Blame your owner, not theirs

Why do people blame the Yankees when their small-market owner is cheap? I hear this a lot, especially as Spring training is getting underway and everyone's making predictions for the season. If you listen to some people, you'd think teams with lower payrolls are barred from winning anything, and the Yankees and Red Sox are guaranteed a World Series every year.

The Yankees have had baseball's No. 1 payroll for the last 10 seasons. All that money got them 1 title.
In that same time period, the Marlins have just as many rings. They won it all  in 2003 with a payroll of $48 million, good enough for 25th in the league.

In the last 10 years, the average payroll of the World Series winner is 10th in league, barely in the top third of payrolls.

How about the Mets? They had the National League's highest payroll every year from 2003-2009, only to miss the playoffs all but one of those years. And when they did make the post-season, they lost in the 2006 NLCS.

Just last season, the Texas Rangers won the AL with a payroll of only $55 million, 27th in baseball.
They did that with smart decisions by this guy,

 good defense and great pitching.




So it can be done. And for small-market fans are upset with their team's payroll while watching the Yankees and Red Sox pick up whoever they want, don't blame guys like the Steinbrenners.

What's wrong with spending your own money to make your team better? Nothing but bitterness from fans with cheap owners like David Glass of the Royals or Bob Nutting of the Pirates.


So don't blame the Yankees for spending their own money in an attempt to get better. Blame the owners who take fans' money and hoard it while filling their roster with AAA-caliber players.

They all have plenty of money. It's not the Yankees or Red Sox's fault they actually spend it.