RandBall: Only the finest for Yankees

Last update: November 5, 2009 - 8:42 PM

We tried to give the Yankees their due. We tried to focus on the players on the team that seem reasonably likable: Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte -- the long-standing core guys who don't symbolize the free-spending era. We can be happy for those guys. We tried not to think too hard about the $400 million-plus doled out to CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. Put those three on most MLB teams and they can contend. But only a few teams can afford all three in baseball's economic shell game. We have parity! We have economic control! Um, you want to talk to the man in charge of that? Oh, well, he's out to lunch. Call back another time. In any event, we had at least made peace with the Yankees as world champs. But then, we received this press release in the morning: "This year, the World Series Champion New York Yankees celebrated in grand fashion with bottles of the #1 rated Champagne in the world, Armand de Brignac." Yes, baseball's richest team dumped only the finest champagne on each other after winning a contest that was economically fixed to their advantage. They might have let a little hit their mouths, but most of it probably rolled down the drain. If there is a more fitting final major sports champion for this decade of decadence and disparity, we cannot fathom which team that would be.

RandBall: www.startribune.com/blogs/randball

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