Surprise! (not) The Yankees Are Spending Again

The New York Yankees just can't help themselves, can they?

Sheesh. Miss the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, and see what happens?

The Yankees are spending money again. Big time. They're handing out triple-digit, million dollar contracts like they're growing on trees in the Steinbrenners' backyard.

CC Sabathia. A.J. Burnett. Mark Teixeira. They were even talking about bringing Manny Ramirez into the fold, almost as an afterthought.

The Yankees have been trying to buy the World Series since 2001, and eight straight years of failure in doing so isn't stopping them from trying it again.

Do you know that Alex Rodriguez has never played on a World Champion team? Neither has Hideki Matsui. Or Jason Giambi.

There's a whole host of them, actually, who have fewer World Series rings than the Philadelphia Freaking Phillies, for gosh sakes.

The Yankees owe MLB some $25 million in luxury tax, with payment due on January 31. But yet they pay it as we would pay Luxury Tax in a game of Monopoly.

Forget about Congress; GM and Chrysler should have asked the Yankees for a bailout.

It's like a drug addiction, with these Yankees and spending money. The crosstown, same-stadium-now Mets signed Frankie Rodriguez and JJ Putz, so the Yankees didn't dare stand pat. They saw the Mets and raised them Sabathia and Burnett and, in the biggest blow, Teixeira.


Will Sabathia and his new Yankees teammates be laughing next fall? Odds are they won't

Yet the small-town, small-wallet Tampa Bay Rays won the AL East last season, beating out the big-spending Yankees and Boston Red Sox. And for the record, Rays manager Joe Maddon isn't too fazed by the Yankees' most recent spending spree. Why would he? He beat them last year, after all.

Three things are certain in this world: death, taxes, and the Yankees trying to buy the World Series.

The Yankees were on a roll -- back in 2000. They had just beaten the Mets and captured their third straight world title and fourth in five years. Since then, the money has still been coming out of the spigot like water, but the championships stopped flowing. Mostly, it's been first-round disappointments. Once, it was even the ignominy of blowing a 3-0 lead in the ALCS -- to the Red Sox, no less.

But you think that's going to stop the Yankees? You think eight straight years of payrolls that would make Donald Trump blush, without winning anything of note, is going to make them frugal?

Ha!

The Yankees will keep spending, we'll all keep shaking our heads, and chances are, they'll STILL be one of the 29 teams who don't win the whole enchilada come October (or November). And MLB will keep collecting its luxury tax, ensuring that the petty cash drawer stays filled.

The Tigers tried the Yankees way last year, and they collapsed from the weight of expectation. Now the Tigers go into 2009 as underdogs without many believers. The Yankees have put all the pressure on themselves, once again.

They can have it.