By Jake McCormick
Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio has never been afraid to share his opinion of the lack of a salary cap in baseball. Likewise, the New York Yankees are not exactly an indifferent organization when it comes to expressing their views. Combined, it makes Yankee president Randy Levine’s reaction to Attanasio’s recent statements to USA Today not very surprising. The Yankees are baseball’s Wal-Mart mixed with Roundy’s, as they dictate market value each offseason by paying top dollar for any quality free agent they please. Blank checks are a New York specialty, and that’s a primary reason why Levine played the often-seen “Yankee arrogance” card by telling Attanasio to stop whining about baseball’s spending disparity.
Levine also advised the Brewers to spend those “hundreds of dollars” they’ve received from the Yankees from revenue sharing over the past few years to sign players like Prince Fielder instead of pocketing the money. Clearly he’s under the influence of baseball’s version of the Potomac Fever in New York.
Levine could have simply pointed out that despite the lack of a salary cap, the MLB has a proven track record of playoff and World Series parity over the past 10 years, and revenue sharing has been a big part of giving teams like the Brewers the chance to be competitive. Instead, he went the way of the arrogant and rich in classic Yankee fashion. George should be proud.
Levine views this issue in black and white mostly because his organization will never have to face the financial concerns that come with limited resources. Yes, your tax dollars go towards helping teams less fortunate than you, but just because a small percentage of those teams inevitably misuses those funds doesn’t mean everyone is pocketing money instead of putting it towards improving the product on the field.
Much like America’s current social structure, the poorest of the poor (in this case the Marlins and Pirates) have a higher tendency to take advantage of the welfare system by claiming loss while turning in profits. In reality, mid-market teams like the Brewers and Twins have shown they’re more than willing to commit more money each year to the rising costs of success.
The last official release of revenue sharing numbers was in 2005, and using those totals can help determine a rough estimate of how much money the Yankees actually give to the Brewers. Unless you’re part of the MLB or one of its 30 teams, you don’t have access to the actual numbers, so keep in mind that these should only be taken as rough estimates based on percentages.
New York doled out $77 million spread out over 17 clubs in 2005. That total constituted around 37% of their total payroll that year. The Yankees actually had a lower total salary cost in 2009 than in 2005 ($208 M to $201 M), so their estimated pay in to revenue sharing falls somewhere around the $74 million range last year.
In contrast, Milwaukee had a very modest payroll of $39.9 million and took in $24 million from revenue sharing in 2005. The Brewers doubled their expenditures in that area to $80 million in 2009, and potentially took in around $48 million from the revenue pool.
Doing a little extra math to distribute that $74 million in pinstripe money around the league, the Yankees only contributed around $5 million to the Brewers’ total share of league revenue in 2009. That’s not even half of what Prince Fielder will make in 2010, and it just shows how out of touch Levine is with the common team.
The bottom line is that the privileged executives don’t like being told the truth about their ignorance towards less fortunate teams and disregard for fiscal responsibility. The Yankees fear that the more someone points out that there are still problems with the system they dominate, the more people will realize the financial disparity between the top and bottom of the MLB payrolls.