Why Conservatives Should Appreciate the N.Y. Yankees

The New York Yankees won the World Series last evening, completing a 4-2 defeat of the Philadelphia Phillies. Those of us who have been longtime Yankees fans are quite happy about this, but there are others who, for various reasons, bitterly express the following wayward opinion:

Well, they just buy championships!

That's not exactly true. Anyone who watched the games realizes that the Yankees won because of superior pitching, hitting, and fielding (and despite lousy umpiring). The team they defeated has a fine collection of talent and should be commended for their successes this year and last. Money did not decide the outcome of any game.

Republicans, conservatives, and Christians should all be perfectly OK with this (unless you are a Phillies fan—then just be gratified that your team had the level of success it did). The Yankees demonstrate several features that these groups should admire:

• They are an example of capitalism at work. They invest in players, expecting a profitable return. This entails risk. They accept this risk willingly.
• They attempt to get stronger and improve their market share every year. What good company doesn't?
• They play by the rules. ["They" in this sentence refers to the organization. Yes, they have had individual players who have not always kept the rules. Neither I nor the team endorses that.]
• They pay their taxes, including the MLB "luxury tax," which is essentially a form of socialism for the league. I can relate to that—I pay my taxes, some of which are supporting socialist plans beyond my control.
• They bulldoze some of their profits back into the team, attempting to make it bigger and better.

There is nothing wrong with any of these things. Of course, others in this industry have a degree of envy for the Yankees' success both financially and on the field. If anything, this should encourage them to mimic the Yankees' ability to assemble a good team on the field while producing a profit for the ownership.

To those of you who are bitter baseball fans (yes, that includes most of you who root for the Twins, in particular): Please don't whine about "buying" championships. Those are decided on the field, not the business office. The Yankees are able to get it done.