The Yankees are dead to me; they have been for a while. I think it started when they acquired Randy Johnson instead of Carlos Beltran. But this off-season and first month has just been too much. The Yankees just don’t get it anymore. They care about the fans and real baseball about as much as Big Oil cares about the environment. They build a new stadium and charge two-thousand dollars a seat for first and third base boxes. Much of the food sold at the stadium (so I hear, because I can’t get tickets to an actual game) is ‘name brand’, i.e. Chef Morimoto, ‘The Iron Chef,’ making sushi (not every game, I presume).

They acquire three mercenaries…I mean, ‘free agents’ (C.C. Sabathia, a.k.a I Am SoFatia; A.J. Burnett, and Mark Texeira), give them ridiculous long-term contracts in the midst of an awful economic downturn, and expect us to just root for them. And don’t even get me started on A-Rod, with his farcical ploy a few years ago before signing a 10 year (10 year!) contract for $275 million ($169,753 per game during a 162 game season); with his lying about steroids, his tabloid divorce and womanizing, his clumsy public statements and calculated smiles and crocodile tears, makes me want to root for the Red Sox — yes, THE RED SOX.

Get over it, Yankee fans: The Red Sox own the Yankees these days. I won’t go into crazy details, but the Red Sox have done it right for the past six years. Give credit where credit is due. Dustin Pedroia (Rookie of the Year and MVP) is a stud. Kevin Youkilis is a gamer. Beckett and Matsuzaka and their young pitchers are for real. They let go of Nomar and Pedro at just the right times. Even Manny for Jason Bay looks like it’s working out. God it hurts me to say all this…

The Steinbrenners, Brian Cashman, Yankee top brass in general, don’t remember that the most recent championship dynasty, from 1996-2000 (and I’d even include up to 2003 during which time they lost to Arizona in 2001 and Florida in 2003, but hey, at least they made it to the World Series) was fueled by a home-grown core (Jeter, Posada, Pettitte, Rivera, Williams) and free agents who had character and grit (Paul O’Neill, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez), a bullpen that got the job done, and role players who knew what they had to do and when they had to do it (Charlie Hayes, Juan Rivera, Shane Spencer, and many others). These were well-constructed teams that played hard and did more than just collect paychecks and say, “I’m so happy to be a Yankee.” Of course you’re happy to be a Yankeee: you’re a freakin’ millionaire on the world’s most famous team! Why wouldn’t you be happy?

Today the existing core is getting older, if they aren’t old already, and the free agents they’ve signed, from pitchers to position players, have not lived up to expectations. Here’s the most symbolic: Carl Pavano.

The top prospects we are supposed to root for into this new era is headed by Joba Chamberlain, who may be a stud someday, but right now he’s just a product of media hype, generated by the Yankees themselves. The way people started talking about him two years ago, you’d think Joba was once a nuclear physicist who decided to play baseball and developed four pitches and a 98-mph heater in a year and lead the team to a title. Instead, he’s been nothing but average as a starter — just like Phil Hughes, just like Ian Kennedy. Chien-Ming Wang was a horse for a few years (and held a special place in my heart because he’s from Taiwan), but now it’s like the guy can’t sneeze without pulling a muscle or snapping a ligament. The upcoming position players (not so upcoming anymore, because they’re here and underachieving like everyone else) are in the same category: Melky Cabrera, and even Robinson Cano, who everyone wants to tout as the next Rod Carew. Problem is Cabrera isn’t Bernie Williams, and Cano sure as hell isn’t Rod Carew.

But I could at least root for these young guys. They don’t make a trillion dollars a year, they play hard (most of the time, especially Cano and Cabrera who I swear I think I can see them planning their evening out in the dugout). But the getting old and highly overpaid underachieving damn-near catatonic free agents who would look more natural in tutus rather than Yankee pinstripes? Forget about it.

Did I mention that Joe Girardi is no Joe Torre? Been watching him for just over a year now: he frets, he overmanages. Since he’s probably gonna get canned sooner rather than later, can’t say I blame him.

The Yankees are a brand name now, not a baseball team. It’s all about money, marketing, licensing. The Yankees today have nothing to do with America’s Pasttime.  I love baseball, but I don’t love over-priced highy advertised product placement. I think I’ll start rooting for the Brookly Cyclones or Staten Island Yankees. The play might get sloppy once in a while, but at least it’s real baseball and I don’t have to spend a paycheck to go to a game.

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