Date: October 29, 2009
To: letters@globeandmail.ca
From: Geoffrey Smith
Subject: Cash cows and the World Series

Thanks for the fortuitous juxtaposition of Jeff Blair's piquant deconstruction of the New York Yankee financial empire, and Bob Levin's explanation of "why it's so easy to hate the Yankees." Levin writes that "rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Goliath, for Wal-Mart, for global warming...." He might add that in these late days of gilded-age capitalism, it's also like rooting for Bernard Madoff and all the other insiders, Ponzi-schemers, and cheats. I recall Gwen Virdon on stage in the Broadway show "Damn Yankees" in 1955; in those days the Yanks were merely great ball players; now they and their owners are the Croesus of what we call sport. Obviously, those of us who think still hate them.

Geoff Smith
Kingston