Sports Then and Now

George Steinbrenner changed the role of ownership across all sports.

As a Boston Red Sox fan, I have never been fond of the New York Yankees Organization. Growing up in Buffalo, NY, I was surrounded by Yankees fans all the time.

Before I even began to get interested in baseball, my good friend, Frank Bundy, brain washed me into becoming a Sox fan.

I’ve always been sick of the Yankees winning.

After all, the Yankees 2010 payroll is over $206 million, so shouldn’t they be winning the World Series every year? That’s over $40 million more than any other team.

But when I heard the news that George Steinbrenner passed away, being a Red Sox fan didn’t matter.

It was immediately a sad day for baseball fans and beyond. What George Steinbrenner had accomplished and done within the Yankees organization can only be looked at with appreciation and respect.

The death of Steinbrenner is a huge loss, not only for Major League Baseball, but for all of sports. Steinbrenner built the Yankees empire, and was willing to win, no matter what the cost.

In his 37 years as owner, Steinbrenner led the Yankees to seven World Series Championships, 11 American League Pennants, and 16 Division Titles. Read the rest of this entry →

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.
And so it is with…

George Steinbrenner passed away on Tuesday morning in Tampa, Florida, after suffering a massive heart attack, ESPN is reporting. The bombastic and often boorish owner of the New York Yankees had recently turned the reins of the franchise over to his sons and had been in failing health the last few years, preventing him from making more than a few appearances at Yankee Stadium.

Steinbrenner passes away with the true love and admiration of the Yankee fan base. It must be said, in all fairness, that George Steinbrenner did everything within his power to make the Yankees winners during his tenure. No other owner in any sport has exhibited the fervor, an almost psychotic obsession with excellence, much less delivered on the premise. He took perhaps the most famous franchise in sports history and actually made it exponentially bigger and better. His $10 million investment in 1973 is now worth over $1.3 billion!

"The Boss", circa 1997.

As with so many great leaders of men, Steinbrenner’s success was not without its negative side. When you mention “The New York Yankees”, people think domination, 27 World Series titles, dynasties, and pinstripes. On the other hand, when you say “George Steinbrenner”, most people conjure up very different images. Public rants and fights with managers. Involvement with shady business characters. There were suspensions by the league and, most prevalent in the memories of baseball fans, it was George Steinbrenner who ushered in free agency, turning baseball into something very different than it had been up to that point. Read the rest of this entry →

New York, New York. Twins face the Yankees in stern 3-game test.

Remember last October when the Yankees swept the Twins in the American League Playoffs? This was after the Twins had clawed their way back to win the Central Division crown while the league-leading Tigers swooned. Impossible to forget.

Remember the final moments of Twins baseball inside the Metrodome? With its artificial landscape contained by a shabby, baseball-colored roof that held and intensified noise to exhausting, bone-jarring levels—the Dome rocked and rolled. On that final Sunday there were 54,735 fans packed inside, all screaming for a win until the last pitch.

Remember being down 4-1 in the bottom of the the ninth as Twins third baseman Brendan Harris stood in the batters box with Michael Cuddyer safe on second base? Within that deafening roar as the count stood 2-0, Harris swung hard, hitting a ground ball to the shortstop who threw him out at first.

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The addition of Curtis Granderson will help the New York Yankees retain their title in the American League East.

February is here and I have the countdown widget on my Windows Vista desktop that counts down the days until pitchers and catchers report – it’s 15 days, by the way.  Spring training is the time of a thousand story lines – everyone’s a contender and every player who reports is a potential star.

Without further ado, here are 10 things that are could (or should) happen this year in Major League Baseball.

10.     Only one team from the AL East will make the playoffs.

The Yankees were stacked last year.  The additions of Curtis Granderson and Javier Vasquez only add to that.  They dropped the ball (no pun intended) when they opted for Randy Winn over resigning Johnny Damon.  They know it, too, as evidenced by the fact that he’s not listed on their website’s transaction list.  That point notwithstanding,  the Yanks  are going to be insanely hard to overcome, even for the Red Sox.  If the Yankees take the division, they should be the only AL East entrant.

9.     The Tigers will not sign Johnny Damon, mostly because Scott Boras is a liar.

On my list of “People I’d Like to See Slapped,” Scott Boras is pretty high up.  But in this instance he is just absolutely full of bologna.  Sporting News reports that Boras is trying to convince the Tigers that they need Damon.  He’s quoted as saying,  “[Damon] batted .363 at Comerica Park, he has a .412 on-base percentage at Comerica.”  Really?  When was that?  Last year (according to baseball-reference.com) Johnny Damon batted .231 with and on-base percentage of .286 and he only slugged .308 in 14 at-bats.  The numbers Boras is quoting as Damon’s career numbers at Comerica and no one (well, except for Boras) thinks that the Johnny Damon that is currently seeking work is the same one that the Yankees thought they bought in 2006. Read the rest of this entry →

There is no shortage of money being spent on baseball salaries, but which teams are getting the most bang for their bucks?

Given that they spent half a billion dollars more than any other team over the last decade, it should come as no surprise that the New York Yankees top the list of Major League Baseball teams when it comes to cost per victory. However, in an interesting article posted on SportsIllustrated.com, Tom Verducci contends that the Yankees got much more bang for their buck than some teams that spent less money during the decade.

Just looking at the raw numbers, the Yankees top the sport by spending $174,600 for each of their league-best 965 victories. The New York Mets ($133,300), Boston Red Sox ($127,000), Los Angeles Dodgers ($116,200) and Chicago Cubs ($112,400) round out the list of the top five teams in spending per victory.

Not surprisingly, the Yankees and Red Sox are the only two teams to claim multiple World Series titles in the decades. However, using a formula that weighs playoff success and then compares it with total payroll to illustrate efficiency and inefficiency, Verducci suggests that the Florida Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals got the most for their money over the past decade.

But, Verducci also points out the flaw in his system when considering the comprehensive success of those teams during the decade.

The Cardinals spent $843 million (eighth highest in baseball) while winning 913 games (third in MLB). They also reached the playoffs eight times, appeared in two World Series and claimed the World Series title in 2006.

While the Marlins equaled the Cardinals with one World Series title (2003 over the Yankees), their rise to the top of the efficiency scale is tied primarily to annual place at the bottom of the league when it comes to team payroll. The Marlins spent only $349 million during the decade, which is $50 million less than the other team in Florida, the Tampa Bay Rays. The 2003 championship was the only playoff appearance for the Marlins and they finished within five games of making the playoffs only one other time in the decade. Read the rest of this entry →

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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