Just imagine a team that played a professional sport where money was no object. Imagine a sport where there was not even a hint of an attempt to make teams comparable to one another in the amount of money they could spend to acquire and keep talented professional players.
Imagine a single team that could far outspend all other teams — spending 6, 7, or even 8 times what other teams in the same sport spent on the salaries of their players.
Imagine a team that in 2009 paid it’s top 4 players more than the total salaries of all active players on 18 of the current 30 teams in that sport. That’s right — four players on this single team earned more than the total salaries paid to all the active players on 18 other teams. (Keep in mind that most teams have a 40 player roster.) And if you look at the highest salaries of 7 of the players on this same team, the total would be more than the entire salaries paid to each of the remaining 29 teams in the league.
Imagine a team filled with the highest paid players — the best talent that money can buy. Do you think that such a team would have an advantage over other teams that could spend far, far less on salaries?
Imagine no longer. For that team is the New York Yankees.
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