Bloomberg and Yankees buy victories
Posted on 06. Nov, 2009 by Jonathan Balthaser in Barbara Raab, Beats, Classes, General
New York, New York. If you can buy it here, you can buy it anywhere. Rarely has the brute power of money been so apparent than in the recent World Series win by the Yankees and in the mayoral election in NYC this past week. These two contests prove once again that while money may not buy happiness, it can certainly buy success.
Life’s not fair, but sports should strive to be, and MLB needs to impose a salary cap to even the playing field, which has worked extremely well in the NFL. As the sugar daddies with the fattest wallets, the Yankees basically get to cherry pick the best players in the world to come play for them and each year assemble an all-star cast, er, excuse me, team. How did they stack up to their World Series opponents, the Philadelphia Phillies? They outspent them by over $88 million. How can teams like the Florida Marlins expect to win when the Yankees outspend them by more than 5 times over?
The night before the the Bronx Bombers claimed their 27th World Series victory, Mike Bloomberg claimed a third election night victory over Bill Thompson. Bloomberg spent about $100 million out of pocket, the most ever spent by a political candidate in U.S. history. It’s fairly embarrassing that Bloomberg won the election by such a slim margin after spending thirteen times the amount of money Thompson did.
Politics and sports have always revolved around money, but don’t these victories seem to ring hollow, given the financial advantages the Yankees and Bloomberg had? Are there solutions to leveling the playing field, and should it be evened?
