Yankees’ Mondesi trade hurts baseball O n Monday, the New York Yankees continued to show the rest of Major League Baseball just how much of a gap exists between its pocket- book and the rest of the league’s. New York’s swap for Raul Mondesi, who was traded to the Yankees on Monday for a Double-A relief pitcher, repre sents everything that is wrong in the game of baseball. Mondesi, who makes $13 mil lion a season, will put the Yankee’s payroll at over $133 million, more than double its payroll of $65 million in 1998. At this rate, the Yankees will have a payroll of over $250 mil lion by 2006 with no end in sight. Meanwhile, the rest of the league is struggling to make ends meet, forced to trade off its most valuable players so the owners in the luxury boxes stay in the luxury boxes, away from the cheap seats and $6 beer. The amount of money it takes to pay these outrageous salaries is too much for most other teams, who raise concession and ticket prices in order to keep up with the “Jones” of MLB. The gap continues to grow between the rich and poor teams of MLB. Compare the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ payroll of $22.6 million to the Yankees’ $ 1304- million. How does a team like New York make so much money? Simple. TV revenue for the Yankees in 2001 was over $70 million. Montreal brought in just $700,000, barely enough to pay the beer guy. Meanwhile, the Expos play in front of a crowd that would be put to shame by a Saturday afternoon game at Olsen Field. The Devil Rays and Expos are not the only teams that cannot measure up to the Yankees payroll. Even mid dle market teams like the Houston Astros cannot compete year in and year out despite their $63 mill ion payroll, which four j years ago would have been at the top of the list. Now it is in the middle of the pack. Astros pitcher Billy Wagner said it best in an interview con cerning the Astros recent strug gles. “Let’s see how the Yankees would do if you kept taking pieces away,” Wagner said. “We say, ‘We want to be champions.’ Well, you can’t be champions when you're putting young, inex perienced guys out there and ask ing them to play above their means right now. We’re putting them in tough situations.” However, inexperienced young rookies are all the Astros — and many teams around the league — can afford thanks to rising salaries encouraged by huge free-agent signings, such as the Yankees’ off season acquisition of Jason Giambi. New York signed Giambi to a multi-year contract worth over $120 million. Attendance around the league is down substantially this season and will continue to drop until something drastic is done to keep See Yankees on page 4 Sports The Battalion I;...-.;:.; : ; . . : L ' ^ s ^ t : 4'. 4 ' ’ ✓ ' •' " • •• - •• '• • :: ■ ■ : ■ Williams lands in Page 3 • Wednesday, July 3, 2002 semifinals Henin ousts Seles, Krajicek-Phillippousis postponed WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Venus Williams raced in behind a stinging approach shot, all 6-foot-1 of her poised at the net. Her opponent barely got to the ball and spun a stroke wide, giving Williams a break point during their Wimbledon quar terfinal on a rainy, windy Tuesday. “Game, Miss Williams,” the chair umpire said. Well, not quite — that was the proper call a point later, when Williams planted a fore hand winner right on the base line. It is tough to keep track of the score when the top-seeded Williams is at her best. The two-time defending champion beat 48th-ranked Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-2, 6-0 in just 47 minutes, taking her total court time to little more than 4 1/2 hours in five matches. While she overwhelmed yet another unheralded opponent for a 19th straight victory at the All England Club, 2001 run ner-up Justine Henin overcame Monica Seles for the first time in five tries, 7-5, 7-6 (4). Williams and Henin will meet in a semi final. “It’s going to be tough for me. Especially on grass courts, she’s playing so well,” Henin said. “She won her matches so eas ily. So I know it’s going to be difficult. You know what happened last year.” Williams beat the Belgian in three sets for the title. The other semifinal’s partic ipants will be decided Wednesday. Venus’ sister, French Open champion Serena, will play No. 1 1 Daniela Hantuchova in one quarterfinal, while Jennifer Capriati faces No. 9 Amelie Mauresmo in another. No. 3 Capriati advanced to the final eight when her rain- and darkness- delayed fourth- round match against Eleni D a n i i 1 i d o u was finally completed Tuesday. Capriati won 6- , 3-6, 6-1. The match, called Monday at a set apiece, resumed just before 6 p.m. after a series of rain delays and was moved from Court 1 to Court 18 to ensure it could be completed. “The player today and yes terday was completely differ ent,” said Capriati, who huddled in a towel between changeovers to brace against temperatures in the 50s and winds topping 25 mph. “In that second set, she was playing pretty unbeliev able. It would have been very tough to beat her if we would have kept playing.” Play was stopped at 7 p.m., leaving a men’s match unfin ished. Richard Krajicek, the last Wimbledon champion left in the tournament, and Mark Philippoussis split the first four sets — all tiebreakers — of a fourth-round match. They’ll resume Wednesday. The winner faces No. 27 Xavier Malisse, who completed his 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victo ry over No. 23 Greg Rusedski. That fourth-round match was halted Monday after the fourth set, and Malisse wrapped things up by breaking the Canadian-turned-Briton in the seventh game of the final set. See Williams on page 4 S. Korea, Japan benefit from World Cup TOKYO (AP) — The World Cup brought good news to some. Digital TV sales, the thirst for beer and a craving for jerseys of blue and red, the team colors for co-hosts Japan and South Korea, all shot up during the monthlong tournament. The tournament, which ended Sunday, also deliv ered a bit of economic blues. While sports pubs everywhere and boxed-lunch stores near stadiums were booming, restaurants and travel suffered as nearly everyone turned into a homebody to watch the games on TV. And a big event comes with a big bill. Security and other World Cup-related expenses at team camp sites are expected to cost local communities millions of dol lars. Although the tally is not yet final, the town of Tsuna, the camp site for the English team, is preparing to foot a bill of about $750,000. Maintaining Miyagi stadi um, where three World Cup games were played, will cost the prefecture $2.3 mil lion a year. As with other stadiums, prospects for turning profits at Miyagi are slim. Only one professional soccer game is scheduled there this season. It’s too early for a precise count of how the pluses stack up against the minuses for both Japan and South Korea, where tough economic times had stirred hopes for a lit tle help from the World Cup. On the negative side, ticket distribu tion problems, which left thousands of empty seats at the games, are still under investigation and have left a sour after taste. 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