by Royce Radcliffe

Created on: July 27, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The only thing bigger than the bandwagon of Yankee hating fans is the bandwagon of Yankee loving fans that helped start off the phenomenon in the first place. The New York Yankees are probably the most hated team in all of sports. The Lakers are fairly hated in the NBA, the Patriots are by far the most hated franchise in the NFL (though this is a recent trend) and hockey does not seem quite popular enough to have a team rise to the status of Public Enemy. Still, if there is one sports team in the world that seems to draw hate for even existing regardless of its actions, it is the Yankees. There are many reasons for this.

Them getting Babe Ruth for basically a stick of bubble gum and some change from the Red Sox certainly did not help matters. Sure, it was a shrewd move that paid off brilliantly for them, but to the rest of the league the perception that they do not "home grow" their talent was born.

They simply get their players from other teams.

Of course, the Yankees have grown a lot of their own talent, from Bernie Williams, Alfonso Soriano, Jorge Posada, and Nick Johnson to many others. And the perception of them as a team that "buys Championships" was certainly not born overnight and something you never heard muttered at nearly the clip during the Great Depression that you have these last ten years or so.

Jealousy is undoubtedly a factor. Twenty six championships leads to that. But the truth is that the past fifteen or so years the Yankees have enjoyed a huge competitive advantage and finally started validating the perception that they are baseball's "Evil Empire."

What hope does a small market team like the Tigers have against the Yankees? None, and yet each season we go through the motions anyway. The lack of a salary cap hurts any chance for parity in this league and it is teams like the Yankees which have the most to gain.

They have been buying division championships for the past fifteen years. They may not have won it all recently but they get themselves a great shot every season by spending money like it is going out of style.

They already have five All Pro outfielders? Hey, why not add one more this offseason, in case one of the others gets injured? Sure, that is four or five more than almost every other team has, but hey, the Yankees are rich, so why not?

This is a monster the league created with its adoption of the "soft cap" some years ago. A soft cap means that teams like the Yankees which have the money to afford it can pay a "luxury tax" when they

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