If you're not big market you're small market

I told Eric I'd fill in and write something while he was gone this past weekend. But I suck and couldn't come up with anything coherent when I tried. Now I have an hour and a half gap between tutoring sessions because someone is sick, so I will fill some of that time with baseball rambling.

First, your WBC update. Japan won a 10 inning thriller against Korea. I watched none of this game, but it did seem like a good game when I watched the highlights. It featured a close, low scoring game with Korea tying things up in the bottom of the ninth and then Ichiro hitting a two-run go-ahead hit with 2 outs in the top of the tenth. From what I read the crowd and players were into the game. So it seems the WBC is a great idea for every country except ours.

Now, this blog is going to have a distinct bias against teams like the Yankees. This is because everyone hates the Yankees if they don't like the Yankees. And Eric, being a native Ohioianese person, does not like the Yankees. But the truth is all these people are just jealous. They make arguments like the Yankees' massive payroll destroys competitive balance and creates insane prices for free agents. But look at the teams that have played in the World Series for the last ten years and you'll see teams from all markets and all different size payrolls.

What really bothers people is that the Yankees are always in the mix. They don't have rebuilding years. I never sit through a year or two where my team sucks after being good, like the Indians. Or a decade or two like the Reds. But you know what? That's because the owner isn't a cheap bastard like some of these owners. The Yankees are consistently at or near the top in percentage of revenue put back into payroll. For example, in 2007 the Yankees put 58% of revenue back into payroll. This was the most of any team. The Indians were 24th at 34%. Add to this that baseball has revenue sharing. So really the Yankees are putting some of their revenue into your team too. Or maybe just into your owner's pocket because he's a cheap bastard. The point is, stop crying. You should be happy I get to watch a team that is competitive every year. Also, we have Jeter.