open letter to cc sabathia

mr. sabathia,

i hear you are going to sign with the new york yankees for seven years, $170 million dollars. maybe you didn't notice because you had your head buried in a bucket of nachos, but the yankees are dying. they're as good as dead. your presence will not resurrect them. the franchise, blinded by success and adulation, maneuvered itself into obscurity by doing precisely what you and the franchise engaged in, signing free agents to hilarious deals before they actually pitch in new york. carl pavano comes to mind. so does kei igawa. so does jaret wright. so does randy johnson. the yankee model is a relic of bloated baseball inventory. if you didn't notice, the tampa bay rays won the division with youth, speed and team chemistry. you have jeter as your captain, but with every new free agent signed, his influence is diminished. your team is a bunch of a-rods. high paid, hollywood stars that wilt when the time comes to produce. when the "team" needs a leader, there is no leader to found.

and those of us with a memory do remember you started horribly in 2008 with the cleveland indians before being dealt to the inferior national league and racking up big wins, mr. sabathia. that did not go unnoticed. now you've signed into a division that bleeds rivalry. you will have to stand tall against the red sox. can you do it? you did not in 2007 championship series. you will have to stand tall against the entire american league. we'll see if you can handle the pressure. the pressure of new york. the pressure of this contract. the pressure of being the ace of the staff because that's what you signed to do.

you might wonder why i would have such a visceral response to what is a common occurannce during the baseball offseason, the signing of free agents. it's because baseball players don't get it. the world series featured the tampa bay rays versus the philadelphia phillies. both teams featured highly paid players, but both teams had exactly zero big name free agent pickups. they grew their players from within. then they filled holes through free agency. the yankees did not even make the playoffs last year. it's amazing to see that baseball's "greatest" team still does not know how to succeed after being as dominant as they were from 1996 to 2001. during that period, they grew their players from within and signed guys like paul o'neil and scott brosius to fill holes. then they started signing guys like jason giambi and alex rodriguez and they got worse.

but they're stuck in this holding pattern. it makes me smile. because i love watching people/teams who think they are entitled to succeed fail. they think all they have to do is show up and they'll win because the other team will vanish into oblivion out of fear. it doesn't work that way. every team wants to win. and every team will fight to win. so good luck this year yankees. i'll see you when you finish in third place.