Even the most unsavvy person in the ways of all things baseball will understand the following, so stay with me here. Every major league team has a payroll, which is the money they use to pay their players. However, some teams get WAY more money than others. To see just how different they are, let's take a look at the lowest and highest payrolls from the 2008 season:
#1) New York Yankees $209,081,579
#2) Detroit Tigers $138,685,197
... ...
#29) Tampa Bay Rays $43,820,598
#30) Florida Marlins $21,836,500
As you can see, the gap between the Yankees and Marlins is utterly ridiculous. With all of that money, the Yankees should be going to the play-offs every year without fail. There's no excuse for them to do anything less. Which brings me to the point of this thread.
Last year, they failed.
A 3rd place finish in the American League East meant that the New York Yankees became an example of one of the worst cost/success ratios in the history of professional sports. A team with less than a fourth of their payroll, the Tampa Bay Rays, was able to finish 1st in the toughest division in all of baseball. To break it down further, let's take a look at what else $200 million can buy...
With the '08 Yankees payroll, the '08 Tampa Bay Rays organization could have:
A) constructed a life-size replica of the S.S. Titanic
-or-
B) paid for Barack Obama's preposterously expensive $150 million inauguration ceremony
-or-
C) produced the original Star Wars trilogy three times
-or-
D) purchased two Boeing 787 Dreamliners
...and still have enough money to pay all their players and beat the Yankees to the division title!
I'm sorry, but that is just pathetic.
-Chris
