Sports Then and Now

Sporting the highest payroll in baseball, the New York Yankees finally regained the World Series title for the first time since 2000.

In a decade in which greed and excess have been dominant themes in all walks of life, it may be only fitting that the final major sports championship would be claimed by the franchise that best personifies those qualities, the New York Yankees.

No team in all of sports has been as blatant or as successful in turning money into championships.

In all, the Yankees have won 27 World Series Championships since claiming their first title in 1923.

And, the Yankees have been leveraging their economic advantages since the very beginning of that run.

When New York acquired Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox in 1920, they began the practice of buying the best talent. It is a strategy that they have continued for 90 years.

While it may seem like I am bashing the Yankees, the reality is that the real problem is with the current system. The team is simply working within the rules of the game to give themselves the best opportunity to win.

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Charlie Manuel says he’s team is resilient. He points out the fact that the team has lost

Can Cliff Lee pitch another gem versus the Yankees?

22 games this season where they led after the 7th inning. That sounds like the 2008 New York Mets to me. But in this case it was the Phillies this year and not the Mets last year who ultimately wound up winning the World Series. (ouch)

I too am quite confident that this series is far from over. On the Yankee side all one must do is just look back a short 5 years when they were one game from eliminating their most hated rival,the Boston Red Sox and unless you’ve been hiding in a time capsule you know what happened there.

For the Yanks to close this puppy out they are going to have to do it on the arms of A.J. Burnett, who like his counterpart C.C. Sabathia, will be pitching on three days rest. If he doesn’t get past Cliff Lee they will have to use Andy Pettitte once again on three days rest and if it goes to a seventh game it will be CC once more time on the short rest period.

Personally I can’t see this as a formula for success therefore my unwillingness to count the Phillies out just yet.

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