Thank god the Yankees play baseball...

Think about this lineup: Kidd, Bryant, McGrady, Duncan and O'Neal. Add Ray Allen and Ben Wallace coming in off the bench for shooting and defensive sparks and throw together 5 anybody's.

This team may never lose an NBA game...

This team, assuming an avg salary of $5 mil from the remaining 5 bench players combines to make roughly $150 million dollars (sadly, about $45 million more than the Knicks... GO ISIAH... remember though, this is Yankees2000, not Isiahisdumberthanmydog).

Under the NBA's current CBA/salary structure this team could never be assembled. The exchange of talent, especially the top players, is very difficult as teams are forced to circumvent a soft salary cap of about $50 million dollars.

Just imagine, though, that the NBA did not have these rules.

The team at the top of this page would be the New York Knicks.

They have more money than anyone else (by far). They play in the greatest arena in the world. They play in the greatest market in the world. Sounds a lot like the Yankees of basketball.

Here we have it. The perfect, unbeatable team... for 3 times the NBA salary cap.

The Yankees assembled a team for $208 million dollars with nothing but a weak luxury tax serving as a deterrent to their spending... Interestingly enough, they spend slightly more than 3 times baseball's median team salary (that would belong to the Detroit Tigers, who, with a payroll topping out at $68.8 mil, finished 2005 with a 71-91 record to show for themselves). And yet in spite of their spending, they can't win a thing anymore, at least not when it counts.



Last night's game 3 was one of the greatest World Series games of all time. The game went 14 innings, lasted almost 6 hours and saw about 500 pitches thrown... But having grown obsessed with this blog, all I could do is look at this game in respect to the Yankees.

I looked at the Astros lineup, and then compared it to the Yankees lineup (Astros starter/Yankees starter):

C. Ausmus/Posada
1b. Lamb/Giambi
2b. Biggio/Cano
SS. Everett/Jeter
3b Ensberg/A-Rod
LF. Berkman/Matsui
CF. Taveras/Williams
RF. Lane/Sheffield

You can make a very strong argument that not a single Astro would start over the Yankee that plays their position. Not one.

Sure, Berkman and Matsui may be a coin flip. And Biggio may end up a Hall of Famer when all is said and done...

And I realized that this is both the beauty of baseball and the cause for baseball's downfall.

Watching the Astros last night, I was watching a team. They play small ball, they pitch and defend well. They were playing a White Sox team who for the most part does the same thing...

And the Astros can win playing this type of ball.

The Astros prove that any team can win a baseball game.

But this is also MLB's argument for allowing the Yankees to be, well, The Yankees.

Here is the World Series featuring baseball's 10th and 12th richest teams -- so everything is ok, right? Clearly there must be no correlation between spending and winning... Or at least to MLB, not enough of a correlation.

It's ok that the Yankees pay roughly $50mil more than the two World Series teams combined, because, hey, the poorer teams made the Series and the Yanks didn't -- what more do you need to know?

It's ok because the A's (21st highest payroll) and Indians (26th) contended all season long...

It's ok that the Yankees are almost guaranteed a spot in the postseason because, as the Beer Man in the upper left field nosebleeds at Yankee Stadium can tell you, the Devil Rays (29th) had a winning record against the Yankees this year (11-8).

Clearly, none of the above listed facts changes the reality of baseball's competitive imbalance. No matter how poorly the Yankees played against the Devil Rays or how well the A's and Indians did most of the year, the game does not belong to any of the latter three, but rather to the former, the bully in the Bronx.

Why? Well, a big part of the reason is that the suits running Major League Baseball want the Yankees to win. When the Yankees win, ratings are higher, thereby generating greater revenues and making all of baseball's owners more money. Combine that with the Yankees' ability to draw fans on the road and the Yankees are a slam dunk for baseball's shot-callers.

So as long as this model holds, which figures to account for at least the foreseeable future, nothing is going to change, and the Yankees will continue to be, well, The Yankees.

To which all I can say is: thank god the Yankees play baseball. In any other sport, a team with the resources of the Yankees would win every time.

Imagine the Colts with the Chiefs' O-Line, the Jags' front 4, the Bronco linebackers, the Raven secondary and the Pats coaching staff... Tough to see too many losses there.

But baseball is different. On any given day a team can win or lose. That is why the Astros were swept out of Shea in May and are in the World Series today. That is why A-Rod put up MVP numbers for 162 games but struggled through 5 more. That is why Vlad Guerrero was 0-for-the ALCS.

Baseball is a game of streaks. For those that have played, you know that there are times when the ball looks like a volleyball and others when it looks like a golf ball.

Baseball is a game where one pitch or one error in the 2nd inning can determine a game.

So thank god the Yankees play baseball, cause at least now they can lose. And at least now I don't have to worry about Kobe Bryant becoming a Knick.

Utah, give me Two...

Sippy Momo