I suppose that there has been no greater "villain" to the small market clubs in baseball than George Steinbrenner. He passed today at 80, a symbol of executive success extraordinaire, turning a 10 million dollar investment back in 1972 into a multibillion dollar sports empire.
Small market teams have long argued that he drove up salaries, bought up the best players and developed a monopoly with his New York Yankees franchise, funded in large part by his regional sports cable network.
They could be justified in saying that but I actually thing just the opposite is true. Because he spent money like he did, the structure of baseball levied luxury taxes on the Yankees as well as revenue sharing. That money went to the small market teams screaming the loudest. What did they do with it? Build up their minor league systems and develop their own superstars.
While many of those players leave after three years they are replaced by younger better players all the time. And now that Latin American and Asian are now streaming into the leagues the talent has never been better.
Thank you Mr. Steinbrenner.
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