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Originally Posted by MikeSty
Uhhh, look who Johnny Damon is replacing? I do believe Bernie Williams has spent his entire career with the Yankees. How about that dashing fellow playing SS?
I do understand your view, but you must also understand you are seeing things from a point of limited omniscion. You don't know every factor that lead to Johnny Damon's decision. You could assume that the primary factor was money, but you simply are not Johnny Damon and can't come to the conclusion you have.
Perhaps this is the second coming of "the curse" ... the Curse of Jonny Damon!!!
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Bernie in F/A was very close to signing with Boston if I am not mistaken until NY came in with a final offer.
NY can afford to keep Jeter. Atl. can afford to keep Chipper and Smoltz.
I used small market team players for a reason (granted STL isn't small market anymore but they were not big spenders).
I just think MLB truly has stopped caring about the fan base. It's hard to care about a team when you know that by the time the rookies have the experience to compete they'll be gone to where the money is.
Unless owners find a way to get a cap or get teams to have comparable salaries, you're going to see a lot more Fla., Montreal type moves.
New stadiums aren't a guarantee that fans will come for long periods.
The system needs changed, MLB needs to be able to market the rivalries and teams need to know that they'll have a chance to keep that all star team they developed from rookies.
It's like the Twins, the Indians, the Reds, Oakland, etc. they develop great players but by the time those players reach their prime they're gone to more money and those teams that raised those players and invested in them.
The Twins look at how they were able to compete but started losing everyone to F/A because they couldn't afford the players. The A's the pitching they raised that they had to trade or watch go (not to mention Tejeda and Giambi and McGwire), the Indians who had to watch Belle, Manny, Thome leave. The Reds will see it with Dunn, Lopez, Pena.... As will Texas with Texiera, Blalock, Young
You can't keep tearing the heart out of small market fans to keep feeding the few large markets........
And then these small market stars get attitudes of "fuck the fans" this is F/A year and I'm gone, and they sit and bitch and demand trades or cry about how they're gone.
Meanwhile teams like Boston, NY, Chicago Cubs to some degree don't have to put a penny into their farm systems because they just go out and buy whoever they need. (And farm systems cost money.)
Meanwhile, you see teams trying to generate interest like Texas did, Philly did, and they can't compete because they put all their money on 1 player just to get fans in the seats, because they were going bankrupt.
I just think what MLB does to their fans and to teams that try to field winners while making some kind of a profit is BS. They are screwing the fans and soon, the small market teams will start moving, but those are just quick fixes, because there are only so many cities and do you honestly believe cities like Portland will have big spending owners there for long periods of time? Las vegas maybe the last city that can afford a new team.... and even that would hurt Phoenix and Colorado's markets.