Another Yankee Championship

The 2009 Major League Baseball season has come to end an with no real surprise or excitement as the heavily favored New York Yankees beat the underdog Philadelphia Phillies in a one sided World Series. Going into the season the Yankees were predicted by nearly all intelligent and experienced baseball analysts to come out on top, and those who didn’t were most likely crazy. Who wouldn’t predict the team with the most money and most pressure to win, wouldn’t use their powers to buy their World Series talent? The two biggest free agents in the 2009 off season, C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, both demanded contracts nearing the $20 million mark annually. Who but the Yankees realistically had any chance of landing both? When the Yankees win the World Series, it’s like the Lakers winning the NBA Championship. Unless you’re a fan of New York or L.A. you were most likely rooting for the other team. But you have to congratulate those players on the field for all their hard work, but understand the team with the most money always has the best chance to win. Not that it will happen year after year, we have seen the lonely underdog escape with a championship before, but you’re a fool if you expect it to happen regularly. The 2009 Yankees built a nearly unbeatable team full of All Stars and future hall of famers. Any New York Yankee fan loves the way the Steinbrenner family conducts their business and every year puts a team on the field with a realistic chance of adding another World Series banner.  Going into the series some still had hope that the underdog Phillies, the 2008 World Series Champs, had a chance to knock out the mighty Yanks. The Phillies had the lineup to match up with most American League teams, but lacked the pitching to have a real chance of slowing the Yankees offense. After a team like the Yankees or Lakers wins yet another championship you here the anger from the small town market teams about how it’s so unfair that their team just can’t compete by spending the same way the major markets can. This is true and it is more difficult to build a winner without unlimited financial resources, but is that really what the fans want? No. The answer is no. Truth is sports are better off with the big bad Yankees or Lakers on top. Check the ratings from the 2009 World Series between the Yankees and Phillies vs. the 2008 World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies. It’s easy to say we want the underdogs to over take the major market, but we don’t watch when it happens. 2009 T.V ratings were much higher than 2008 because people want to watch the Yankees, not the Rays. The Rays are a fun and exciting team to watch for die hard baseball fans, but they can’t even fill their own stadium with local fans. Sports are at their best when the big markets collide and we watch money playing against more money. People will tell you they hate the New York Yankees, but when the Yankees are on T.V, we all watch. People will tell you they hate when the L.A. Lakers win, but when the Lakers game is on, we all watch. Sure it’s fun to root for an underdog who has little chance to win, but reality is sports needs the big market teams to continue their dominance. Congratulations to the 2009 World Series Champion New York Yankees on their 1 millionth World Series and I’ll be looking for them to do it again next year. I don’t like the Yankees, but still I watched every game of their World Series!

Tags: Baseball, Baseball franchise, WORLD SERIES, YANKEES