling the games back then. 9V transistor radio tuned in to KFI for that all important game ever night after bedtime. I don’t get much chance to catch up with the guys from Chavez Ravine anymore, so the Mariners have to fit the bill on most days.
SK1, you talk about class and integrity and “soul” and you are a Red Sux fan? Bwaa Hahaha.
Ask Big Papi what his favorite steroid is. Ask Shilling (the eternal crybaby) what drugs made him able to play with his injured ankle.
The core of the World Champions is four players who were brought up through the Yankee’s farm system. Three are locks for the hall of fame. They make a lot of money. If you were the owner of that team, wouldn’t you pay them a lot of money?
Other than ARod, who is an overpaid knucklehead, I’d like to know who else on the team lacks the class that is apparently so prevalent in Boston. Is it Damon? Matsui? Joba? Maybe it’s that big mouthed loafer Rivera?
Utley and Lee both had impressive post-seasons. But if either of them had been missing, the Fillies would have been swept. Problem is, this is a TEAM game. Fillies couldn’t match up.
I’m tired of everyone whining about the best team in baseball paying it’s players the most. Anyone that owns a team could pay just as much, but they don’t care to.
27.
Good luck next year in your team’s quest for #4.
R-
Nose
Nose/
All too many people forget that, historically, the Yankees have ALWAYS had one of the best, if not THE best farm team/scouting system in baseball–has ALWAYS been the heart of their success.
Especially if you include the pre-Finley Athletics as part of the Yankee farm/scouting system.
The KC A’s were owned by the guy who owned the parking near Yankee stadium. He made much more from a big crowd in the Bronx than a win in KC. Naturally the trades, if you can call them that, between KC and NY were some real howlers. When that tap closed, the flow of young Yankees stopped and that team in Oakland did pretty well.
Dang, I’d forgotten all about the A’s being from KC…
So had I Mongo, and Potosi Joel is right about those trades–hard to see how the long suffering people in KC put up with it for as long as they did. (But as a Yankee fan I certainly wasn’t one to look the gift KC horse in the mouth!
)
The “buy a championship” argument is so tiresome, and patently untrue. Success breeds success. The Yankees have money because people will pay to see them and buy their merch (to wit the MSG deal which is what really filled the coffers years ago). The Yankees roster is 52% homegrown players (vice 35% for Philly). Last night’s winning pitcher, starting catcher and shortstop, as well as the greatest closer the game has ever seen all came up through the Yanks farm system. Good management and smart trades have brought in high profile players through trades (A Rod wasn’t a free agent) and have allowed the Yanks to retain talent and afford needed free agents. Those trades are built on having a deep talent pool of prospects, baseball savvy and providing the biggest stage in the sport, which makes a move to NY attractive.
As to heart, the Yanks led the Majors in wins, comebacks and walk-off victories this season. All this following a tumultous start to the season, and being without the best player in the game until late May. Over 162 games and a three tiered playoff, the Yankees prooved they are the best team. Not because they have the highest payroll, but because they got it done when it mattered. WRT payroll, 6 of the 8 teams in the playoof are in the top 9 for total payroll. Interestingly, the # 2 and 3 teams in payroll, Mets and Cubs respectively, are dismal.
The spine of the Yankees championship was built in their farm system and enhanced with good management and belief in a winning tradition and demand for excellence. Hate all you want, but that sounds like a winning formula for more than just baseball…
Bull Loney!
If I still cared about MLB I’d be plenty annoyed that the NY Millionaires, er, Yankees won. Quick, who won two years ago? See how meaningless it is?