I made passing reference in my post lat week on the Damn Yankees victory that they outspent other teams on salary. I had not realised at that time just how large a spending advantage they had.
A few figures for the 2009 season
| Yankees wage bill | $201,449,189 |
| Second highest wage bill |
$149,373,987 |
| Second highest in AL |
$121,745,999 |
| Average wage bill |
$88,513,173.13 |
| Minimum wage bill |
$36,834,000 |
So the Yankees pay over five times the salary of the team in MLB with the lowest bill and nearly half as much again as their nearest rival in the American League.
Seeing these salary disparities, it says much for baseball that this last decade has not been dominated by the Yankees; they had not won the World Series since 2000, nor made an appearance in the final since 2003, when they lost to the Marlins.
It is also clear that even in 2009 money does not guarantee success as neither the second nor third highest wage payers (The Mets and Cubs respectively) made post season. It does help as five of the eight teams that made post season were in the top ten of wage payers. From the bottom ten spenders only the Minnesota Twins made post season.
