After you’ve covered enough professional sporting events, yours eyes tend to catch different things than the average viewer. Last night for example, as the Yankees joyfully stormed the field upon winning their 27th title, I didn’t pay much attention to Derek Jeter or Jorge Posada or Nick Swisher.
No, I was fascinated by the shirts.
If you noticed, some of the first guys onto the field weren’t actually players, but Major League Baseball employees armed with black plastic bags filled with NEW YORK YANKEES—2009 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS hats and T-shirts. They went from player to player, handing them out at an insanely fast rate, all but begging the men to adorn their new duds.
This, my friends, is what the owners and investors within Major League Baseball live for.
It’s great to win, and winning sure is fun. But the best thing about winning is the money. That’s why players exist. They’re as much models as ballplayers. They model the jerseys and caps you can purchase online. They model the expansive new stadiums that peddle $30 steaks and $15 beers. They model gloves and cleats, wristbands and commemorative patches. They wear, you watch, you buy. Cha-ching!
So while there remains a boyish innocence to the post-final out dog-pile, behind it lurks capitalism at its most fierce.
