Major League Baseball finally did it: It has destroyed the once dominant franchise known as the New York Yankees

Congratulations, MLB. You won. 

For 50 years, you envied the NFL on key element: 

Pro football had no Yankees. 

If only you could destroy the one franchise that dominated all others, make all the teams equal, then you could maximize profits. Your plan was so tight, so clean, so perfect: Apply Ayn Rand capitalism to the revenue side, and assign the expenses to socialism. No limits to taking in money... just cap your expenditures! Damn. It's brilliant! You never called it collusion. You never even called it a payroll cap. You just pulled it off!  

In American politics, there is no limit to how much money a billionaire can spend to buy a candidate. But in baseball, there is a distinct limit on how much he can spend to buy a player.  BRILLIANT! YOU DID IT!

Of course, you had to wait until that last old bugger, George Steinbrenner, died, and his sons took over. The first one, Hank, landed too close to the tree. Fortunately, he liked horses more than baseball. You ditched him and groomed Hal, the "business-minded" one. And Hal agreed that towing the line on spending is more important than maintaining a winning Yankee tradition. Because - well - he's "business-minded." 

Moreover, you managed to create a new subset of Yankee fan: He roots not just for the Yankees to win, but for the owner to be fiscally prudent. Keep in mind, the owner is a billionaire. Also keep in mind, this is Yankee fandom, a fantasy world that was once the last escape from things like utility bills and mortgage payments. When you watch a movie, are you supposed to square it with how much they spend to produce it? Growing up, I never gave a damn how much Mickey Mantle got paid. I just loved him. Now, though, I'd have to suck in my gut and watch him fly to Los Angeles, because - hey - the Yankees wouldn't want to get stuck holding the bag on his contract, not with those knees!

Speaking of contracts, hasn't Alex Rodriguez been worth every penny to Hal? Last year, he saved Hal $240 million on Robbie Cano. This week, he saved him $60 million on Yoan Moncada. All Hal needs to do is point to A-Rod and say, "I can't afford anybody else, all because of HIM."

In fact, it's perfect: Today, the sportswriters are covering A-Rod's farts, rather than the Yankees' punt on Moncada. A-Rod is God's gift to Hal Steinbrenner.

Today, across the Yankiverse, we've come to behold the new mindset: The fan who says, in essence, "Yoan Moncada might be great, but the Yankees would overpay. Boston is paying too much, ha ha!" 

On the River Ave site - which is owned by YES - this strain - I'm calling it the "KC Yankees fan," in honor of that loyal, fiscally prudent Midwestern tribe - the pro-Hal fans are arguing on behalf of this penny-pinching billionaire. (I should note that 98 out of 100 fans are enraged by what's happened, though.) 

Writes "CashJr."

if he does great then he's worth it, but would he be a bargain? I'm not sure being "worth it" is the same as being a "bargain." And it seems to me, that if you take on the huge risk of the huge up-front bonus, then if all goes well you should have a "bargain", not just someone who's "worth it." Perhaps my thinking is wrong and the $100M makes him a "bargain" but I doubt it. It's totally a financial decision, but I'm ok with a financial decision if they believe the reward just isn't worth the risk.

While you're chewing on that, here's something from "BigDan"

 think you have to start to wonder now how much money the Yanks really have to spend on baseball. I always thought George ran the team at a loss and made up for it in franchise value. I don't think Hal can do that. He may have demands on the Yankee income stream that we know nothing about.

Obviously, as fans, we should respect all the hard work that goes into owning the Yankees, right?

Since when should we, as fans, care whether the Yankee owner makes money? The Steinbrenners have more money than we can count. They have more money than they can count. If finances get low, they shake a can, and they bleed the taxpayers. Why are we even having a discussion over whether the Yankees can afford to pay $27 million for Yoan Moncada... but they couldn't go to $30 million? 

The Redsocks owner wants to win more than the Yankee owner. It's that simple. And sadly to say, he is also smarter than the Yankee owner.

It's over, folks. The swagger, the sense of hope, the feeling that the Yankees are the best pro sports franchise in America... that feeling we grew up with... it died today.

We were outbid by our rivals, because the mighty Yankees preferred to keep the change. 

Well... cheer up. Here is how the Yankees will rise again: 

They must come in dead last. That way, they can draft high. The sooner the better. They will probably have to finish at the bottom for several years. We will be good for a couple years, and then we'll go back to being bad... so that we can get good again.

Excited? I have only two words left, and I am going to be shouting them for as long as it takes. 

REGIME CHANGE. REGIME CHANGE.
REGIME CHANGE. REGIME CHANGE.
REGIME CHANGE. REGIME CHANGE.
REGIME CHANGE. REGIME CHANGE.