Johnny Damon?
I dealt with it when the Yankees signed Wade Boggs. I grew up loathing everything about that guy. I endured the tenure of Roger Clemens. As great a pitching legend as he truly is, the guy was enemy numero uno for my entire childhood. It was really insulting last season when the team brought in Alan Embree and Mark Bellhorn, players that helped the Red Sox famous comeback in 2004.
But JOHNNY DAMON? This does not sit well for me as a diehard Yankee fan.
OK, this is not just anti-Red Sox slander. I never liked Gary Sheffield or Randy Johnson because they played for the top teams we were supposed to beat. Cheering for them instead of against them seems disingenuous. People accuse the Yankees front office of simply buying the best competitors, rather than building the best team, and I find some truth in that accusation. I recalled Jose Canseco's brief stint where his shining moment was to deliver the lineup card to the umpire. Excessive revenues allowing the Yankees to make defensive expenditures.
Yet the guys that became professional MLB players as Yankees are gone. I miss them; Andy Pettitte, Alfonso Soriano, Nick Johnson, Ted Lilly, and so on. It's hard to be happy about the budding career of Robinson Cano if he could find his name on that list as well. I remember as a kid the list was longer and without star free agents in return; Jay Buhner, Doug Drabek, Fred McGriff out, Steve Balboni, Claudell Washington, Pasqual Perez in. Those were painful years of King George at his worst. His short-term banishment from baseball operations coincided with the establishment of all the pieces that made the late-1990s Yankees dynasty. For all his desire, he stretches too far and goes above and beyond. That drives him to find ways to maintain such an absurd payroll. He rewards the city and his fans when the team wins by buying more talent. As askew as his evaluation of talent may be, the guy certainly does his best to get a winning team on the field, of that there can be no argument.
This all happens to coincide with the tenure of a period with a complete mockery of the entire office of the baseball commissioner. An owner made commissioner? No wonder scandalous things occur! It is worth noting his actions are not to prevent the Yankees from making huge investments in the least. His solution was to have the Yankees payoff the other franchises with the luxury tax. This does not curb spending, rather it makes the entire league employees of the Yankees franchise. At this point, other teams have to honestly celebrate further investments made by the Yankees as they will directly financially benefit from them. Absurd. There is no control and the systems in place are to blame for reinforcing the situation.
So again, I find fault with the vacated MLB Office of Commissioner for not preventing teams like the Marlins from literally selling off their top players for nothing, for not preventing teams like the Yankees from spending without limit, and for pretending to exist instead of folding up in admission of the puppetry it serves to the interests of the owners in MLB. It is hard to find fault with the baseball front office that plays within the rules and conditions established by MLB for "fair play" and who does its best to assemble the most talented combination of players it possibly can. I understand their business motivations for most these decisions, that is precisely their job. Precisely the reason why the sport requires controls as it is legally excluded from all labor laws as a game instead of a business. It is frightening that Congress had to get involved in the steroids/THG/BALCO conundrum and telling that even then the politicians only threatened to revoke the legal status afforded to baseball instead of casting it back into the real world. It is not a bad thing to allow baseball to operate somewhat outside the parameters of most business law, i.e. preventing independent leagues from suing for the right to compete, but that neccesitates internal controls. There truly are none. No trades are revoked. No transaction can be too imbalanced. Players are literally sold.
Yes, I think of all this because of that long haired fast man. I cannot believe I have to wish him well when he plays now. With A-Rod hitting, Giambi somewhere in the mix, Sheffield limping around, and Randy Johnson pitching. You know what the Yankees call the 162 games? Pre-season.
But JOHNNY DAMON? This does not sit well for me as a diehard Yankee fan.
OK, this is not just anti-Red Sox slander. I never liked Gary Sheffield or Randy Johnson because they played for the top teams we were supposed to beat. Cheering for them instead of against them seems disingenuous. People accuse the Yankees front office of simply buying the best competitors, rather than building the best team, and I find some truth in that accusation. I recalled Jose Canseco's brief stint where his shining moment was to deliver the lineup card to the umpire. Excessive revenues allowing the Yankees to make defensive expenditures.
Yet the guys that became professional MLB players as Yankees are gone. I miss them; Andy Pettitte, Alfonso Soriano, Nick Johnson, Ted Lilly, and so on. It's hard to be happy about the budding career of Robinson Cano if he could find his name on that list as well. I remember as a kid the list was longer and without star free agents in return; Jay Buhner, Doug Drabek, Fred McGriff out, Steve Balboni, Claudell Washington, Pasqual Perez in. Those were painful years of King George at his worst. His short-term banishment from baseball operations coincided with the establishment of all the pieces that made the late-1990s Yankees dynasty. For all his desire, he stretches too far and goes above and beyond. That drives him to find ways to maintain such an absurd payroll. He rewards the city and his fans when the team wins by buying more talent. As askew as his evaluation of talent may be, the guy certainly does his best to get a winning team on the field, of that there can be no argument.
This all happens to coincide with the tenure of a period with a complete mockery of the entire office of the baseball commissioner. An owner made commissioner? No wonder scandalous things occur! It is worth noting his actions are not to prevent the Yankees from making huge investments in the least. His solution was to have the Yankees payoff the other franchises with the luxury tax. This does not curb spending, rather it makes the entire league employees of the Yankees franchise. At this point, other teams have to honestly celebrate further investments made by the Yankees as they will directly financially benefit from them. Absurd. There is no control and the systems in place are to blame for reinforcing the situation.
So again, I find fault with the vacated MLB Office of Commissioner for not preventing teams like the Marlins from literally selling off their top players for nothing, for not preventing teams like the Yankees from spending without limit, and for pretending to exist instead of folding up in admission of the puppetry it serves to the interests of the owners in MLB. It is hard to find fault with the baseball front office that plays within the rules and conditions established by MLB for "fair play" and who does its best to assemble the most talented combination of players it possibly can. I understand their business motivations for most these decisions, that is precisely their job. Precisely the reason why the sport requires controls as it is legally excluded from all labor laws as a game instead of a business. It is frightening that Congress had to get involved in the steroids/THG/BALCO conundrum and telling that even then the politicians only threatened to revoke the legal status afforded to baseball instead of casting it back into the real world. It is not a bad thing to allow baseball to operate somewhat outside the parameters of most business law, i.e. preventing independent leagues from suing for the right to compete, but that neccesitates internal controls. There truly are none. No trades are revoked. No transaction can be too imbalanced. Players are literally sold.
Yes, I think of all this because of that long haired fast man. I cannot believe I have to wish him well when he plays now. With A-Rod hitting, Giambi somewhere in the mix, Sheffield limping around, and Randy Johnson pitching. You know what the Yankees call the 162 games? Pre-season.
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