Everything for money

For the New York Times, Murray Chass gloats about the Yankee payroll. He writes:

This exhibition opener between the Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates was not a rematch of the 1960 World Series. Nor will the regular-season games these teams play in June be a rematch. Despite the habit of some people to label them that way, games played between the same teams subsequent to a World Series or any playoff series are never a rematch because the teams and the circumstances are different.

In this instance, oh, are the circumstances different. Forty-five years after Bill Mazeroski beat the Yankees with a ninth-inning home run at Forbes Field in Game 7, the Yankees and the Pirates play on different planets.

Pardon my French, but what a fucking moron is Murray Chass. On different planets? Hello?

Also note that the 1960 Pirates were heavy underdogs against the 1960 Yankees. I'd say the "rematch," when it comes this June, will be a little more like the original than Chass melodramatically suggests for the self-gratification of Yankee fans.

As recorded by the encyclopedic Finoli and Ranier:

A doormat in the early 1950s, the Pirates had finally earned the respect of the National League with a second-place finish in 1958. After falling back a bit in '59, the Bucs won the pennant by seven games in 1960, but were still considered by some observers as upstarts when it came to being on center stage. With 95 wins, the Bucs had won only two less games than the Yankees during the regular season, but they lacked experience. . . . The Yankees, on the other hand, had been in eight World Series in the 1950s and had won six of them.

During the 1960 series, the Bucs won their first three in close games; the Yankees won their first three games by a combined score of 38-3.

As for this part:

Not even a stash of steroids could level the playing field for these teams. The Yankees will open this season with a payroll a shade under $200 million, $198.5 million to be precise. The Pirates' payroll will be no more than $40 million, one-fifth of the Yankees' total.

This is doubly embarassing. First, the moronic joke about steroids. And second, the crass suggestion that payroll means everything.

As Poor Richard says, "He that is of the opinion money will do everything, may well be suspected of doing everything for money."