Money Can't Buy You Love

And so the vaunted Yankee$, with their $194 million payroll, their juggernaut lineup of current and former All-Stars -- Giambi, Sheffield, Jeter, Rodriguez, Posada, and Matsui -- and their deep pockets owner Georgie "Money Is No Object" Steinbrennaaahh, learn, yet again, that money can't buy you love in the wonderful world of baseball. And so did all the "expert" pundits, who virtually awarded the Yankee$ the World Series before a single game of playoff baseball had been played.

For shame, for shame, for shame, ALL of you!

I hope the Yankee$ keep making the same mistake, year after year, and that they continue to strip their farm system bare in exchange for overpriced players long past their prime (i.e. Randy Johnson). Yes, the strategy worked pretty well in the late 1990s, when you bought the best free agents available, but back then you were smart and bought the best PITCHERS available. That approach can actually work if no one gets injured. But lately, you've been going for broke with bloated, empty calorie hitters with marginal defensive capability like Giambi, Sheffield, and Rodriguez. That strategy will never work.

Yankee fans have now been eating crow for six years, and they no longer walk around with the same cocky, arrogant sense of entitlement they used to have. In fact, a lot of the time they look as nervous and scared as Red Sox fans. Funny how things change.

Let the record reflect that the Yankee$ 2006 season lasted approximately one week longer than that of the Red Sox, and both teams will be watching the World Series this year from the sidelines.

Congratulations, Detroit! You took care of business, and I hope you go all the way. Your young pitchers are exciting to watch, and I love your manager, Jim Leyland (Boston tried to hire him out of retirement years ago, but he wisely demurred). I also get pumped watching a World Series-starved city lose it when their team wins. Hopefully you will get it done. Just ixnay on the riotsay this time, k?