WHY THE NEW YORK YANKEES DON’T GO TO THE WORLD SERIES: I’m not much of a sports fan these days. But when I was a kid I liked baseball (even though I could hardly play it), and was a big Yankees fan. The first time I went to a game at Yankee Stadium, I was with my uncle Joe and cousin Mike. We arrived a little late; it was the bottom of the first. We had just sat down, and immediately had to stand up again. The Mick had blasted another one into the stands. It was quite an introduction to the Bronx Bombers.

But as I drifted from teenagedom into young adulthood followed by creaky middle age, my love for the New York Yankees died. By the late 1970s, the Yanks were a hot team again (they were quite pathetic in the late 60s and early 70s, although I loved them nonetheless). But winning came with a steep price tag: i.e., ownership by George Steinbrenner. Sorry, but I never liked that man. He turned the Yanks into the best team that money can buy (tip of the hat to my brother for giving me that line). OK, no professional baseball team is in it purely for the olympian ideal. They all have a right to make money. But Steinbrenner turned it into something akin to the Roman gladiator games.

As such, I couldn’t help but feel good about the AL first round playoffs last week, where the Detroit Tigers trounced the Yanks. I even watched the final game on Saturday, rooting for the Tigers all the way. It’s nice to see that even in this modern era of big business baseball, there is still the occasional Cinderella team, the team that defies the odds with spit and vinegar. The Yankees, with their $200 million payroll, are a long way from spit and vinegar.

So the baseball fans here in metro NY are scratching their heads over the Yanks. Since 1996, they’ve been a game-winning machine during the regular season. This year they got off to a slow start, but by August they had the AL East shut down. The Yanks took the World Series in 96, 98, 99 and 2000 (against the NY Mets), but since then it’s been downhill. They lost the Series twice to National League expansion teams (Arizona in 2001 and Florida in 2003). And since 2003, they haven’t gone any further than the playoffs. What went wrong? Certainly not a lack of talent; the offense remains solid with Jeter and Giambi and Matsui and A-Rod and Sheffield, etc. etc. The pitching rotation perhaps needs a makeover, as Randy the Unit and Mike the Moose are getting old. But you’d think all that batting firepower would overcome the high ERAs. And yet, those bats seem to go cold in October. How do you explain that?

Well, here’s my take. I firmly believe that it’s economics. (At bottom, everything is economics! Well, mostly, anyway.) Most teams have a star hitter or two, maybe three if they’re lucky. With the Yanks, it’s almost all stars, all with high priced contracts. These guys have lawyers and accountants to help them think things through. In October, when the playoffs and World Series occurs, the players have been thru a long 7-month season, and it starts to get cold outside. The risk of injury goes up. The lawyers and accountants probably study the odds about that. They explain to their clients that it would not be in their long-run economic interest to “put out 200%” for a World Series ring. Sure, winning the Series does bring each player some extra cash. But if that cash is earned at the expense of a career-ending injury, then what good is it?

The lawyers and accountants also have a pretty good idea of how a team owner (like Steinbrenner) is doing financially. Even if they don’t see the official books, they know how attendance has been and how many broadcast contracts the team is getting with the media. If they see that it’s been a good season and that the team owner is clearly going to make a profit, they know they can keep squeezing for better contracts for their clients (i.e., the super-star players). In other words, after a good season, they all really don’t need the World Series! One or two playoff rounds is quite enough financially, for a team like the Yankees.

So . . . . I am boldly suggesting here that the super-star players for a team like the Yanks intentionally play a bit easier, a bit safer, a bit more conservatively once the winds of October start to blow. Let the guys from the one-shot, fluke Cinderella teams make the diving catches and miraculous throws and crashing plays at the plate. They know it’s probably their only chance at glory. Guys like Jeter and A-Rod need to live to see another season.

So, as always, Steinbrenner will blame the manager and bring in someone new. (Too bad, because everyone liked Joe Torres). And nothing will change. Steinbrenner will continue to make his money and the big Yankee stars will make their money and the big networks will make their money showing some underdog team going to the Series (perhaps the Mets this year) and doing the baseball equivalent of a cockfight. As back in the Roman Coliseum, it’s all pretty well scripted.

Enjoy, capitalist sports fans!