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I think when we look back in 20 years, the opening of the new Yankee Stadium will be seen as the turning point where baseball's financial system fell apart. The Yankees already had the most buying power, but by fully taking advantage of their popularity with a stadium that has $1,250 seats, they finally gave themselves an advantage that other teams could not top. Under the previous era (1994 strike-2008), the Yankees had enough buying power to make the playoffs almost every year. They made the playoffs 13 out of 14 years in that period. Their high payroll allowed them to win enough games to make the postseason every year, as the 162 game sample size was enough to smooth out any slumps. They had virtually no chance of a sub .500 record during that period, with a "bad" season amounting to 87-89 wins. However, they did not have enough buying power to amass enough elite players to advance every year in the postseason. Their postseason statistics suggested that they were generally not immune to the ups and downs that can happen in a short postseason series. I think there are still lots of people who do not realize that the Yankees have moved into a new era (2009-present). Under the new era, the Yankees increased their revenue by at least $50 million per year, which allows them to sign the top free agent of every offseason to a contract. If the Yankees want a free agent, he is going to the Yankees. In addition, the Yankees have invested additional resources in player development. The new Yankees do not use trades to acquire players, so they no longer give up their top prospects. This provides an additional disadvantage, since the other 29 teams need to use trades to improve, which have significant risk. The significance of the new era is that the Yankees will now win postseason series at the same pace that they were making the playoffs in the previous era. I think their postseason series success rate will be over 90% in the new system. So far they are 4 for 4. This means that the Yankees should win the World Series at least 3 out of every 4 years. The only factor preventing them from achieving a higher rate will be injuries at inopportune times. The worst part is that Bud Selig does not seem to realize how bad the situation has gotten. His statistics about parity are all from the previous Yankees era. Unfortunately, the next labor contract will likely not have significant change, so the Yankees will have period of success that will be unprecedented in the history of modern professional sports.

Would have been nice for some people to actually show up for college gameday. I should have known that 8 AM was too early for Madison...

Words cannot describe how much I hate baseball's economic system. But it's fun to watch teams like the Rangers pretend like they have a chance. The Yankees took the unfairness of the system to a whole new level after 2008, and we will be watching this happen year after year because of it.

I hate the Yankees but sometimes it is fun to watch a team completely disintegrate. I would have liked to see the Rangers win a few, but they have no chance against a team with nearly quadruple their payroll and about 100 times the playoff experience.

The fans already knew what was going to happen before it actually did. It's just too predictable. Nolan Ryan looks so defeated.

Let's see if the Rangers can even hold their Game 1 lead.

Nice to see the Rangers doing well. They might actually put up a fight like the Indians did a few years ago.

Valentine's ego is too big for Milwaukee.

The Phillies/Giants looks to be more interesting since a few pitchers duels could end up going either way. I would absolutely love to see the Rangers win the series, but I will be surprised if they win more than one game.

Seems like the home crowds can sometimes be a negative in the postseason--teams seem to be more relaxed on the road without the pressure to win in front of the big, excited crowd.

Looks like no ALCS for me :-( So sad to see the Rays fans leaving early. I doubt they will be back in the playoffs for a long, long time.

It's really all about Cliff Lee, he's shut down the Rays' offense. However, he's not going to complete the game, so they're going to get a shot against Feliz.

The Rays informed me that I have been selected to purchase Rays/Yankees Game 1/2 tickets. If the Rays win tonight, I'm probably going to make the purchase and go to Game 1 on Friday night.

Looks like I actually live in an NHL market now with the Florida Panthers being a 30 minute drive to the north. I actually thought they played in Orlando before I moved here, so it was a nice surprise to find that out. Of course nobody goes to actually see the Panthers play, but I'm planning on catching a few games live this year--definitely my favorite team (Sharks) in February.

They sold out their NLDS games in 2003...thanks to the 20,000 or so Cubs fans that showed up. Meanwhile, that clutch 2-run bomb by Hinske completely turned the series around. Ouch...and now a Buckner-like play to turn it back around to the Giants!!!

I'm happy for Badgers fans but definitely jealous. They last came in 2004 and I lived in Madison for the 2005-2009 football seasons.

Cincy's a good town and deserves a fun night. I'm pulling for them to win. They can't really do anything to stop the inevitable Phillies/Yankees rematch though. Also nice to see a sellout crowd in Atlanta.

Yes, the Yankees swept the Twins, but their payroll is almost $110,000,000 higher than the Twins, so we really shouldn't have expected anything different. Maybe we could have combined the Brewers and the Twins and then taken on the Yankees. The Yankees still would have had a payroll advantage.

That was just a horrible, horrible call on Crawford. Why not have Tennis-style replay for balls and strikes where players can challenge and the computer call can be immediately shown on the scoreboard? It would only take 30 seconds at most per challenge.

Just the fact that they are willing to split the bill suggests that they should be paying the whole thing. They would probably have offered to do nothing if it wasn't in the warranty.

Ron Gardenhire is now 6-20 as a manager in the postseason. That has to be one of the worst records of all time.

Did the Yankees purposely lose the AL East so they could beat the Twins again?

Definitely not a weather balloon--a weather balloon consists of a rubber balloon and an instrument package about the size of a book. Usually these sightings are caused by military test flights. Since it is China, they probably never bothered to communicate with the airport. All I know for sure is that it definitely did not come from a different planet.

Love the match up between CC and JJ--too bad CC won the battle.

Halladay is lucky that Ruiz did not trip over Phillips' bat. That was an extremely difficult play. Citizen's Bank Park is a horrible place for visiting teams in the postseason, and I have only terrible memories of that place.