Yankees will miss playoffs: it is a glorious 2008 :-)

I am absolutely delighted that the NY Yankees will miss the playoffs this season. ESPN projects that there is only a 0.2% probability that the Yankees will get beyond the regular season--they are 9.5 games behind for the wild card berth.

It is fantastic because yet again we prove that merely paying "market" prices for players considered to be some of the best does not make a successful team. If only we would understand this in society, and in our public policies. There is a growing ideological belief that the "market" knows best, and the Yankees are wonderful evidence that the market knows crap.

So, what money are we talking about?

• N.Y. Yankees $209,081,579, at an average of $6,744,567 per player. The highest in all of MLB
• The division leading Tampa? $43,820,598 for an average of $1,460,687 per player. Only the Marlins have a lower payroll.

BTW, here is a comparison: the annual operating budget of the university where I work: about $42 million. It is a crazy world that we live in where the "market" certainly prefers allocating resources to baseball and other forms of entertainment. Oh well.