NL outspends AL in a big way

Friday, February 9, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

Over the last five years, the Yankees and the Red Sox went to battle over players like Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez and Johnny Damon, and the spending of these two superpowers forced other AL teams to spend aggressively in an effort to keep up.

As the talent race in the AL escalated -- the Toronto Blue Jays' $55 million signing of A.J. Burnett, the Orioles acquisition of Ramon Hernandez and the Mariners signing Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre -- the disparity between the two leagues has seemed to grow. The American League dominated interleague play in 2006, winning 154 and losing 98, and many scouts and executives came to believe that only one or two of the best teams resided in the NL.

But the power of the checkbook, and perhaps the balance of power, might be cycling back toward the National League.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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