In baseball news, the Yankees trail their American League Divisional Series matchup with the Cleveland Indians, 2 games to none. One more Indians victory, and the Yanks are done. Which is kind of amazing, really, given how much money the Yankees have to spend: In the 13 consecutive years that the Yankees have played postseason games, 1995 through 2007, they have spent just short of $1.6 billion on their payrolls — $1,589,672,681 to be more precise.
This figure is not readily available, like batting averages and earned run averages. But it was compiled from data obtained from various baseball offices. It’s a real number. It’s a mind-boggling number. The man [George Steinbrenner] spends between $1 billion and $2 billion, and he expects to get the return he wants. You spend $50,000 a year for college tuition, you expect your child to get a degree.
All right, the Yankees gave Steinbrenner four World Series championships in a five-year stretch, but what have they done for him lately? Right now they are down by two games to none to a team with a payroll not quite one-third of theirs. A team from his hometown yet.
