E-Mail This Article to a Friend Shocker: The Yankees are up to their old tricks BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

If it’s post-holiday, then it must be time to address the spending binge that put your credit cards at risk during the free-spending days of December. That applies to most of us, as the bills are now coming due and we want to remain financially solvent.

While the spending orgy may put a damper on most people’s post-Xmas mood, it’s business as usual — i.e., fiscal restraint be damned — if you’re in any way associated with the NY Yankees baseball club. For a record-breaking seventh straight season (and ninth of 10), the Pinstripers will boast the game’s highest total payroll. And if folks were horrified with the $187.5 million New York doled out last season, they’ll be downright shocked and bewildered (if that’s possible, given team history) at the coming year’s expenditures. With the recent trade that brought yet another All-Star — Randy Johnson — to the Bronx, the Steinbrenner AC has a whopping $203.5 million committed to 23 players for 2005. The Red Sox, who will again take the runner-up payroll spot with a roster amounting to $130 million, will be a remarkable $73 million behind — a difference that supersedes the total payroll of 17 MLB teams from last year. Again, that’s just the margin between first and second.

Ho-hum, what’s the big deal, you say? We’re accustomed to this kind of outrageous behavior from this organization, and after all, they still haven’t won it all since the year 2000 even with that bloated payroll (that’s gone from $95m, when they last won the World Series, to $114m in 2001, followed by years of $138m, $169m, and $187m). The last time the Yankees did not lead in total payroll was 1998, when the Orioles’ $70.4 million outlay resulted in only a 79-83 record. Since then, the New Yorkers have trampled over any comers in the spending department, and this coming year would seem to take the cake. We’re not here to criticize, mind you, since it’s well-founded that Boston is no shrinking violet when it comes to spending its fans’ cash on big-money players, but let’s just look at the facts as it applies to the Bombers.

The Yanks’ subpar and overused staff was exposed in last year’s playoffs, so general manager Brian Cashman and his minions focused on upgrading team pitching. The team signed two of the marquee free agents on the market — Florida’s Carl Pavano (four years, $40m) and Atlanta’s Jaret Wright (three years, $21m) — and recently worked out the deal with the Big Unit (who will get $48 million over the next three seasons). With the rotation retooled, the Yanks will now send out that trio along with the overpriced Kevin Brown ($15.7m in 2005) and Mike Mussina ($19m). This five-man staff will collectively earn a startling $66.7 million — again, a figure that alone is more than the total compensation paid by half of MLB’s teams last season.

The Yanks’ weak link in the infield — Miguel Cairo at second base — was rectified by the addition of Cards second bagger Tony Womack, who will make a paltry $2 million this season. Still, the team’s infield alone will constitute $60.7 million (assuming Jason Giambi stays), plus another $11 million for catcher Jorge Posada. That’s $138.4 million, more than any other team already, and we haven’t even gotten to the outfield, relievers, or reserves! The outfield as it now stands — Hideki Matsui, Bernie Williams, and Gary Sheffield — will make another $32 million, which is more than three teams paid out for their entire roster last year.

Now we’re at around $170 million just for the starters and the pitching staff. Throw out another $10.5 million for closer Mariano Rivera and $12.75 mil for three set-up guys, and you begin to see how the Yanks can approach what many thought was an unthinkable level for one team possibly to spend.

And what an assortment of talent they’ve accumulated: the five infielders have 24 All-Star berths among them, the rotation has 22 more, and the outfield can claim another 15. Add Rivera’s six nods and you have the nucleus of a team that’s collectively been to the midsummer classic a mind-boggling 67 times. Can any other team come close to matching that?

All this would be disheartening for Red Sox fans, except for the fact that it is their team that wears the crown and not Joe Torre’s Traveling All-Star Band. Sooner or later, however, the talent discrepancy will rear its ugly head. And forget about the Sox for a moment; how on earth can teams like the Royals, Devil Rays, or Indians even think about matching up against a squad fielding a line-up that’s likely being paid four times what their team is?

Well, it’s been proven in the past four seasons that money can’t buy you a title. Since 2000 the D-Backs ($85m), Angels ($62m), Marlins ($55m), and Red Sox ($130m) have shown that chemistry and team mean more than combining selected high-priced parts.

So while other teams can take solace in the fact that the Yankees’ spending ways haven’t paid off in a while, New York’s reputed pursuit of outfielder Carlos Beltran — who would complete the puzzle in center field but likely add another $17 million to the total — means that Steinbrenner will stop at nothing to regain the throne. The modus operandi of the Empire Staters has become downright distasteful and made them hands-down the most hated team in sports. But that makes it all the more satisfying when their "tradition of excellence" and "mystique" again fail to produce the desired results.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com