Random Thoughts (December 28, 2008)

For those of us complaining about the Yankees spending upwards of $694 trillion dollars to land free agents Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett, I have but one thing to say: GET USED TO IT!!! The Yankees have always had more money to spend than everyone else and now with the new Yankee Stadium ready to open, they are virtually printing money in the Bronx. This is the way business is done for George Costanza's former employers. They go out and try to buy championships. However, they have not won a World Series since 2000 so there is no guarantee that the Teixeira-Sabathia-Burnett signings will bring New York a championship. In fact, their run of four championships from 1996-2000 was based on homegrown talent (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte) and solid veterans (Paul O'Neill, Scott Brosius, David Cone), not high priced free agents. So, the Red Sox and Angels and White Sox and Rays and Twins are still teams that will compete to win the American League and the Phillies and Dodgers and Mets and Cubs can still win the World Series... Wen Tom Brady went down in Week 1 against the Chiefs, I feared in my heart that the Pats would fall apart and have a poor season. I didn't really believe Matt Cassel was ready to lead a playoff team and I already had serious doubts about the defense. Seventeen weeks later, I am impressed with the 11-5 Patriots, even though they failed to make the playoffs (they tied the Dolphins but lost out on a tiebreaker). The defense still is weak but they did enough to give Cassel a fighting chance almost every week and Cassel amazed everyone and played like a star. The Pats might be on the outside looking in for the first time since 2002 (when they tied the Jets for first place at 9-7 but missed out on the postseason due to tiebreakers) but I don't consider this year a failure. The offense rallied around Cassel and the coaching of Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels was phenomenal. With some upgrades on defense, this is a Super Bowl team in 2009... The NFL MVP is Chad Pennington and the Coach of the Year is Tony Sparano. The Dolphins were 1-15 last year and now they have ended the Pats five-year run at the top of the AFC East. If not Pennington, Peyton Manning would be a great candidate for MVP and Mike Smith of Atlanta could be a threat to Sparano for the Coach of the Year... I could build a team in Detroit that would not go 0-16. Hey, William Ford, I come cheap... Enjoy Oregon's "Spread n' Shred" on Tuesday...