October proves that Money Can't Buy Championships

I'm here in the office trying to test out Google Docs and see how it stacks up. I am fairly intrigued by this concept of being able to have the basic Microsoft Office functionality online and for free. The additional features are also peachy. ^_^

So, what can we talk about for now? Oh yeah, here's something that we can discuss about: The New York Yankees falling flat again, even after having the biggest payroll in all of baseball and they can't get past the American League Division Series. After the brilliant run, coming out of a 19-29 start to capture the Wild Card race and almost overtaking the Boston Red Sox for the AL East pennant, they fell with hardly a whimper to the superior pitching of the Cleveland Indians. Some things hardly changed in the series: the questions whether Roger Clemens can pitch in his condition were not as unfounded as many thought them to be: he only lasted for 2 2-3 innings. A-Rod sputtered through the first two games, and managed only 1 RBI total for the whole series. The feared Yankee bats fell silent.

People can point out that Joe Torre shouldn't have brought back Chien Ming Wang after his atrocious Game 1 start. I personally thought it was a bad move for Torre to start Wang again after his Game 1 outing and 3 days rest. It was similar to what the Cleveland Indians did in the 1997 World Series, sending out Orel Hershiser twice and the Florida Marlins feasted en route to their World Series win. But then again, we're talking about the Yankees' manager for over the past decade, and someone who brought four World Series titles in his first five years.

The Yankees organization isn't the only team who spent tons of money to produce results. The Chicago Cubs, with its history of futility, spent $300 million dollars on free agents and a new manager in Lou Piniella. They improved surely, they made it to the playoffs since the Sammy Sosa era, but promptly got eliminated after a 3-0 sweep. The New York Mets, the third highest in terms of payroll, collapsed late in the season and failed to qualify. Teams that qualified for this year are small market.

This is not to say that having loads of money to spend on top free agents would not help in building a contender. You need to have the budget to sign in the key pieces for your team. Players aren't coming in cheap these days as well, especially marquee names and pitchers. With a 162-game schedule, it also helps to have a stockpile of reliable players. It surely helps, and in the case of the Boston Red Sox, the no. 2 team in terms of expenses, it kept the team afloat during the course of the season.

Critics are saying that small market teams aren't being given a fair shake since the bigger market teams are hogging all the big time players. But as another October has proven, money just can't buy the championships.