Buying a championship?

There has been a lot of talk about how the Yankees are bad for baseball and owners want salary caps. Would there be this talk if the poverty-stricken Angels or Red Sox signed Mark Teixeira? Of course not. There's a double standard here. The Yankees are breaking no rules, and as they've proven year after year, money doesn't always solve everything. That's why they play the games. Having the highest payroll in the sport hasn't brought them the elusive 27th World Series championship.

Let's look at the 2007 Red Sox with their 25-man roster opening day payroll of $143,026,214 (according to Cot's Baseball Contracts).

Here are some of the players they acquired:

Jason Varitek
Mike Lowell
Julio Lugo
Manny Ramirez
Coco Crisp
J.D. Drew
David Ortiz
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Tim Wakefield
Josh Beckett
Curt Schilling
Julian Tavarez
Hideki Okajima
Mike Timlin

This is the game today, and you have to spend money to compete. The Yankees are paying the luxury tax levied on them and are sharing its revenue. It shouldn't be the Yankees' fault that the Pirates are pocketing the money they get.

If a team is so mad about the Yankees spending money, they should listen to Giuseppe Franco and "do somethin' about it." Complaining and whining isn't going to get anything done.

Yankees hit with $26.9 million luxury tax bill

The Commissioner's office announced today that the Yankees will have to pay $26.9 million for exceeding the luxury tax threshold. A bad season just got worse.

The Tigers, the only other team that had to pay, only had to put forth $1.3 million.

On a happier note, today is Festivus! My second annual Festivus post will be up at 10 a.m. ET. In the meantime, check out what I did for Festivus last year.

A fun time will be had by all. I can promise you this year's post will be 10 times better than last year's, and I thought last year's was pretty good. That's good news for you.

Yankees owe almost $24 million in luxury tax

From Ronald Blum:

The Yankees were hit with a tax bill of $23.88 million by Major League Baseball in a notice sent to teams late Friday, pushing them over the $100 million mark since the penalty for profligate spending was introduced in 2003.

The only other club that must pay the competitive-balance tax, as it is formally known, is the World Series champion Boston Red Sox, who owe $6.06 million.

Checks are due at the commissioner's office by Jan. 31. (Yahoo! News)

The Yankees owed $26 million after last season and almost $34 million after 2005. Since the luxury tax was put in place in 2003, the Yankees have paid over $121 million without winning a World Championship.

The tax threshold increases to $155 million next season. Even still, the Yankees will probably end up paying for a sixth-straight season. Hopefully the outcome is different on the field, however.