Having been a Yankees fan all my life, I’ve seen them down in worse places than they’re in now, but that fact is no consolation to seeing the state of the club the past couple years. It seems there was a surge in 1998 and though the Yanks have won the world series in subsequent years, nothing has topped that incredible season so far. A recession if you will.

In two years Torre picked up where Showalter left off and took a young team and made them legend. But it seems we’ve forgotten the legacy of Buck Showalter. If it wasn’t for his commitment to the farm system, his keen eye towards the future, that young team would have never existed.

Now that the Yanks are considered a dynasty once more and no longer a joke, ridiculous salaries and high priced acquisitions are the name of the game. Now if you do go to your farm system you have a new problem! Put a young kid on the same line up as Teixeira, Damon and A-Rod on a team with the highest payroll in the Major Leagues and he is almost rendered impotent by the pressure.

1998 was a young team of farm players playing on even ground. The payroll was still ridiculous, but the fan base was dwindling. They grew up as a team as the seats started to fill up. They matured gradually. Bring up a kid from the minors who normally has good stuff, and you might very well just see a young player who can’t handle his nerves. The bar is much higher now, and occasionally they’ll get lucky with a Melky, or a Gardner, but good ballplayers in the Yankees farm system are now being picked up by other Major League clubs and being used as weapons against the Yankees. You’re supposed to build a farm system to support you, not work against you!

High priced acquisitions are the name of the game, but what are you really buying? Seeing as the length of Major League ballplayer’s career rarely goes past the mid 30′s, you’re essentially paying more for damaged goods. The new acquisition is hyped in the media, we laud his achievements, throwing in words like Cy Young, or Golden Glove, or MVP, throw in a contract that would make Orson Welles blush, then we are somehow surprised that he doesn’t perform. One of these days Yankee fans are going to stop buying into this inflated non existing success. It’s been a long time coming and no matter how many big names you bring to the park, you can’t keep manufacturing expensive, mediocre seasons without an equivalent fallout. And it’s happening.

Unfortunately it’s happening at the worst possible time. After blowing $1.5 billion on a new stadium, $161 million on Sabathia and $180 million on Teixeira, fans aren’t going to keep paying to see their team get swept by the Red Sox. What’s naturally going to happen is a sharp decline for the club as a whole. A crash if you will.

And I’m actually all for it! For the Yankees to be great again they need to go back to a time where Showalter’s approach can actually thrive and that was a dark, dark time for the ball club and the fans. I was there! I believe we need to be there again.

Thus ends my rant about the Yankees. I’ll post something more stimulating later…