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Odin LP 18 - The Norwegian Radio Big Band Meets Bob Florence - rec. 1986 -    Liberty LPR 3380  (FSR reissue 1985) - Bob Florence Big Band " Here And Now" - rec. 1964 -     

I'd need to see an apples to apples comparison of Steinbrenner era Yankee payrolls vs the other teams in the league at the time. Otherwise its just a facile point of reference. Did the article even mention LA's local rights deal?  All of this was foretold when they signed it at the height of the "buy up every sporting event broadcast/cable right NOW!" era.

From The Athletic. Today's Dodgers make the George Steinbrenner-era Yankees seem like penny-pinchers: "Nobody spends money quite like the Dodgers. Their latest luxury spend: outfielder Kyle Tucker, who signed a four-year, $240 million deal, with opt-outs after Years 2 and 3.  With deferrals ($30 million over the final three years), his “luxury tax” salary for 2026 is $57.1 million. At roughly $90 million over the highest luxury tax bracket threshold, L.A. will be paying a 110 percent tax on Tucker’s contract. I did the math … That’s $119.91 million out of pocket just in 2026. According to FanGraphs’ projected 2026 payrolls, that’s more than 11 teams will pay their entire roster. L.A. will also forfeit four of its top six draft picks. It seems it's stopped worrying about any coming “cliff.” Since November 2023, per Spotrac, there have been 29 nine-digit contracts/extensions in baseball — about one per team. Tucker is the Dodgers’ sixth after Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and the Tyler Glasnow and Will Smith extensions. Sixteen teams have not handed out any such contract over that time. The Dodgers currently have eight players projected to make more than $20 million per year in 2026. That’s (obviously) the most, with the Yankees, Mets and Phillies at six each. Eight teams (Pirates, Cardinals, Reds, Nationals, Marlins, White Sox, Twins, Rays) have zero such players. Five teams (Rockies, A’s, Mariners, Guardians, Orioles) have one." Of course the Dodgers have the right, under current rules, to spend like this if they're willing to pay the luxury taxes cited above. And I'm no fan of a salary cap--that's not about reducing fiscal inequality among teams (fiscal inequality as a general value, last time I checked, is something tycoon owners have no problem with at all), it's about controlling player salaries.  And yes, the Dodgers have done other things to create their present prowess in addition to exorbitant spending. But if you want to hate a team that goes out and buys any player it wants, hard to beat L.A. in that category these days.