This is why there's Hockey season

It's not so bad that the babies finally have their bottle, but now we’re going to have to hear about it for an entire year


As Willie so gleefully pointed out last night, the New York Steinbrenner's won the World Series last night. Good for them.


Indeed. After years of what can be described as nothing but miserable failure, the Steinbrenner's finally managed to buy the World Series. All it took was to continue using Major League Baseball as their own personal farm system to purchase another first baseman, two starting pitchers, and a new catcher. Not to mention the entire outfield they already bought to match their shiny new third baseman.

I kinda wonder just how sweet a victory it is to be put in a locker room with a bunch of mercenaries and have to pretend that you're actually a team if you happen to win.

No, I'm not whining about the economic disparity between baseball clubs, although it would be nice to see MLB get with the times and accept a salaray cap like every other major sporting league. Now that the Steinbrenners won the World Series again, that may be more likely, of course...but my issue lies more with the very concept of Steinbrenner Ball. (My own term for having none of your own talent, but solving all of your team's woes by throwing more and more money at them) Sure, it's the American Way, but the only thing that it serves to do is further your own interests, and not that of the sport as a whole. It's become a foregone conclusion that if a team develops an elite player, as soon as they're eligible, that player is going to leave to one of 4 maybe 5 teams who will be throwing around more money than anyone else. Why is it such a bad thing to take economics out of the equation and let proper team management, scouting, and training (you know...things actually related to the sport) be the deciding factors on whether or not a team is good?

It's true that Yankee fans are in the elite among obnoxious sports fans (See also: Cowboys, Dallas), and while your favourite team (and seriously...if you have never lived within 100 miles of NYC, you have no excuse for having them be your favourite team) may have won the World Series, it should feel like the emptiest of victories. This is not your team...this is a team cobbled together from the best of everyone else's teams because you could pay more for the pieces. Enjoy your victory...it certainly won't be the last, but do keep in mind that any other outcome would have been nothing short of pure disgrace.