It's Not Mystique and Aura, It's Dollars and Sense

When CC Sabathia met the media on Thursday, he recounted a story about making the phone call to Brian Cashman to tell him that he was accepting the team's offer.

"Ten minutes after he left my house," Sabathia said, "I called him and I looked at my wife, I said, you know, 'I'll be a Yankee.' Every time I say that I still get chills thinking about that."

There was no mention of the month it took for him to accept those chills, of course, just the latest player who was lured by money pretending that it was all about the pinstriped uniforms. You can't blame the players for pledging fealty like one of Stalin's lackeys, because it isn't their fault. It's Yankee fans who ask Yankee players to take loyalty oaths that aren't part of joining any other team in sports.

Why do they have this desire to be lied to about a player's motivations? It plays like voters who cast ballots against their best interests because they think a candidate is more "like them." They aren't like them, they want something from them and free agents want something from the Yankees. They want money, they want security, maybe they want the big stage, but the driving factor isn't chills or mystique or anything else that comes from the team's history.

The fans take their cues from a franchise that calls their stadium a cathedral while sneaking peeks over the wall to assess the construction of a new stadium that exists only to make them more money. And, when they're done calling it a cathedral, they get on the phone to make sure they can sell its parts piecemeal like car thiefs stripping a Cadillac.

Sabathia's here because the Yankees paid him the most money, just like every other free agent signed in the history of the franchise. These aren't noble quests, they are life choices and Sabathia should be able to be honest about treating them as such.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
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