From the WSJ Opinion Archives
LEISURE & ARTS
The 'Evil Empire' Acquires A-Rod
The Yankees finally live up to their reputation.
Through a series of flukes so seemingly contrived they would have been rejected for a baseball movie, Alex Rodriguez, the best player in baseball today, has wound up on baseball's richest and most famous team. If George Steinbrenner's team was what it is often accused of being--a "Yankee" imperialist that spends its way to the World Series--this would have happened years ago.
If the Boston Red Sox hadn't been so brutally aggressive and then blinked when it came to paying Rodriguez about two million more per year; if the Yankees hadn't freed up some cash by messing up their negotiations with ace lefthander Andy Pettitte; if starting Yankee third baseman Aaron Boone hadn't foolishly torn up his knee by playing off-season basketball--if all this hadn't happened, then the Yankees would not now be fielding a team with the best shortstop in modern major league history.
Or perhaps we should say the best third baseman in modern major league history, which is what Rodriguez will soon be. Add one more fluke to the roster: The Boston Red Sox forgot to ask A-Rod if he would play third base.
Though the fact seems to have escaped most of their critics over the past eight years, the Yankees from 1996 through this season have never been free spenders--big spenders, yes, but not free spenders. The core of the recent Yankee dynasty has been home-grown talent: Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte. And, in fact, despite all the talk of the old gang breaking up, Pettitte is the only player in that group who is not still a Yankee.
Two years ago the Yankees lured Jason Giambi from the Oakland A's; Giambi was the first high-profile free-agent slugger the Yankees had acquired in more than two decades, since Dave Winfield in 1981. The Yankees could be accused of numerous sins over that span, but buying a pennant is not one of them. Their payroll has been the highest in the major leagues for several seasons, but only because the front office has used its money wisely, choosing to sign the team's leading stars to long-term contracts.
So now, out of chance and desperation, the Yankees have the deal and the player that by logic they should have had all along. One wonders why the New York-based sports media were so much in favor of sending Rodriguez to the Red Sox only two months ago but are hesitant to accept the obvious fact that A-Rod in pinstripes is a good thing not only for New York and the Yankees, but also for the Texas Rangers and for baseball in general.
The benefit for the Yankees is obvious: They now have the only all-around superstar in baseball under the age of 30.
There are those who caution "A-Rod can't pitch," which is true. But they are forgetting that Babe Ruth could pitch, yet the Yankees chose to use him as an outfielder. The Texas Rangers would have gotten Manny Ramirez if they had pulled off the Rodriguez deal; now they get Alfonso Soriano, who is younger and faster than Ramirez and potentially as good a hitter, and they get him for substantially less money than they would have had to pay Ramirez. (Now they can afford some of that pitching they claimed they couldn't go after because of all the money they had to pay A-Rod.)
How is the deal good for baseball as a whole? First, it has stirred an enormous amount of preseason baseball discussion. (What other sport even has a preseason worth discussing?) Then, as baseball economist Andrew Zimbalist points out in his latest book, "May the Best Team Win--Baseball Economics and Public Policy," "A league that seeks to maximize its revenue will not want each of its teams to have an equal chance to win the championship. Leagues want high television ratings. These are best achieved generally when teams from the largest media markets are playing in the championship series. Other things being the same, MLB would like to see the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Anaheim Angels, the Chicago Cubs, and the Chicago White Sox appear in the World Series more frequently than the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cincinnati Reds, the Kansas City Royals or the San Diego Padres."
In other words, match-ups that produce the highest TV ratings are the Yankees vs. a smaller market, National League underdog. This is what baseball has had in two of last three seasons, with the underdog coming out on top. The recent World Series scenario looks good for 2004, with the Yankees now the favorite in the American League and the National League up for grabs.
Through revenue sharing and the luxury tax, the Yankees will, according to Zimbalist, distribute perhaps $75 million to baseball's so-called have-not teams. Whether or not those owners choose to pocket the money or reinvest in team improvements is their choice.
