You might recall Texas’ Tom Hicks — in partnership with Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillet — assumed control of Liverpool F.C. last year. What you might not know is that Hicks, courtesy of the Daily Mail, has some interesting revisionist history for an audience that might not be compelled to challenge him.
They might have only been here since March, and they might have appointed Gillett’s son Foster to work alongside chief executive Rick Parry in running the club day to day, but they talk with great knowledge. Hicks gets excited about ‘Torres and Babel’. Gillett mentions talent in the academy.’That’s the unwritten story,’ says Gillett. ‘We have a number of brilliant young players who are going to be the future of this club.
‘Rafa believes in youth and we share that philosophy. That’s why Tom and I are so comfortable with him. He’s a very responsible man. He’s not a slash and burner. He said we needed four or five new players to be competitive and we went out and got them.’
‘A great example of what not to do is the New York Yankees,’ adds Hicks. ‘A guy (owner George Steinbrenner) tried to win in the short term by spending all this money on ageing stars. And they didn’t win. They used to win when they had young, up-and-coming stars. You have to have a balance.’
I’m not sure what is so controversial about this. Hicks is referencing that the Yankees before, say 2001, won with relatively young and homegrown talent (and some free agents). While the more recent very expensive mercenaries (like Sheff, Pavano, Giambi-monster, Damon, Kevin Brown, etc) haven’t been successful at winning championships.
Carl,
I certainly hope your definition of “relatively young and homegrown talent” doesn’t include Wade Boggs, Paul O’Neil, Ruben Sierrra, Darryl Strawberry, Cecil Fielder, Tim Raines, Dion James, Mike Aldrete, Dwight Gooden, Jimmy Key, Kenny Rogers, John Wetteland, Chilli Davis , Roger Clemens, David Justice, Glenallen Hill, Luis Polonia, David Cone or David Wells, all of whom took part in Yankee championships from 1996-2000.
Still, I’ll grant you that Jose Canseco (2000) wasn’t an expensive mercenary. He was merely doing research.
Hey now, some of those guys were playing for peanuts at the tail end of their careers. I can’t argue that the Yankees never tried to bring in expensive players, but it really took off after that period.
This is the percentage that the Yankees spent on salary more than the median of the other teams:
1996-2001: 73.50%, 48.40%, 56.42%, 86.08%, 68.80%, 76.05%
2002-2006: 108.17%, 123.51%, 205.62%, 170.68%, 229.13%
Carl,
David Cone earned nearly $40 million in 5 seasons pitching for the Yankees. Roger Clemens’ 1999 salary was $8.25 million. Chili Davis was paid almost $9 million over ’98-’99 — the highest salaries of his 14 year big league career. When David Justice was acquired in 2000, he was earning $7 million. The first time Ruben Sierra was picked up in 1996, he came with a $6.2 million contract that New York assumed responsibility for. Sierra, of course, was swamped in ’97 for Cecil Fielder…who was making more than $9 million at the time.
Jimmy Key earned approx. $16 million over 4 seasons with New York. He more than doubled his previous salary with Toronto in the process.
I appreciate your taking the time to write, but I think you and I have a very different idea of “playing for peanuts”.