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here's the thing: the yankees don't play by dungeons and dragons rules. and in the contemporary world, that's apparently a problem.
the built-in counterbalance of strength and weakness that is the foundation of fantasy games doesn't exist in baseball. D+D is a game, baseball is a sport, but we seem to be reaching the point where that distinction is gone completely.
the yankees are what, in the D+D world, would cause every other kid but the yankees to quit in anger, derision and indignation. "you can't be that strong and that smart! duh! everyone knows it's like, impossible." except that they are that smart and that rich, and now we've got kids like buddy selig and co. threatening to take their 32-sided dice and go home.
i don't think baseball is D+D, or should be. the yankees have advantages and they always have. didn't help them much between 1981-1996, but hey, what's 15 years? how many teams have won the world series more times than the twins in the last 15 years?
the argument is that the baseball landscape has changed since the twins won in 1991, and while it wasn't impossible to compete then, it is now. has it? what's the proof? who signed alex rodriguez again? who signed mike hampton? who brought in gary sheffield and bobby bonilla and al leiter and whoallelse, used them to win, then got rid of them again because the margin wasn't sufficient?
should the yankees be punished because dan o'dowd gambled that altitude wouldn't affect mike hampton? because wayne huizenga had made the money he'd come for? because richard jacobs made millions in an IPO then bailed, with no repercussions? because carl pohlad pockets his money or that jeffrey loria or bill giles doesn't have that much in the first place?
nope.
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