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Yankees must return to days of spending sprees

Wallace Matthews

September 3, 2008

The whole thing was laughable to begin with, the idea that by passing up the chance to trade for Johan Santana, the Yankees - the $209-million, A-Rod for 10 more years at $27.5M-per-year Yankees - were somehow embarking on a new era of fiscal responsibility and building from within.

Now, with 24 games to go and October baseball looking as remote as a Gold Glove for Jason Giambi, the Yankees philosophy turns out to have been worse than just laughable. It turns out to have been wrong. And stupid. And for this year, probably fatal.

So now it is time for the Yankees to own up to their fundamental mistake for 2008 - a mistake not so much of personnel but of philosophy - and go back to what they have always done better than any other franchise in the history of sports: Spend, spend, spend. And when they're done spending, spend some more.

Just who did these Yankees think they were, anyway? The Tampa Bay Rays? And what exactly were they trying to become? When exactly did equal opportunity and fair play for all become elements of the Yankees' motto?

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Even if they somehow rally to sneak into the playoffs as a wild card, that is not the way it's supposed to be around here. The New York Yankees do not creep into October on little cat's feet. They charge in, steamrolling piddling little teams like the Angels and White Sox and Rays. Always, they were teams to be pitied, not feared.

Now, it is the Yankees who are pitiable. This is a condition that cannot be tolerated much longer. Enough of being good losers. It's time to return to being bad winners.

That means blustering down the aisle of the free-agent superstore this winter, checkbook burning a hole in their hands, and plucking off everything of value they can find - CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, perhaps Ben Sheets, maybe even A.J. Burnett, if he opts out of his deal with Toronto.

Enough of this waiting around for the likes of Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Melky Cabrera and Robby Cano to develop and mature. Say thanks and farewell not only to Giambi, but to Mike Mussina and maybe Andy Pettitte, too.

Don't rebuild. Replace, with newer, more expensive, better. The best. According to the team Web site, a night at the new Yankee Stadium is intended to be "an exclusive experience for those with discerning taste who seek the very best that life has to offer."

Right now, that means sitting in a padded recliner, eating fine food and staring out at freshly mowed grass. Sorry, but at these prices, that won't be good enough.

Yankee Stadium, new or old, is supposed to be baseball. Winning baseball. Championship baseball. Not this mockery of Yankees baseball that was passed off as the real thing this season.

At up to $2,500 a ticket, you are paying for it, anyway. May as well get what you pay for.

Next year, even operating at 79 percent capacity, ticket and suite sales alone at the new Yankee Stadium will generate $253 million in revenue, which should just about cover next year's payroll.

And since the park will be closer to 99 percent full, you can adjust that figure to upward of $300 million. That, of course, does not include concessions, parking, merchandising, their $10-million radio rights fee or the untold millions the Yankees pull in through the YES Network. So there is no excuse for anything less than an obscene, offensive, utterly appalling - and ultimately rewarding - spending spree before the start of the 2009 season.

Whether the blame falls on Brian Cashman or the good cop/bad cop tag team of Hank and Hal Steinbrenner, the Era of Fiscal Restraint has been a dismal failure.

To be successful again, the Yankees must be what they really are - the rich bully boys of the league. For decades, it was a foolproof method of success.

For an organization so in touch with its place in history and the hierarchy of all-time American sports franchises, the 2008 Yankees forgot who they were and why. Without the iron fist of The Boss to guide them, the Yankees dangerously lost their way.

In his absence, the Baby Bosses behaved as if they were ashamed of what their father had built, and especially, how he built it.

So instead of upholding Yankee tradition and sparing no expense to get what they want, they sheepishly, and foolishly, spent $209 million to come away with nothing.

Now you tell me, which of those outcomes is the more shameful?