Why do people hate success? A team does well, and they are cheating, or "buying" the team. Nobody accused the Red Sox of this ever, but lets look back at 2004. After an 86 year draught of unsuccessful seasons, the Red Sox where the second highest payrolled team (behind the yankees, yes) but massed out only one player on their roster that actually came through the Red Sox minor league organization. That means that the Red Sox acquired at some point, 24 of their 25 man roster from somewhere else. So lets not be so quick to hate the yankees, cuz what happened that year? The Red Sox won. 2007, also the second higest paid team. If you want to look at the years inbetween to show the difference, 2005 was the White Sox ranking 7th on the payroll list, 2006 was St. Louis coming in at 11th, and 2008 was Philly ranking 13th. Now someone who spends nothing and almost always ranks last on the list like Pittsburg, probably isn't going to win any championships anytime soon. (make sense? its take money to win) But look at team like Seattle, they are consistenly sitting around the 10th spot on the list, varying slightly, and they never win anything. One of only 8 teams to have never won a world series. Part of why players choose to sign in New York is because it's like the holy grail of baseball. So much history and winning, that being part of it is special, even if another team is offering the same money, who would you choose? And lets not forget that the yankees have won more championships than any other sports team, dating back a hundred or so years. Did they buy them all since the beginning? Its part of the magic of baseball. Yankees are winners, always have been, and hating them for it, isn't ever gonna change it.