Right after the Yankees won the World Series in November, not surprisingly, one of the main comments from non-Yankees fans was “The Yankees bought the World Series!”

As someone who went to school in Pennsylvania, I have quite a few friends who are Phillies fans. I did not know many of these people were Phillies fans while I was attending college (2001-05), but a bunch of them began sporting the “P” hats and Chase Utley T-Shirts around 2007. Now, as someone who became a Cowboys fan in the mid-90s, I believe I have figured out why this might be the case (and before I hear anything, I think the last 15 years have made up for my jumping on that particular bandwagon). I’m not here to judge frontrunners, especially since, when it comes to the NFL, I am one (but again, the Dave Campo years, Quincy Carter, Tony Romo’s dropped snap, last year’s Eagles game, this year’s Vikings game … I may have been better off sticking with my family burden of the Jets. OK, maybe not). There are no rules to fandom.

However, back to my main point, the cries of “The Yankees bought the World Series!” is something that drives me insane, for a variety of reasons. Here are a few:

1) I’m well aware that the Yankees spend $200 million on their payroll, and that it’s a lot more than any other team spends. I’m aware that they signed the three biggest free agents prior to the 2009 season, and that those signings, to go along with all the other highly-paid players they have on the team, is the main reason the Yankees were able to win the World Series. I’m not six years old. I don’t think pride, power and pinstripes were the main ingredients to why the Yankees won it all in 2009. However, the Yankees are not breaking any rules when they go out and spend $200 million on their team every year. Yes, they once again passed the payroll threshold in the collective bargaining agreement this year, but, as far as I know, they also paid the luxury tax.

In the current MLB structure, teams can basically spend as much or as little as they want to field a team (although the Marlins just got some grief for their low payroll). In the Yankees’ case, they spend an ungodly amount, since their goal every year is to win the World Series. In the case of, say, the Pittsburgh Pirates, they spend very little, since their goal is … I have no idea what the Pirates’ goal is going into a season. Maybe they’re praying to someone every year, and their hope is, if they win the World Series with their payroll and personnel decisions, this can go towards that person’s case for sainthood in the Catholic Church. Sounds good to me! My point is, the Yankees are operating within the rules of Major League Baseball. If MLB wants to change and go to a salary cap at some point, that’s fine. But under the current rules, the Yankees are allowed to spend the vast amounts of money they have on fielding the best team possible. As a fan, I would be offended if they didn’t.

2) In 2008, the Phillies beat the Rays in the World Series. In 2008, the Phillies had a bigger payroll then the Rays. It wasn’t one dollar more, it was a few million dollars more. Was the difference in payroll between the Phillies and Rays equal to the difference in payroll between the Yankees and Phillies? No. My questions is: How much more money does one team have to spend than another team for it to be deemed an unfair advantage? I haven’t received a good answer on that question yet. People just tend to shout: “The Yankees spend $200 million! No one’s even close!” And yes, that’s true. But the Yankees have been spending more than everyone else for a long time, and, before last year, they hadn’t won a World Series since 2000 (Oh man, was that a long nine years!).

3) The Florida Marlins a.k.a. the anti-Yankees, were able to beat New York in the 2003 Word Series. The Marlins, a team that wears teal; a team that has only been around since 1993; a team that plays baseball in a football stadium; a team with a tiny payroll; were able to beat the big, bad Yankees in the 2003 World Series right after New York beat Boston in one of the great American League Championship Series of all time. They rode Josh Beckett, their youth and a “We’ve got nothing to lose” attitude to a World Series title. They even finished the bombers off at Yankee Stadium. If the Marlins can win that Series, with the vast difference in payrolls, what excuse do the Phillies have?

In conclusion (I’m ending this like many of my terrible English papers in college), it was easy for Phillies fans, and other non-Yankees fans, to simply yell “The Yankees bought that World Series!” after the ’09 Fall Classic. They can ignore the fact that the Phillies were leading this Series 1-0 after Cliff Lee completely dominated Game 1; that they wasted a quality start by Pedro Martinez in Game 2; or that they had a chance to tie the Series at 2-2 in Game 4 if Brad Lidge hadn’t imploded during the ninth inning. Yankees fans don’t have that luxury (some would say it’s the one luxury we don’t have). When the Yankees lose, fans can only blame the team, which is why Joe Torre was basically run out of town after the 2007 season even though he made the playoffs every year he was manager in the Bronx, and why A-Rod, before 2009, was blasted as a choker even though he’d won two MVP awards since coming to New York. When the Phillies lost to the Yankees their fans were able to yell “Of course the Yanks won, look at how much money they spend!” If the Yankees had lost, what Yankees fans would have been yelling was “What the hell did they spend all that money on?”