Sustaining a Baseball Team

The New York Yankees are looking to trade Randy Johnson. Johnson, a 5 time Cy Young Award Winner, is in the final year of a $33 million contract, offered to him upon being traded to New York before 2005.

Past his prime, it’s possible that he’s been worth half of that contract since coming to New York.

The owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner, has had a throw-money-at-the-team-and-hope-a-World-Series-sticks philosophy, since ending a run of World series success in 2001. While it’s true that free agency can be an important ingredient to a team’s success, teams are not built by throwing money around.

I would argue our present time does the same thing, throw-money-at-a-problem-and-hope-a-solution-shows-up, with regard to public education, zoning, poverty, drugs, etc., etc. You might say Steinbrenner's method is all too American.

We are, after all, talking about human beings. The elements of chemistry and corroboration can’t be purchased; they must be developed. That takes time.

One of the tenets of the crunchy con manifesto: “Beauty if more important than efficiency.” It’s more effective and sustainable, too.