Because this is much easier than writing a whole new article, here is part of a conversation from my personal Facebook account. It stems from a much longer convo, but this is the main point I wanted to relay:
Phillies Fan: Difference between yankees and phillies, we won the series with homegrown talent. Yankees buy everyone elses stars. If the pirates wanted to win they would pay their players and keep their stars.
My response: http://zellspinstripeblog.
I hate the freaking Yankees, but stop making arguments on perception and do some homework. In 2009 when the Yankees last won the series 56% of their players were homegrown. 1st in the American League. Meanwhile the loser Phillies had just 32% of their players homegrown as you can see in the link above. Which tied them for 10th in the National League.
While I can't find the 2008 numbers, I assume that they aren't too far off base with this. So your argument that you won with homegrown guys and they didn't is 200% false.
While I will admit that the number of homegrown players for the Phillies now is significantly higher, it still fits right into the "teams with more money always win" argument. You can't retain valuable homegrown talent if you can't pay them. 5 years from now Howard, Victorino, Utley, Worley, etc. will mostly ALL be with the Phillies. Meanwhile I just hope the Pirates keep at least ONE of the Tabata, Alvarez, McCutchen, and Walker group in that same 5 year time frame.
And stop with the "Pirates need to spend more money" bullshit. Small cities don't have the money. Pittsburgh has 330,000+ people. Philly has 1,400,000+ people. That's why they can spend money and the Pirates can't.
So stop with the nonsense. You have an advantage. There is no doubt about it. Stop making excuses and embrace it. If Phillies, Yankees, and Red Sox fans just said "Well yeah, money won us games" the facts don't change, [and] at least you'll stop sounding like hypocritical morons.
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I have to concur with u on this one. "the Yankees this, the Mets that", I'm sick of it. In today's economics, most clubs won't b able to sustain dominance (except the Yankees cause God knows they've figured this out since...forever lol). Enjoy and win while u can cause this business isn't football or hockey. The ride to the top isn't a long one but the line to get back on the ride can b enormous! Unfortunately, there could b another 10,000 losses in some teams future after they live for today (which they should)! Like I said, enjoy it, embrace it and please, PLEASE, quit making B.S. Statements about OTHER teams payrolls, homegrown talent, market, etc. Enough said!
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