Not long ago Yankees-haters would say things like "the Yankees buy championships", which is stupid enough if it wasn't for the fact that perhaps the best baseball team of all time... the 1998 New York Yankees... did not have the highest payroll in Major League Baseball (that honor went to the Baltimore Orioles, who finished in 4th place in the American League East). The team with the highest payroll in MLB in 2014, the Los Angeles Dodgers, lost in the National League Divisional Series. The Dodgers had the highest payroll in the league last season too, and it got them another loss in the NL Divisional Series.
But besides the fact that the idea of "buying championships" is as stupid as it gets, this idea that the Yankees don't spend money anymore is almost just as silly.
So the Yankees passed on David Price, Jason Heyward, Zack Greinke, Justin Upton, and every other player that signed a Major League contract this season. That doesn't change the fact that the team will still spend nearly $230 million on payroll, second only to the Dodgers (~$250 million), and well ahead of the 3rd place Detroit Tigers (~$200 million).
A number of people believe the Yankees will go hard after Bryce Harper when he's a free agent in a couple of years, and he will likely receive the largest contract in the history of sports.
Look... the Yankees spend plenty of money on their players, and will likely do so until the end of time. And I think I came up with a way to help some people understand just how much money we're talking about.
The following is a list of things that could be bought with the amount of money the Yankees spend on player payroll.
This is Lionel Richie's house. Pretty nice, huh? Well what if I told you that instead of spending all that money on payroll, you could buy this house for each player on the 40-man roster, and have enough leftover to get a house like this for Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi, Hal Steinbrenner, Hank Steinbrenner, Randy Levine and of course one for me.
You could buy the Hennessey Venom GT, the fastest car in the World, for every citizen of Herrings, NY... a village located about an hour and a half north of Syracuse.
Yankee Stadium isn't known for its cheap concession stand prices, Well, did you know that you could buy a steak sandwich, pretzel, and a Miller Lite (in a souvenir cup) for every person that went to a game at Yankee Stadium last year... TWICE!
How about instead of paying the Yankees team payroll, you instead got season tickets in the Field MVP level for you and 14,000 of your closest friends?
NOTE: There may not be enough Field MVP level seats in Yankee Stadium, so some of your friends may have to settle for Field Level tickets. Sorry.
The Diamond Vision screen at Yankee Stadium measures 103 feet wide by 58 feet tall, and has the capability of showing up to four different images at once... all in high definition thanks to over 8 million embedded LED lights. Suffice to say, it's a little bigger than the television you watch Yankee games on every season. But what if I told you that, for the price of the team's payroll, you can have one of these bad boys in every room in your house. Assuming you're house has 33 rooms.
Okay, look... I understand Yankees fans being upset that the team didn't spend more this winter to get better. I also understand the incredible amount of savings the team could receive if they were to get under the Luxury Tax threshold for just one season (that number is not just a few million, but nearly $50 million).
But you absolutely, positively, can not tell me that the Yankees are cheap. If you insist on saying it anyway, then why don't you say it to these guys...?
The Milwaukee Brewers currently have the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball,
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)