There's been a good conversation surrounding the spending habits of the Yankees, and whether it's a good thing for the health of baseball in my recent post. As it happens, I just ran across an ESPN story that claims - wait for it - that the Yankees are losing money:

Forbes Magazine reported that the Yankees became the first MLB team to be worth more than $1 billion with a baseball-best $277 million in revenue.

However, Forbes said the Yankees lost $50 million last season because the team paid $77 million in revenue sharing. The New York Daily News also reported in December that the Yankees lost at least $50 million and possibly as much as $85 million last season.

Now, I've been very skeptical of the sob stories that the owners put out about constant money losses - if it were as bad as they let on, the league would be down to 4 or 5 teams. On the other hand, I can definitely buy the idea of Steinbrenner wanting to win so badly that he's gone into the red for the year. For many owners (in baseball and other sports), teams are nothing more than expensive hobbies.

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