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Yankees' Critic Makes Sense

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By SCOTT SOSHNICK

Bloomberg News

Published: January 17, 2009

Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio once had a love affair with the New York Yankees.

Hard to believe listening to him now, but the kid from the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx was, indeed, partial to pinstripes. He worshipped Mickey Mantle. And he wept when Bob Gibson pitched the St. Louis Cardinals past the Yankees in the 1964 World Series.

Understanding history and context is essential when deciding whether Attanasio is speaking the truth about baseball finance or, as Yankees President Randy Levine would have you believe, spewing sour grapes.

At the rate the Yankees are going, Attanasio, 51, says he isn't sure anyone can compete with them.

Baseball needs a spending limit. Football has one. Hockey has one. And basketball, too, albeit a more flexible and forgiving variation of the others.

Sports are supposed to be me versus you, us versus them - on even footing. If one team has the financial wherewithal to outspend others, giving it the dollars to make free-agent dreams come true, then something's wrong.

The Yankees missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 1993. That's blasphemy in the Bronx, where there's a revenue-generating stadium set to open doors this season.

The Yankees spent their offseason, well, spending. Most teams would be content with a winter that yielded just one marquee arrival. Say, for instance, former Cy Young Award winner CC Sabathia, who got a seven-year, $161 million contract. The Yankees were only warming up. Pitcher A.J. Burnett got $82.5 million for five years.

Attanasio didn't speak up until the Yankees reached agreement with the most coveted position player available: first baseman Mark Teixeira, who landed an eight-year, $180 million contract.

That's almost $424 million for three players. Attanasio paid $220 million for his entire franchise.

At some point it gets to be absurd, Attanasio said. Lets not kid ourselves: There's a correlation between a team's payroll and winning. Except for the 2003 Florida Marlins, every World Series champion over the past decade had a payroll in the top half of the 30 teams.

The Yankees make no apologies for their open-wallet ways. Nor should they. As Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost points out, the Yankees always played by the rules, and were still playing by the rules.

Baseball implemented a luxury-tax system for two reasons. It was a vehicle to spread the wealth from high-revenue clubs like the Yankees to lower-revenue teams like Kansas City and Pittsburgh.

The system also was designed to discourage willy-nilly spending. It hasn't. No executive with the Yankeeswould say their offseason overhaul was complete.

When the rules change, everybody can adjust, Levine said.

Baseball's union, powerful as it is, wouldn't agree to a football-style salary cap, which doesn't allow for wiggle room or exceptions. Baseball can, however, learn from the NBA, where the labor contract includes not only a tax on the highest-spending teams but a maximum player salary and a provision ensuring that a free agent's incumbent team can't be outbid.

Baseball would be better served if teams, players and communities forged longstanding relationships. The Indians traded Sabathia to Milwaukee because they didn't have the money to compete for him on the open market. Fans of the Brewers wasted little time falling in love with the left-hander, who, no surprise, accepted New York's offer, which was about $61 million more than what Attanasio deemed he could afford.

And then the kid from Pelham popped off, saying the team he once supported is no longer good for the game. Sour grapes? Put me down for good sense.

Scott Soshnick is a Bloomberg News columnist.

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