The New York Antoinettes

Mark Teixeira became the third major offseason signing for the Yankees this winter when he inked an eight-year, $180 million deal last week. AP

As the seconds tick away in 2008 and we cast our eyes toward the new hope that 2009 surely offers us, may we pause to give thanks to that one entity that has already contributed so much to the New Year ahead.

I am referring, of course, to the New York Yankees, who are providing us Americans with what we sorely need ---- someone we all together can despise.

This is a hard time for hate to flower. Even Newt Gingrich has declared that the Republicans would be wise not to criticize the Democratic administration. The Democrats could not even bring it upon themselves to chastise the smarmy, two-faced Joe Lieberman. Clint Eastwood may win his first Best Actor Oscar by portraying a bigot. Tom Cruise is playing a Nazi, but, please, he's a nice Nazi. Who can even hate OPEC when oil is now cut-rate?

So, yes, thank the Lord for the Yankees. With their seats selling for as much as $2,500 a game, while they ask a struggling New York City for another $259 million in tax-free bonds to help finance their new stadium, while they sign three free agents for well over $400 million ---- which is far more than the other 29 major-league teams have spent cumulatively ---- the Yankees present themselves as the very model of arrogance and let-em-eat-cakeness. Henceforth, I will be calling the Yankees the Antoinettes. You may wish to as well.

Now, of course the pinstripers have always been able to boast that large numbers of Americans have loathed them. It is just that this recent display of conspicuous consumption and premium pricing has taken detesting, as we are wont to say, to a new level. Then, too, with so little to hate, the Antoinettes are filling that vacuum of abhorrence that nature abhors. Among other things, it was common to refer to the Antoinettes as the General Motors of sport, and, as we know, we can't hate GM anymore, so all that extra bile flows over naturally to Antoinette Stadium.

Now, let us give the devil its due. The Bronx Bombers play by the rules. They pay their luxury tax on time, without whining. One of their executives even says that the team's fans view the Antoinettes as a "sacred trust," and that part of the attendant liturgy is that the club will pour profits back into inventory ---- even if it means bidding against itself.

But still, there is a point, whether the economy is boom or bust, when one team's extravagance is so gross that it tarnishes the sense of competition. New York's dominance a half-century ago severely diminished the whole American League. It was the Yankees and the seven dwarfs. The financial spectacle that the Antoinettes have put on display this off-season really does come close to trampling on the spirit of the game. In sport, the prime idea should be to root for our team ---- not against the other fellows. The Antoinettes, by their excess, imperil that emotional equation and risk doing damage to the very thing they seek to dominate.