At the beginning of the 2008 season, there were opposite predictions for the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. It was assumed that the Rays would end the season dead last; the team has finished in last place every season since joining the American League East in 1998 as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Yankees, on the other hand, were expected to make the post-season as they had for the past 13 consecutive seasons.
2008 Rays Spring Training
As early as spring training, the Rays demonstrated their unwillingness to accept defeat any longer. The team had an “all for one and one for all” mentality, set forth by their manager, Joe Maddon. The slogan “9=8” was coined by Maddon, who explained that if all 9 players in a game played hard for all 9 innings, the team would have a good chance to be one of the 8 teams to go to the post-season. Everyone on the Rays shared this belief and stood behind each other. They won and lost as a team.
What was on paper before the 2008 season began did not translate into the regular season for the Rays or the Yankees. The Rays won 97 games and went to the World Series. The Yankees won 89 games and finished third in their division. For the first time in 13 years, the Yankees did not make it to the post-season.
Unfortunately, money can’t buy the one thing missing from last year’s Yankees, cohesiveness. Throughout the entire 2008 season, the Yankees had not shown even the slightest bit of team unity that the Rays had solidified by the end of spring training. The composition of last year’s team was nothing more than a patch-work quilt of has-beens, egomaniacs and scrap heap players soaked in desperation.
2009 Yankees Spring Training
During spring training this year, the Yankees began to re-acquaint themselves with winning. With the additions of Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, the Yankees have assembled a team of All-Stars once again. But will they scratch their heads again this year when teams with only a fraction of their payroll, which was $209,081,579 in 2008, make it to the World Series?
One can only predict how Teixeira, Sabathia and Burnett will fare in New York; but over-priced players can be a distraction. Whether or not they produce on the field, they are still getting paid millions. Add that salary to the money they make from endorsements and it makes you question their loyalty to the team.
New Yankee Teammates
Again, the impact these players will have on the Yankees is only speculative at this point but so far they have gone beyond just acclimating themselves to their new clubhouse. Sabathia and Burnett have gone on outings with teammates away from the ballpark to get to know their teammates on a personal level. Texeria and Nick Swisher, traded to the Yankees this season, are also known to be good teammates who keep the atmosphere in the clubhouse light.
Although the monetary value invested in these players may have been for their athletic abilities, their performance off the field may actually make or break the team's post-season ambitions. In fact, the presence of these new Yankees may be a serendipitous step in the right direction.
