The build-up is massive. The day a blur. The come-down sometimes painful, sometimes a relief. This statement can apply to the holiday season, the Super Bowl, or opening day for the Cowboys, the Yankees or any other team that is a very expensive house of cards.

The Yankees are this month’s punching bag having spent an obscene amount on CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. Yankee fans are walking around like lottery winners, Red Sox fans are still sobbing under their beds, and CC, A.J. and Mark are rubbing lotion on the callouses they now have from counting all their coin.

Has the team ruined baseball by going on a spending spree while other teams brace for the consumer pullback that is sure to hit sports? Nah. One team cannot a sport ruin, but they sure will open themselves up for the crucifiction of the century if they can’t get their super stars (Jeter, Rodriguez incl.) to play as a team. In the end, it won’t be all about the cash the team spent. It will come down to whether or not a young manager, an opinionated boss and a group of grossly overpaid Type A personalities can work together for the duration of a 162 game season, bringing home the championship trophy for the 2009 season.

It’s not the story Disney movies are made of: high profile and wealthy team rips off taxpayers to build stadium they supposedly can’t afford, signs all the hottest free agents for crazy amounts of cash, and then goes on to win it all. Which is why the most boring of all outcomes for MLB’s 2009 season would be a Yankees championship. We’ll go one step further saying that it is also the most implausible outcome, even though they have already been named the favorites to be the last team standing. Why implausible? Because life just doesn’t work that way.

Just ask Jerry Jones. The Dallas Cowboys were anointed the favorites to take home the Vince Lombardi trophy for the NFL 2008 season. However, their best performance might have been in the reality show Hard Knocks. They have crumbled under the weight of too-high expectations and too few aligned team goals, leaving a sea of angry and befuddled fans in their wake.

But hey! At least they have a shiny new stadium to desecrate next year, what with Wade Phillip’s job so super safe, according to puppet master Jerry Jones.

Structures built to withstand a beating start with a solid foundation, with each and every piece working together to support the flashy finishings that make it visually appealing. Too much flash and the foundation crumbles from neglect, no flash and it’s just a storage shelter.

It’s time to get back to terra firma so we can all hang on for the wild ride that is life in today’s crazy times. The economy will alter the way we perceive our beloved sports. Guaranteed. We will gravitate not to the flash but to the substance. Our hearts will be captured by those who excel with less, give back more, and are gracious with every victory. We will not be able to root for that which reminds us of the excess of times that have thankfully passed.

The sports story of 2009 will be about the team that did more with less, just as it will be for each and every one of us. No longer will we be satisfied with a gaudy purchase, but with a simple change like using recycled paper towels. Somehow that feels so good right now.

And the Yankees spending spree? Haven’t they learned the Law of Diminishing Returns where each additional unit of variable input (super expensive free agent signing) yields less and less output (wins)?

Don’t forget to vote for the 2009 Fannies Awards! Time’s a tickin’!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.