Commentary: Baseball doesn't need salary cap to keep Yankees from dominating

In case you missed it, the 2009 New York Yankees made some news the other day. They became greatest team in the history of sports.

Although opening day is still three months away, their 162-0 regular-season record, their relentless roll through the American League playoffs, their World Series sweep — three victories on the field, the fourth by forfeiture of their humiliated, unworthy opponents — is as inevitable as slush after snow.

"At the rate the Yankees are going," Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio told Bloomberg News this week, "I'm not sure anyone can compete with them."

The notion that the Yankees already have wrapped up their 27th world championship is shared by many baseball cognoscenti, who cringed Tuesday as the team signed free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira to an eight-year, $180 million contract.

Before outbidding the Red Sox and Angels for Teixeira, the Yankees paid $161 million for left-handed pitcher CC Sabathia, and $82.5 million for right-hander A.J. Burnett.

When a powerhouse can commit $423.5 million to three players, when it's on the hook for the four most lucrative salaries in pro sports — third baseman Alex Rodriguez is No. 1, shortstop Derek Jeter is No. 2 — what's the point in pretending anybody else has a chance?

"Frankly," Attanasio lamented to Bloomberg News, "the sport may need a salary cap."

A salary cap! Yes!

Thank you, Mr. Attanasio, for having the courage to enunciate the magic words capable of solving an Evil Empire dynasty that enabled the 2007 Yankees to claim third place in a five-team division.

A salary cap is precisely what baseball needs to restore its competitive balance, because only seven different franchises have been able celebrate a world championship since the Yankees last won it all in 2000.

The NFL salary cap has done so much for parity, it allowed the Patriots finish their 2007 schedule with a 16-0 record, a year before the Lions became one road game removed from going 0-16.

The NBA salary cap is working even better. It enabled the Celtics to take a 27-2 record into their Christmas Day showdown against the 23-5 Lakers, while the Thunder (3-26), Timberwolves (4-23) and Wizards (4-22) flexed their muscles in anticipation of dethroning the defending league champions.

Thanks to a salary cap, NBA fans have been spared the nuisance of contemplating blockbuster trades, as deals including veterans are basically contract dumps designed to clear cap space. A word has been invented to describe the general managers most adept at monitoring the bottom line: capologists, meaning those who are experts in capology.

I don't know about you, but when I'm shooting the breeze with friends, I'd much rather talk about capologists performing capology than almost anything else in sports. Oh, for the chance to go to college all over again and choose a major in fiscal education.

Unfortunately, baseball remains in the Stone Age, tethered to a free market that gives the Yankees and Red Sox access to an unlimited payroll, while forcing such mid-market franchises as Tampa Bay to build rosters through wise draft choices, shrewd trades and a policy regarding free agents more as versatile bench players than a miracle cures.

Impeded by this inherently unfair system, prevented from throwing silly money at superstars, all Tampa Bay did last season was finish first in baseball's toughest division, before beating the White Sox and the Red Sox in the playoffs.

While the Rays were advancing to the World Series with a $44 million payroll, the Yankees invested $218.3 million to finish third. I suppose a case could be made that the system isn't broken, and that baseball teams built by superior scouting departments are a better bargain than baseball teams built by unlimited bank accounts.

But then the Yankees hauled in Teixeira for $180 million, and changed baseball as we know it. A switch hitter with power, a two-time Gold Glove recipient, Teixeira, won't turn 30 until April, already has been selected for as many All-Star Games (one) as Mariners second baseman Jose Lopez.

And though Teixeira has never finished among the top five in an MVP vote, though he's never won a batting championship or led the league in either homers or RBI, though he's never played on a team that advanced to the second round of the playoffs, he's transformed the 2009 Yankees into the most fearsome, intimidating, awe-inspiring collection of talent since, well, the 2008 Yankees.

With an offense by bolstered by Teixeira's bat, Sabathia could win 20 games for the first time, and Burnett could win more than 12 games for second time. They're loaded, they're scary, and they've got the blueprint for postseason success.

In case it's been misplaced, the Yankees always can consult those teams that've won the World Series since they did: the 2001 Diamondbacks, the '02 Angels, '03 Marlins, the '04 and '07 Red Sox, the '05 White Sox, the '06 Cardinals and the '08 Phillies.

Think about this. The Yankees haven't been acknowledged as the best team in baseball in eight years, and now they're invincible just because they signed first baseman who's played in one All-Star Game?

Yep.

Besides, at $180 million, it's a steal. There's no telling how much Mark Teixeira would've cost had he been named to the All-Star team, like, twice.